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Books by Robin O'Bryan
Edited by Robin O'Bryan and Felicia Else, Amsterdam University Press, 2024
Not since Edward Wood’s Giants and Dwarfs published in 1868 has the subject been the focus of a s... more Not since Edward Wood’s Giants and Dwarfs published in 1868 has the subject been the focus of a scholarly study in English. Treating the topic afresh, this volume offers new insights into the vogue for giants and dwarfs that flourished in late medieval and early modern Europe. From chapters dealing with the real dwarfs and giants in the royal and princely courts, to the imaginary giants and dwarfs that figured in the crafting of nationalistic and ancestral traditions, to giants and dwarfs used as metaphorical expression, scholars discuss their role in art, literature, and ephemeral display. Some essays examine giants and dwarfs as monsters and marvels and collectibles, while others show artists and writers emphasizing contrasts in scale to inspire awe or for comical effect. As these investigations reveal, not all court dwarfs functioned as jesters, and giant figures might equally be used to represent heroes, anti-heroes, and even a saint.
Edited by Robin O'Bryan, Amsterdam University Press, 2019
Papers by Robin O'Bryan
Source (forthcoming), 2025
This paper proposes a novel rereading of The Night Watch, arguing that Rembrandt used puns, comed... more This paper proposes a novel rereading of The Night Watch, arguing that Rembrandt used puns, comedic devices, and elements from the fool’s repertoire to make a satirical commentary on the principal figure, Captain Frans Banning Cocq. Pivotal to my discussion is identifying the “girl in gold” as a dwarf, portrayed here with attributes associated with the fool figure. In addition to the dwarf-fool, Rembrandt surrounded Banning Cocq with other foolish characters, using the captain himself as a foil for self-referential conceits and obscene puns. Moreover, barely visible behind the dwarf he included another diminutive figure, the duo suggesting they were meant to function as sinnekens, fool figures that came in pairs and which served as commentators in Dutch theater and Rederijker productions. Playing on the fools' and sinnekens’ role of exposing moral truths, Rembrandt thus prompts the viewer to see Banning Cocq— evidently a vainglorious social climber—as a fool.
Animal et portrait a la Renaissance, 2024
Paintings and sculptures produced for the Medici in the sixteenth century pay homage to the perio... more Paintings and sculptures produced for the Medici in the sixteenth century pay homage to the period vogue for princely menageries—and dwarfs—both of which functioned as powerful symbols of rulership. Exhibiting anatomical accuracy for dwarf and animals alike, the works function as veritable portraits even if the identities of the individuals are not always known. The dwarfs are typically shown nude or semi-nude, a manner of presentation that sets them firmly in the province of Nature’s bestial assembly. If the lack of clothing hints at their implicit animalistic tendencies, the insinuation is more pronounced in sculptures where the attendant creatures appear as extensions of the dwarf’s bodies, offering an unsettling image of bare flesh merging with carapace, feathers, and scales. While the pairings of dwarfs and animals in imagery was used to convey sophisticated iconographical conceits, contemporary burlesque poets were no less explicit in making these analogies, describing the diminutive humans in equally brute-like terms. This paper situates these artistic and literary works within the European tradition that related and conflated dwarfs with animals, showing how the alignment of dwarfs with kindred creatures was a potent formula for asserting the dwarf’s perceived beastly qualities.
Routledge Resources Online - The Renaissance World, 2024
The proliferation of the dwarf motif in Italian Renaissance art testifies to a cultural and artis... more The proliferation of the dwarf motif in Italian Renaissance art testifies to a cultural and artistic vogue that took hold from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. Mainstays of the princely courts, dwarfs were featured in rulers’ pageantry and imagery to assert their nobility and ruling authority. Individual and group patrons followed suit, commissioning works with the dwarf presence which served as a symbol of status and evidence of their discerning artistic taste. Mirroring their role as court attendants dwarfs were portrayed in religious and chivalric-themed imagery in the guise of noble attendants. Paintings of the Adoration of the Magi showed a dwarf in the entourage of one of the kings, while in chivalric imagery dwarf squires appeared accompanying valiant knights. In sixteenth-century Venice an increased awareness of the dwarf as a princely icon led Veronese to produce replicate versions of the Finding of Moses for Venetians clamoring for dwarf imagery. Dwarfs portrayed as noble attendants were especially important in rulers’ propagandistic imagery, used to convey important political messages in sophisticated iconographical schemes and appearing with rulers in scenes commemorating significant events in dynastic history. Paradoxically, although often depicted as elite attendants, dwarfs were also portrayed in ways that showed them to be immoral and sub-human. Subscribing to popular beliefs given weight by ancient and medieval authorities, artists insinuated negative ideas about dwarfs by juxtaposing them with specific animals or imaginary figures or by giving them shared attributes. Dwarfs were conflated with the ancient pygmies, the medieval wild man, and even monkeys in a manner that hinted at a genetic relationship. Based upon their shared sexual proclivities dwarfs were also aligned with satyrs and shown with their genitalia on display. As in past traditions, the dwarf motif was sometimes used for apotropaic purposes, particularly when shown with vulgar aspects. The dwarfs’ perceived odious qualities rendered them appropriate emblems of evil and suitable for inclusion in scenes of religious martyrdom or persecution. Ultimately, the breadth of ways that dwarfs were portrayed in Italian Renaissance art speaks to a fluctuating cultural mindset that regarded dwarfs as both noble and yet nefarious.
In Giants and Dwarfs in European Art and Culture, ca.1350-1750: Real, Imagined, Metaphorical, 2024
In Giants and Dwarfs in European Art and Culture, ca.1350-1750: Real, Imagined, Metaphorical , 2024
This essay examines a portrait painted by the Flemish artist Johann Gersmueter in 1606 that purpo... more This essay examines a portrait painted by the Flemish artist Johann Gersmueter in 1606 that purports to depict “Giangiovetta,” a dwarf in the service of the Farnese dukes in Parma. Arguing that the sitter—who presents as a well-dressed courtier outfitted with military accouterments—does not appear to be what would be deemed a “proportionate” dwarf, the investigation reviews the extant inventory records and the Farnese tradition for court dwarfs to ascertain how and why the dwarf designation was assigned. As well as considering the portrait in relation to other works of dwarf imagery, both those commissioned by the Farnese and contemporary portraits that show dwarfs with chivalric attributes, the discussion proposes a possible scenario that addresses the sitter’s presumed dwarf identity. Importantly, and for the first time, the painting is subjected to a rigorous iconographical analysis that focuses specific attention on the figure’s militaristic manner of dress and the objects that accompany him in the composition. When viewed in its entirety the circumstantial, pictorial, and documentary evidence strongly suggests that the portrait was not meant to represent a Farnese court dwarf at all, but rather a favored official with a military background operating in ducal employ.
Source: Notes in the History of Art, 2023
A mid-fifteenth century collection of drawings comprising the so-called the Rosebery Album in the... more A mid-fifteenth century collection of drawings comprising the so-called the Rosebery Album in the British Museum contains several pictorial curiosities that defy easy explanation. Engraved by Francesco Novelli as the Disegni del Mantegna in 1795–97, the drawings were only conclusively identified as the work of Marco Ruggeri, called Zoppo (The Lame, 1432/3–1478) in the early twentieth century. Since then, scholars have begun to acknowledge the sexual underpinnings to his imagery particularly his vignettes of rambunctious putti and randy dandies. While some of the more blatant homoerotic allusions are self-evident, a closer reading of Zoppo’s enigmatic iconography shows that he was incorporating into his compositions a range of motifs, gestures, and actions that operate in a doppio senso erotico. This paper argues that Zoppo translated the sexual innuendos from contemporary writing—the “erotic lexicon”—into a coded pictorial language, creating imagery meant to titillate an elite, presumably male audience.
Routledge Companion to Art and Disability, ed. Keri Watson and Timothy Hiles , 2022
Games and Game Playing in European Art and Literature (16th-17th Centuries), 2019
Games and Game Playing in European Art and Literature, 16th-17th Centuries, 2019
Source: Notes in the History of Art, 2019
Made for the Boboli Gardens in the early 1560s, Valerio Cioli’s well-known statue of the dwarf Mo... more Made for the Boboli Gardens in the early 1560s, Valerio Cioli’s well-known statue of the dwarf Morgante presents the obese dwarf of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, completely nude and sitting astride a huge tortoise. In his pendant sculpture of another Medici dwarf, Cioli adopted a completely different manner of expression, showing the slight figure of Pietro Barbino standing, garbed in a simple loincloth, with a net slung over his shoulder, and holding a fish. Both statues were actually intended to function as fountains, which makes the tortoise and the fish appropriate accompaniments. However, a cursory look into the dwarfs’ respective backgrounds reveals how Cioli used these props for sophisticated iconographical conceits that played to their personal histories and their roles in the Medici court. Thus Morgante was portrayed as an ignominious jester, while Barbino was cast as a simple fisherman in deference to his Jesuit affiliation.
Art Bulletin, 2018
Building on and challenging previous scholarship, this essay proposes a new reading of Bronzino’s... more Building on and challenging previous scholarship, this essay proposes a new reading of Bronzino’s double-sided portrait of the dwarf Morgante, particularly as it relates to cultural events in mid-Cinquecento Florence. My investigation situates the painting within the period vogue for dwarfs and dwarf imagery, showing how this specific theme played to Medicean political interests. More importantly, my study argues that Bronzino’s iconography was deeply rooted in conceits found in burlesque poetry and the contretemps surrounding his association with the Accademia Fiorentina, which ultimately calls into question the portrait’s dating, issues of patronage, and Morgante’s presumed status as Duke Cosimo’s favorite.
Images of Sex and Desire in Renaissance Art and Modern Historiography, 2017
The Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence contains a curious scene of sexual desire... more The Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence contains a curious scene of sexual desire. On the vault of the Strozzi family chapel, Filippino Lippi depicted Adam—sans Eve—engaged in “ocular intercourse” with a comely female serpent. Despite its sexually-charged content, scholars have traditionally overlooked the erotic tension between these two figures, interpreting the scene within the overall chapel program devoted to salvation and resurrection. This essay addresses this lacuna in art historical scholarship. The discussion begins by identifying the serpent as Lilith, the ancient witch—and Adam’s first wife in Cabalistic tradition—who gained notoriety for her aberrant carnal appetite, killing babies, and consorting with the devil. Significantly, her depiction in the fresco was exactly contemporaneous with the burgeoning study of Cabala by Florentine humanists, and with the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, a Dominican treatise on witchcraft. Drawing on the Lilith legend, this influential work asserted that women’s inherent libidinous nature rendered them susceptible to satanic seduction and hence to becoming witches, whereupon they conspired to entice men with the goal of siring demon babies. At first blush, Lippi’s recasting of the biblical theme seems simply to reassert the age-old lesson on the dire consequences of succumbing to sexual temptation, but it actually had deeper implications for gender roles in late-Quattrocento Florence. In her brazen bewitchment of Adam, Lilith effectively functions as an “amoral exemplar", the antithesis of the Florentine woman bred to be honorable, demure, and chaste. Lilith’s legendary status as the rebellious wife who refused to lie beneath Adam in the subordinate “missionary” position also made her a literal and figurative emblem of the contemporary “woman on top” topos, which saw the subversive behaviors associated with dominating women as a threat to civic stability. Lippi showed Adam responding to Lilith’s perceived threat by placing his foot on her tail, a symbolic inducement for men to reassert their authority (sexually and otherwise) over their wives. Paradoxically, however, although Adam’s and Lilith’s pictorial exchange presented clear social expectations with regard to men’s and women’s conduct, their comportment conveyed conflicting ideas on sexual identity. Adam’s massive physique, given extra bulk by his animal skin cloak, presents a stark contrast to Lilith’s slender and “naked” serpentine form, a graphic affirmation of masculine versus feminine bodily constructions and power. But wilting against Lilith’s visual onslaught and “erect” stance, Adam’s “flaccid” posture would have been duly read as a euphemism for the sexual act itself, reflecting unfavorably on male virility and morality. In this respect, while Adam’s weakened demeanor alluded to witches impeding procreation by causing impotence, his passivity had connotations of homosexual behavior. And that is why Lilith’s appearance in this scenario is especially relevant. Not only was there a Tuscan tradition linking witchcraft with sodomy—both heretical behaviors which produced effeminate men—but the two shared common terminology. Within its Dominican setting, Lippi’s fresco thus served as a bold propagandistic declaration of the Order’s ideology, its message intended for Florentine men and women as well as for the resident friars themselves.
Source: Notes in the History of Art, 2017
Source: Notes in the History of Art , 2015
Source: Notes in the History of Art, 2013
Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the …, Jan 1, 2012
** Please note that the identification of the dwarf Gradasso in the Sala di Costantino fresco is ... more ** Please note that the identification of the dwarf Gradasso in the Sala di Costantino fresco is incorrect; this error has been corrected in subsequent publications.
Edited by Robin O'Bryan and Felicia Else, Amsterdam University Press, 2024
Not since Edward Wood’s Giants and Dwarfs published in 1868 has the subject been the focus of a s... more Not since Edward Wood’s Giants and Dwarfs published in 1868 has the subject been the focus of a scholarly study in English. Treating the topic afresh, this volume offers new insights into the vogue for giants and dwarfs that flourished in late medieval and early modern Europe. From chapters dealing with the real dwarfs and giants in the royal and princely courts, to the imaginary giants and dwarfs that figured in the crafting of nationalistic and ancestral traditions, to giants and dwarfs used as metaphorical expression, scholars discuss their role in art, literature, and ephemeral display. Some essays examine giants and dwarfs as monsters and marvels and collectibles, while others show artists and writers emphasizing contrasts in scale to inspire awe or for comical effect. As these investigations reveal, not all court dwarfs functioned as jesters, and giant figures might equally be used to represent heroes, anti-heroes, and even a saint.
Edited by Robin O'Bryan, Amsterdam University Press, 2019
Source (forthcoming), 2025
This paper proposes a novel rereading of The Night Watch, arguing that Rembrandt used puns, comed... more This paper proposes a novel rereading of The Night Watch, arguing that Rembrandt used puns, comedic devices, and elements from the fool’s repertoire to make a satirical commentary on the principal figure, Captain Frans Banning Cocq. Pivotal to my discussion is identifying the “girl in gold” as a dwarf, portrayed here with attributes associated with the fool figure. In addition to the dwarf-fool, Rembrandt surrounded Banning Cocq with other foolish characters, using the captain himself as a foil for self-referential conceits and obscene puns. Moreover, barely visible behind the dwarf he included another diminutive figure, the duo suggesting they were meant to function as sinnekens, fool figures that came in pairs and which served as commentators in Dutch theater and Rederijker productions. Playing on the fools' and sinnekens’ role of exposing moral truths, Rembrandt thus prompts the viewer to see Banning Cocq— evidently a vainglorious social climber—as a fool.
Animal et portrait a la Renaissance, 2024
Paintings and sculptures produced for the Medici in the sixteenth century pay homage to the perio... more Paintings and sculptures produced for the Medici in the sixteenth century pay homage to the period vogue for princely menageries—and dwarfs—both of which functioned as powerful symbols of rulership. Exhibiting anatomical accuracy for dwarf and animals alike, the works function as veritable portraits even if the identities of the individuals are not always known. The dwarfs are typically shown nude or semi-nude, a manner of presentation that sets them firmly in the province of Nature’s bestial assembly. If the lack of clothing hints at their implicit animalistic tendencies, the insinuation is more pronounced in sculptures where the attendant creatures appear as extensions of the dwarf’s bodies, offering an unsettling image of bare flesh merging with carapace, feathers, and scales. While the pairings of dwarfs and animals in imagery was used to convey sophisticated iconographical conceits, contemporary burlesque poets were no less explicit in making these analogies, describing the diminutive humans in equally brute-like terms. This paper situates these artistic and literary works within the European tradition that related and conflated dwarfs with animals, showing how the alignment of dwarfs with kindred creatures was a potent formula for asserting the dwarf’s perceived beastly qualities.
Routledge Resources Online - The Renaissance World, 2024
The proliferation of the dwarf motif in Italian Renaissance art testifies to a cultural and artis... more The proliferation of the dwarf motif in Italian Renaissance art testifies to a cultural and artistic vogue that took hold from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. Mainstays of the princely courts, dwarfs were featured in rulers’ pageantry and imagery to assert their nobility and ruling authority. Individual and group patrons followed suit, commissioning works with the dwarf presence which served as a symbol of status and evidence of their discerning artistic taste. Mirroring their role as court attendants dwarfs were portrayed in religious and chivalric-themed imagery in the guise of noble attendants. Paintings of the Adoration of the Magi showed a dwarf in the entourage of one of the kings, while in chivalric imagery dwarf squires appeared accompanying valiant knights. In sixteenth-century Venice an increased awareness of the dwarf as a princely icon led Veronese to produce replicate versions of the Finding of Moses for Venetians clamoring for dwarf imagery. Dwarfs portrayed as noble attendants were especially important in rulers’ propagandistic imagery, used to convey important political messages in sophisticated iconographical schemes and appearing with rulers in scenes commemorating significant events in dynastic history. Paradoxically, although often depicted as elite attendants, dwarfs were also portrayed in ways that showed them to be immoral and sub-human. Subscribing to popular beliefs given weight by ancient and medieval authorities, artists insinuated negative ideas about dwarfs by juxtaposing them with specific animals or imaginary figures or by giving them shared attributes. Dwarfs were conflated with the ancient pygmies, the medieval wild man, and even monkeys in a manner that hinted at a genetic relationship. Based upon their shared sexual proclivities dwarfs were also aligned with satyrs and shown with their genitalia on display. As in past traditions, the dwarf motif was sometimes used for apotropaic purposes, particularly when shown with vulgar aspects. The dwarfs’ perceived odious qualities rendered them appropriate emblems of evil and suitable for inclusion in scenes of religious martyrdom or persecution. Ultimately, the breadth of ways that dwarfs were portrayed in Italian Renaissance art speaks to a fluctuating cultural mindset that regarded dwarfs as both noble and yet nefarious.
In Giants and Dwarfs in European Art and Culture, ca.1350-1750: Real, Imagined, Metaphorical, 2024
In Giants and Dwarfs in European Art and Culture, ca.1350-1750: Real, Imagined, Metaphorical , 2024
This essay examines a portrait painted by the Flemish artist Johann Gersmueter in 1606 that purpo... more This essay examines a portrait painted by the Flemish artist Johann Gersmueter in 1606 that purports to depict “Giangiovetta,” a dwarf in the service of the Farnese dukes in Parma. Arguing that the sitter—who presents as a well-dressed courtier outfitted with military accouterments—does not appear to be what would be deemed a “proportionate” dwarf, the investigation reviews the extant inventory records and the Farnese tradition for court dwarfs to ascertain how and why the dwarf designation was assigned. As well as considering the portrait in relation to other works of dwarf imagery, both those commissioned by the Farnese and contemporary portraits that show dwarfs with chivalric attributes, the discussion proposes a possible scenario that addresses the sitter’s presumed dwarf identity. Importantly, and for the first time, the painting is subjected to a rigorous iconographical analysis that focuses specific attention on the figure’s militaristic manner of dress and the objects that accompany him in the composition. When viewed in its entirety the circumstantial, pictorial, and documentary evidence strongly suggests that the portrait was not meant to represent a Farnese court dwarf at all, but rather a favored official with a military background operating in ducal employ.
Source: Notes in the History of Art, 2023
A mid-fifteenth century collection of drawings comprising the so-called the Rosebery Album in the... more A mid-fifteenth century collection of drawings comprising the so-called the Rosebery Album in the British Museum contains several pictorial curiosities that defy easy explanation. Engraved by Francesco Novelli as the Disegni del Mantegna in 1795–97, the drawings were only conclusively identified as the work of Marco Ruggeri, called Zoppo (The Lame, 1432/3–1478) in the early twentieth century. Since then, scholars have begun to acknowledge the sexual underpinnings to his imagery particularly his vignettes of rambunctious putti and randy dandies. While some of the more blatant homoerotic allusions are self-evident, a closer reading of Zoppo’s enigmatic iconography shows that he was incorporating into his compositions a range of motifs, gestures, and actions that operate in a doppio senso erotico. This paper argues that Zoppo translated the sexual innuendos from contemporary writing—the “erotic lexicon”—into a coded pictorial language, creating imagery meant to titillate an elite, presumably male audience.
Routledge Companion to Art and Disability, ed. Keri Watson and Timothy Hiles , 2022
Games and Game Playing in European Art and Literature (16th-17th Centuries), 2019
Games and Game Playing in European Art and Literature, 16th-17th Centuries, 2019
Source: Notes in the History of Art, 2019
Made for the Boboli Gardens in the early 1560s, Valerio Cioli’s well-known statue of the dwarf Mo... more Made for the Boboli Gardens in the early 1560s, Valerio Cioli’s well-known statue of the dwarf Morgante presents the obese dwarf of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, completely nude and sitting astride a huge tortoise. In his pendant sculpture of another Medici dwarf, Cioli adopted a completely different manner of expression, showing the slight figure of Pietro Barbino standing, garbed in a simple loincloth, with a net slung over his shoulder, and holding a fish. Both statues were actually intended to function as fountains, which makes the tortoise and the fish appropriate accompaniments. However, a cursory look into the dwarfs’ respective backgrounds reveals how Cioli used these props for sophisticated iconographical conceits that played to their personal histories and their roles in the Medici court. Thus Morgante was portrayed as an ignominious jester, while Barbino was cast as a simple fisherman in deference to his Jesuit affiliation.
Art Bulletin, 2018
Building on and challenging previous scholarship, this essay proposes a new reading of Bronzino’s... more Building on and challenging previous scholarship, this essay proposes a new reading of Bronzino’s double-sided portrait of the dwarf Morgante, particularly as it relates to cultural events in mid-Cinquecento Florence. My investigation situates the painting within the period vogue for dwarfs and dwarf imagery, showing how this specific theme played to Medicean political interests. More importantly, my study argues that Bronzino’s iconography was deeply rooted in conceits found in burlesque poetry and the contretemps surrounding his association with the Accademia Fiorentina, which ultimately calls into question the portrait’s dating, issues of patronage, and Morgante’s presumed status as Duke Cosimo’s favorite.
Images of Sex and Desire in Renaissance Art and Modern Historiography, 2017
The Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence contains a curious scene of sexual desire... more The Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence contains a curious scene of sexual desire. On the vault of the Strozzi family chapel, Filippino Lippi depicted Adam—sans Eve—engaged in “ocular intercourse” with a comely female serpent. Despite its sexually-charged content, scholars have traditionally overlooked the erotic tension between these two figures, interpreting the scene within the overall chapel program devoted to salvation and resurrection. This essay addresses this lacuna in art historical scholarship. The discussion begins by identifying the serpent as Lilith, the ancient witch—and Adam’s first wife in Cabalistic tradition—who gained notoriety for her aberrant carnal appetite, killing babies, and consorting with the devil. Significantly, her depiction in the fresco was exactly contemporaneous with the burgeoning study of Cabala by Florentine humanists, and with the publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, a Dominican treatise on witchcraft. Drawing on the Lilith legend, this influential work asserted that women’s inherent libidinous nature rendered them susceptible to satanic seduction and hence to becoming witches, whereupon they conspired to entice men with the goal of siring demon babies. At first blush, Lippi’s recasting of the biblical theme seems simply to reassert the age-old lesson on the dire consequences of succumbing to sexual temptation, but it actually had deeper implications for gender roles in late-Quattrocento Florence. In her brazen bewitchment of Adam, Lilith effectively functions as an “amoral exemplar", the antithesis of the Florentine woman bred to be honorable, demure, and chaste. Lilith’s legendary status as the rebellious wife who refused to lie beneath Adam in the subordinate “missionary” position also made her a literal and figurative emblem of the contemporary “woman on top” topos, which saw the subversive behaviors associated with dominating women as a threat to civic stability. Lippi showed Adam responding to Lilith’s perceived threat by placing his foot on her tail, a symbolic inducement for men to reassert their authority (sexually and otherwise) over their wives. Paradoxically, however, although Adam’s and Lilith’s pictorial exchange presented clear social expectations with regard to men’s and women’s conduct, their comportment conveyed conflicting ideas on sexual identity. Adam’s massive physique, given extra bulk by his animal skin cloak, presents a stark contrast to Lilith’s slender and “naked” serpentine form, a graphic affirmation of masculine versus feminine bodily constructions and power. But wilting against Lilith’s visual onslaught and “erect” stance, Adam’s “flaccid” posture would have been duly read as a euphemism for the sexual act itself, reflecting unfavorably on male virility and morality. In this respect, while Adam’s weakened demeanor alluded to witches impeding procreation by causing impotence, his passivity had connotations of homosexual behavior. And that is why Lilith’s appearance in this scenario is especially relevant. Not only was there a Tuscan tradition linking witchcraft with sodomy—both heretical behaviors which produced effeminate men—but the two shared common terminology. Within its Dominican setting, Lippi’s fresco thus served as a bold propagandistic declaration of the Order’s ideology, its message intended for Florentine men and women as well as for the resident friars themselves.
Source: Notes in the History of Art, 2017
Source: Notes in the History of Art , 2015
Source: Notes in the History of Art, 2013
Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the …, Jan 1, 2012
** Please note that the identification of the dwarf Gradasso in the Sala di Costantino fresco is ... more ** Please note that the identification of the dwarf Gradasso in the Sala di Costantino fresco is incorrect; this error has been corrected in subsequent publications.
At Open Inquiry Archive our mission is to publish papers on culture and the arts, especially thos... more At Open Inquiry Archive our mission is to publish papers on culture and the arts, especially those pieces that cross disciplinary boundaries, or explore connections between areas that are usually treated separately. Touching upon all of these, Robin O'Bryan's “Merchants, ...
FATE in Review, Foundations in Art: Theory and Education , 2011
Title: Games and Game Playing in European Art and Literature, 16th-17th Centuries Volume Editor:... more Title: Games and Game Playing in European Art and Literature, 16th-17th Centuries
Volume Editor: Robin O'Bryan
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Series: Cultures of Play, 1300-1700
This collection of essays examines the vogue for games and game playing as expressed in art and literature in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Europe. Focusing on games as a leitmotif of creative expression, these scholarly inquiries are framed as a response to two main questions: how were games used to convey special meanings in art and literature, and how did games speak to greater issues in European society? In chapters dealing with chess, playing cards, board games, dice, gambling, and outdoor and sportive games, essayists show how games were used by artists, writers, game makers and collectors, in the service of love and war, didactic and moralistic instruction, commercial enterprise, politics and diplomacy, and assertions of civic and personal identity. Offering innovative iconographical and literary interpretations, their analyses reveal how games-played, written about, illustrated and collected-functioned as metaphors for a host of broader cultural issues related to gender relations and feminine power, class distinctions and status, ethical and sexual comportment, philosophical and religious ideas, and conditions of the mind.
Contents:
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: A Passion for Games, Robin O’Bryan
Part One: Chess and Luxury Playing Cards
1 “Mad Chess” with a Mad Dwarf Jester, Robin O’Bryan
2 Changing Hands: Jean Desmarets, Stefano della Bella, and the Jeux des Cartes, Naomi Lebens
Part Two: Gambling and Games of Chance
3 “A game played home”: the Gendered Stakes of Gambling in Shakespeare’s Plays, Megan Herrold
4 “Now if the devil have bones, These dice are made of his”: Dice-games on the English Stage in the Seventeenth Century, Kevin Chovanec
5 The World Upside Down: Giuseppe Maria Mitelli’s Games and the Performance of Identity in the Early Modern World, Patricia Rocco
Part Three: Outdoor and Sportive Games
6 “To catch the fellow, and come back again”: Games of Prisoner’s Base in Early Modern English Drama, Bethany Packard
7 Against Opposition (at Home): Middleton and Rowley’s The World Tossed at Tennis as Tennis, Mark Kaethler
Part Four: Games on Display
8 Ordering the World: Games in the Architectural Iconography of Stirling Castle, Scotland, Giovanna Guidicini
9 The Games of Philipp Hainhofer: Ludic Appreciation and Use in Early Modern Art Cabinets, Greger Sundin
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index