Jennifer Cooke | Università degli Studi di Torino (original) (raw)

ANNOUNCEMENTS by Jennifer Cooke

Books by Jennifer Cooke

Studi Storici Carocci; Roma: Carocci editore, Jan 2024

This book shines a light on art historians and autobiographical writing. Starting from ego histor... more This book shines a light on art historians and autobiographical writing. Starting from ego history studied by historians, these collected essays investigate the multiple forms of intellectual self-depiction which contributed to the complex legitimisation of the art historian’s role. Some examples include Joseph A. Crowe’s reminiscences, Max J. Friedländer’s aphoristic reflections, Bernard Berenson’s diaries, Kenneth Clark’s autobiographies, and Carlo L. Ragghianti’s autobiographical fragments. The broader concepts of life-writing and autobiografiction are explored in Vernon Lee’s stories, William M. Rossetti’s autobiographical impulse, Pavel Muratov’s writing gaze, and the self-aware use of words and images in Susan Sontag’s work. Art history and literature are intertwined in the reflection on Johan Vermeer’s paintings, Francesco Arcangeli’s restless subjectivism, Alberto Boatto’s eccentric vision, and Teju Cole’s multilayered historiographies.

Millard Meiss, American Art History, and Conservation. From Connoisseurship to Iconology and Kulturgeschichte, 2020

A member of the art history generation from the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s, Millard Meiss ... more A member of the art history generation from the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s, Millard Meiss (1904-1975) developed a new and multi-faceted methodological approach. This book lays the foundation for a reassessment of this key fgure in postwar American and international art history. The book analyses his work alongside that of contemporary art historians, considering both those who infuenced him and those who were receptive to his research. Jennifer Cooke uses extensive archival material to give Meiss the critical consideration that his extensive and important art historical, restoration and conservation work deserves. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, historiography and heritage management and conservation. Jennifer Cooke is a researcher in History of Art Criticism and Museum Studies at the University of Turin.

A member of that first generation trained in the golden age of American history of art between th... more A member of that first generation trained in the golden age of American history of art between the 1920s and 30s, Millard Meiss (1904-1975) developed a new and multi-faceted methodological approach. On the one hand, the connoisseurship he learned from his first mentor, Richard Offner, was applied in the essays on Tuscan Trecento, from Francesco Traini in Pisan Camposanto, to the disputes between Duccio and Cimabue, to the Assisi problem. On the other hand, his study of the connections between Italy and Flanders and their stylistic crossroads in French illumination was, conversely, stimulated by his encounter with Panofsky, together with a reconsideration of his method now aimed at analysing the meaning of the artwork. A course which led Meiss to focus on the influences of the philosophical and religious climate on art in his famous Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death, whose problematic reception in the Anglo-Saxon and Italian milieus sparked a debate on the social history of art. This was coupled with a sensibility for the study of art techniques and restoration resulting in Meiss's personal involvement in the committees for the recovery of the works damaged by the war (ACRIM) and, once again, to rescue Florentine and Venetian heritage after the flood in 1966 (CRIA). Finally, some useful elements to consider the scholar's critical fortune may be seen in his relationships with Italian art historians, within the framework of the likewise difficult acceptance of iconology in Italy.

Papers by Jennifer Cooke

J. Cooke, L. Roussillon-Constanty, F. Varallo (eds.), Nello specchio della scrittura. Autobiografia e storia dell’arte tra Otto e Novecento (Roma: Carocci editore), 2024

P. Soddu and F. Varallo (eds.), Editoria e storici dell’arte nell’Italia del secondo dopoguerra (Roma: Mimesis), 2023

The Identity of the Contemporary Public Library, 2016

Informazioni sul catalogo e sulle ristampe dell'editore: www.ledizioni.it Le riproduzioni a uso d... more Informazioni sul catalogo e sulle ristampe dell'editore: www.ledizioni.it Le riproduzioni a uso differente da quello personale potranno avvenire, per un numero di pagine non superiore al 15% del presente volume, solo a seguito di specifica autorizzazione rilasciata da Ledizioni. 8 MARGARITA PÉREZ PULIDO-MAURIZIO VIVARELLI posed studies by students (Maria Pagano) or recent graduates (Ilaria Giglio and Maria Maiorano). Finally, in the Appendix, the volume includes a brief selective bibliography on the identity of the public library, compiled by Maria Senatore Polisetti. The editors believe this volume, and the essays herein contained, may help further feed an already ample debate, in Spain, in Italy and in the better part of the rest of the world. The public library certainly was an institution and organisation which played a prominent part in 19 th and 20 th century European history. And still today it has its place in an extremely relevant field from the conceptual, metaphorical, symbolic and documentary standpoint, as it can be seen for instance in the countless plans for large public libraries both envisaged and rea-lised, whose often uncertain and problematic specific identity brings to the fore the tensions and torsions of a classical model spoiled by criticalities of different sort and kind. It is indeed for its relevance for socio-cultural as well as LIS studies, that we believe this subject to be rather interesting and topical, and thus we hope these early results may resonate with the different interest groups this book addresses, that is academic scholars, professional librarians, students from diverse educational paths.

A member of the art history generation from the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s, Millard Meiss ... more A member of the art history generation from the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s, Millard Meiss (1904-1975) developed a new and multi-faceted methodological approach. This book lays the foundation for a reassessment of this key fgure in postwar American and international art history. The book analyses his work alongside that of contemporary art historians, considering both those who infuenced him and those who were receptive to his research. Jennifer Cooke uses extensive archival material to give Meiss the critical consideration that his extensive and important art historical, restoration and conservation work deserves. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, historiography and heritage management and conservation. Jennifer Cooke is a researcher in History of Art Criticism and Museum Studies at the University of Turin.

RIHA Journal, 2018

The title of this article recalls a session of the 2012 CIHA congress in Nuremberg – 'CIHA as... more The title of this article recalls a session of the 2012 CIHA congress in Nuremberg – 'CIHA as the Object of Art History' – that analysed the role the Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art in the development of art history as a discipline. Only a few years earlier, Heinrich Dilly had drawn an overview of the International Congresses of Art History, together with specialists of other fields. Dilly explained the lack of interest of art historiography for the import of such conferences with the fact that they were 'too big a matter', as the papers had rapidly multiplied, and also 'very large a matter', in the sense that the debate was difficult to frame and, more often than not, the choice of participants depended on a political agenda rather than scientific reasons. This article thus endeavours to tackle this very large matter as a vantage point on the methodological reflection, in the attempt to trace the continuities and discontinuities of the theor...

E. Dellapiana, M.B. Failla, and F. Varallo (eds.), Museographie. Musei in Europa negli anni tra le due guerre. La conferenza di Madrid del 1934 (Genova: Sagep, 2022), 2022

Migrating Histories of Art. Self-Translations of a Discipline, 2018

This paper intends to examine Frederick Antal’s methodological transformations, from an initial f... more This paper intends to examine Frederick Antal’s methodological transformations, from an initial formalist outlook to the markedly sociological approach he is best known for. The analysis of some significant examples from his writings will shed some light on the pivotal moments in this theoretical and personal migration. Dissatisfied with Wölfflin’s strictly stylistic views, Antal opened up to the geistesgeschichtlich teachings of Strzygowski and Dvořák, which consistently shaped his method in the first two decades of the 20th century. Indeed, before turning in the English years to the more overt sociological penchant developed alongside his Sunday Circle fellows, Antal was a keen connoisseur, whose shrewd eye was highly praised for instance by Roberto Longhi in the 1920s. Moreover, as editor of Kritische Berichte in Berlin, Antal furthered the theories of the Second Vienna School, marked by a resurgence of Riegl’s formalism in Hans Sedlmayr’s Strukturanalyse. We shall thus attempt to offer a more nuanced perspective on the Hungarian art historian who was, despite himself, made into a champion of Marxist art theory, focusing on the gradual methodological shift of a connoisseur turned social historian of art, who – in John Berger’s words – «worked to release a vision».

The article analyses the international congresses of the history of art organised by the Comité I... more The article analyses the international congresses of the history of art organised by the Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art from the post-war years to the contemporary. By examining both the sessions specifically dealing with matters of theory and method, and also those that have constituted a turning point in the debate, the purpose is to take CIHA meetings as a yardstick of the critical orientations in art history. A trajectory that encompasses the celebration of iconology as a unifying paradigm in the Bonn and New York conferences of the 1960s, the structuralist and semiotic turn marked by Budapest, Granada and Bologna meetings, the crisis of art history reflected in Vienna 1983, and the emergence of visual studies and the critical reconsideration of Aby Warburg in the 1990s. CIHA’s role in the theorisation of world/global art is also considered, from the path-making congress in Washington (1986) to the full-fledged elaboration in the new millennium.

Critica d'arte e tutela in Italia: figure e protagonisti nel secondo dopoguerra, 2017

Annali di Critica d'Arte , 2015

This little known study is here presented in a revised translation, whose purpose is to emphasise... more This little known study is here presented in a revised translation, whose purpose is to emphasise the critical import of this rather complex article, where Panofsky analysed the birth and dissemination of the Man of Sorrows as a devotional image. The critical note considers Imago Pietatis against the broader framework of Panofsky’s Hamburg years – notably marked by his friendship and philosophical kinship with Ernst Cassirer and his association with Aby Warburg’s famous Bibliothek, focusing on its key methodological points and critical fortune. The concept of Typus, drawn from archaeological studies and applied to stylistic and iconological motifs, is thus studied, in light of its significance and the different meaning it would take on in Panofsky’s following iconological groundwork. The contemporary and later debate on Andachtsbilder and the philosophical implications of the concept of imago are also examined.

Annali di Critica d'Arte, 2013

When Adolfo Venturi founded Le Gallerie Nazionali Italiane, he sought to lay the foundations of a... more When Adolfo Venturi founded Le Gallerie Nazionali Italiane, he sought to lay the foundations of a scientific approach to art criticism by creating a journal which would discuss the issues regarding museums and galleries reorganisation and cataloguing, and publish previously unknown documents. His programme also entailed the promotion of other fields of research, which had been overlooked by Italian scholars, i.e. illumination, decorative arts, and graphics, thus paving the way to modern art history. This essay analyses the attention and interest given to such areas, focusing on the European models Venturi referred to and the reactions he aroused within the national debate.

Annali di Critica d'Arte, 2011

This is a critically annotated translation of Millard Meiss' article 'Light as Form and Symbol in... more This is a critically annotated translation of Millard Meiss' article 'Light as Form and Symbol in Some Fifteenth-Century Paintings', which first appeared in The Art Bulletin in 1945. Meiss had noticed that fifteenth-century artists shared a specific interest in the study of light, which resulted in the use of previously seldom represented iconographical subjects and in certain variations to traditional ones, together with a pivotal formal emphasis on this element, in order to endow light with a symbolical meaning. Indeed, in such works as The Virgin in the Church (Berlin) by Jan van Eyck, light penetrating through glass became the symbol of the Immaculate Conception. This theory is supported by evidence in contemporary religious literature, especially the Nativity hymns the author refers to. The critical note includes a biographical and critical profile of this American art historian, assessing his methodological approach, which combined formal and iconological analysis, and his critical fortune and misfortune.

Crepuscoli dottorali, 2011

Nonostante la recensione negativa di La pittura fiorentina e il suo ambiente sociale di Frederick... more Nonostante la recensione negativa di La pittura fiorentina e il suo ambiente sociale di Frederick Antal, Millard Meiss fu spesso, soprattutto dalla critica italiana, assimilato al suo approccio sociologico. Questo preconcetto fu alimentato dallo stesso Antal, che in un articolo più tardo vide un riflesso del proprio metodo nella storia culturale di Meiss, e fu sicuramente influenzatoalmeno per il contesto italiano -dalla maggiore fortuna del marxismo antaliano. Infine, viene proposta una speculazione più teorica sull'applicabilità della definizione di Kulturgeschichte all'attenzione per il contesto socio-culturale di Meiss e di una certa parte della critica americana.

Crepuscoli dottorali, 2011

Lo storico dell'arte americano Millard Meiss (1904Meiss ( -1975 studiò lo sviluppo e la ricorrenz... more Lo storico dell'arte americano Millard Meiss (1904Meiss ( -1975 studiò lo sviluppo e la ricorrenza delle figure dormienti nell'arte rinascimentale veneziana nel saggio Sleep in Venice (1964Venice ( , 1966, avanzando al contempo il proprio contributo teorico -basato sulla combinazione di analisi formale e approccio iconologico. Le fonti dell'interpretazione delle mitiche fanciulle dormienti si potrebbero individuare nella Scuola di Warburg -in particolare nella ricerca sul mito condotta da Frizt Saxl -e nella fondamentale opera coeva di Panofsky sulle rinascenze nell'arte occidentale. Quindi, la fortuna critica dell'affascinante articolo di Meiss è strettamente legata al maggiore consenso incontrato dalla sua indagine sull'interazione di forma e contenuto. studied the development and recurrence of slumbering figures in Venetian Renaissance art in the essay Sleep in Venice (1964Venice ( , 1966), yet setting forth his theoretical contribution -based on the combination of formal analysis and iconological approach. The sources of his interpretation of mythical sleeping maidens could be traced back to the Warburg school -namely to Fritz Saxl's research on myth -and to Panofsky's coeval seminal work on the renascences in Western art. Therefore, the critical fortune of Meiss' fascinating article is closely related to the wider acceptance of his investigation on the interplay of form and content. "Sonno a Venezia". Millard Meiss e l'interpretazione cronologica del mito 5 Il mito An eternal book Whence I may copy many a lovely saying About the leaves, and flowers -about the playing Of nymphs in woods, and fountains; and the shade Keeping a silence round a sleeping maid. John Keats, Sleep and Poetry (1816) 1 A partire dalla ninfa dionisiaca 'inseguita' da Warburg, proseguendo con gli studi di Wind, Saxl e Panosfky nella generazione successiva, si potrebbe concludere che l'interpretazione del mito nel corso della storia dell'arte rappresentò un ideale campo di analisi per gli studi di carattere iconologico -declinato nelle sue varianti metodologiche. In linea con questa impostazione critica, Millard Meiss (1904-1975) 2 -da alcuni definito il «Panofsky americano» 3 -erede della tradizione iconografica e iconologica panofskiana negli Stati

Annali di Critica d'Arte, 2010

This study stems from the correspondence between Fritz Saxl and Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti held at... more This study stems from the correspondence between Fritz Saxl and Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti held at the Warburg Institute Archive (London) - hereby published. The few letters date back to Ragghianti's attendance at the Institute during his sojourn in London in 1938-1939, where he was on a political mission as an opponent to the Fascist Regime. Moreover, this exchange provides the opportunity for a broader insight into Saxl-Ragghianti relationship in light of the former's activity at the Institute in those years and the latter's writings. One must observe that his initial appreciation of Saxl - based on the acknowledgement of a methodological common ground - veered in the following decades to strong criticism alongside his attacks against the iconological school.

Studi Storici Carocci; Roma: Carocci editore, Jan 2024

This book shines a light on art historians and autobiographical writing. Starting from ego histor... more This book shines a light on art historians and autobiographical writing. Starting from ego history studied by historians, these collected essays investigate the multiple forms of intellectual self-depiction which contributed to the complex legitimisation of the art historian’s role. Some examples include Joseph A. Crowe’s reminiscences, Max J. Friedländer’s aphoristic reflections, Bernard Berenson’s diaries, Kenneth Clark’s autobiographies, and Carlo L. Ragghianti’s autobiographical fragments. The broader concepts of life-writing and autobiografiction are explored in Vernon Lee’s stories, William M. Rossetti’s autobiographical impulse, Pavel Muratov’s writing gaze, and the self-aware use of words and images in Susan Sontag’s work. Art history and literature are intertwined in the reflection on Johan Vermeer’s paintings, Francesco Arcangeli’s restless subjectivism, Alberto Boatto’s eccentric vision, and Teju Cole’s multilayered historiographies.

Millard Meiss, American Art History, and Conservation. From Connoisseurship to Iconology and Kulturgeschichte, 2020

A member of the art history generation from the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s, Millard Meiss ... more A member of the art history generation from the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s, Millard Meiss (1904-1975) developed a new and multi-faceted methodological approach. This book lays the foundation for a reassessment of this key fgure in postwar American and international art history. The book analyses his work alongside that of contemporary art historians, considering both those who infuenced him and those who were receptive to his research. Jennifer Cooke uses extensive archival material to give Meiss the critical consideration that his extensive and important art historical, restoration and conservation work deserves. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, historiography and heritage management and conservation. Jennifer Cooke is a researcher in History of Art Criticism and Museum Studies at the University of Turin.

A member of that first generation trained in the golden age of American history of art between th... more A member of that first generation trained in the golden age of American history of art between the 1920s and 30s, Millard Meiss (1904-1975) developed a new and multi-faceted methodological approach. On the one hand, the connoisseurship he learned from his first mentor, Richard Offner, was applied in the essays on Tuscan Trecento, from Francesco Traini in Pisan Camposanto, to the disputes between Duccio and Cimabue, to the Assisi problem. On the other hand, his study of the connections between Italy and Flanders and their stylistic crossroads in French illumination was, conversely, stimulated by his encounter with Panofsky, together with a reconsideration of his method now aimed at analysing the meaning of the artwork. A course which led Meiss to focus on the influences of the philosophical and religious climate on art in his famous Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death, whose problematic reception in the Anglo-Saxon and Italian milieus sparked a debate on the social history of art. This was coupled with a sensibility for the study of art techniques and restoration resulting in Meiss's personal involvement in the committees for the recovery of the works damaged by the war (ACRIM) and, once again, to rescue Florentine and Venetian heritage after the flood in 1966 (CRIA). Finally, some useful elements to consider the scholar's critical fortune may be seen in his relationships with Italian art historians, within the framework of the likewise difficult acceptance of iconology in Italy.

J. Cooke, L. Roussillon-Constanty, F. Varallo (eds.), Nello specchio della scrittura. Autobiografia e storia dell’arte tra Otto e Novecento (Roma: Carocci editore), 2024

P. Soddu and F. Varallo (eds.), Editoria e storici dell’arte nell’Italia del secondo dopoguerra (Roma: Mimesis), 2023

The Identity of the Contemporary Public Library, 2016

Informazioni sul catalogo e sulle ristampe dell'editore: www.ledizioni.it Le riproduzioni a uso d... more Informazioni sul catalogo e sulle ristampe dell'editore: www.ledizioni.it Le riproduzioni a uso differente da quello personale potranno avvenire, per un numero di pagine non superiore al 15% del presente volume, solo a seguito di specifica autorizzazione rilasciata da Ledizioni. 8 MARGARITA PÉREZ PULIDO-MAURIZIO VIVARELLI posed studies by students (Maria Pagano) or recent graduates (Ilaria Giglio and Maria Maiorano). Finally, in the Appendix, the volume includes a brief selective bibliography on the identity of the public library, compiled by Maria Senatore Polisetti. The editors believe this volume, and the essays herein contained, may help further feed an already ample debate, in Spain, in Italy and in the better part of the rest of the world. The public library certainly was an institution and organisation which played a prominent part in 19 th and 20 th century European history. And still today it has its place in an extremely relevant field from the conceptual, metaphorical, symbolic and documentary standpoint, as it can be seen for instance in the countless plans for large public libraries both envisaged and rea-lised, whose often uncertain and problematic specific identity brings to the fore the tensions and torsions of a classical model spoiled by criticalities of different sort and kind. It is indeed for its relevance for socio-cultural as well as LIS studies, that we believe this subject to be rather interesting and topical, and thus we hope these early results may resonate with the different interest groups this book addresses, that is academic scholars, professional librarians, students from diverse educational paths.

A member of the art history generation from the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s, Millard Meiss ... more A member of the art history generation from the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s, Millard Meiss (1904-1975) developed a new and multi-faceted methodological approach. This book lays the foundation for a reassessment of this key fgure in postwar American and international art history. The book analyses his work alongside that of contemporary art historians, considering both those who infuenced him and those who were receptive to his research. Jennifer Cooke uses extensive archival material to give Meiss the critical consideration that his extensive and important art historical, restoration and conservation work deserves. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, historiography and heritage management and conservation. Jennifer Cooke is a researcher in History of Art Criticism and Museum Studies at the University of Turin.

RIHA Journal, 2018

The title of this article recalls a session of the 2012 CIHA congress in Nuremberg – 'CIHA as... more The title of this article recalls a session of the 2012 CIHA congress in Nuremberg – 'CIHA as the Object of Art History' – that analysed the role the Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art in the development of art history as a discipline. Only a few years earlier, Heinrich Dilly had drawn an overview of the International Congresses of Art History, together with specialists of other fields. Dilly explained the lack of interest of art historiography for the import of such conferences with the fact that they were 'too big a matter', as the papers had rapidly multiplied, and also 'very large a matter', in the sense that the debate was difficult to frame and, more often than not, the choice of participants depended on a political agenda rather than scientific reasons. This article thus endeavours to tackle this very large matter as a vantage point on the methodological reflection, in the attempt to trace the continuities and discontinuities of the theor...

E. Dellapiana, M.B. Failla, and F. Varallo (eds.), Museographie. Musei in Europa negli anni tra le due guerre. La conferenza di Madrid del 1934 (Genova: Sagep, 2022), 2022

Migrating Histories of Art. Self-Translations of a Discipline, 2018

This paper intends to examine Frederick Antal’s methodological transformations, from an initial f... more This paper intends to examine Frederick Antal’s methodological transformations, from an initial formalist outlook to the markedly sociological approach he is best known for. The analysis of some significant examples from his writings will shed some light on the pivotal moments in this theoretical and personal migration. Dissatisfied with Wölfflin’s strictly stylistic views, Antal opened up to the geistesgeschichtlich teachings of Strzygowski and Dvořák, which consistently shaped his method in the first two decades of the 20th century. Indeed, before turning in the English years to the more overt sociological penchant developed alongside his Sunday Circle fellows, Antal was a keen connoisseur, whose shrewd eye was highly praised for instance by Roberto Longhi in the 1920s. Moreover, as editor of Kritische Berichte in Berlin, Antal furthered the theories of the Second Vienna School, marked by a resurgence of Riegl’s formalism in Hans Sedlmayr’s Strukturanalyse. We shall thus attempt to offer a more nuanced perspective on the Hungarian art historian who was, despite himself, made into a champion of Marxist art theory, focusing on the gradual methodological shift of a connoisseur turned social historian of art, who – in John Berger’s words – «worked to release a vision».

The article analyses the international congresses of the history of art organised by the Comité I... more The article analyses the international congresses of the history of art organised by the Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art from the post-war years to the contemporary. By examining both the sessions specifically dealing with matters of theory and method, and also those that have constituted a turning point in the debate, the purpose is to take CIHA meetings as a yardstick of the critical orientations in art history. A trajectory that encompasses the celebration of iconology as a unifying paradigm in the Bonn and New York conferences of the 1960s, the structuralist and semiotic turn marked by Budapest, Granada and Bologna meetings, the crisis of art history reflected in Vienna 1983, and the emergence of visual studies and the critical reconsideration of Aby Warburg in the 1990s. CIHA’s role in the theorisation of world/global art is also considered, from the path-making congress in Washington (1986) to the full-fledged elaboration in the new millennium.

Critica d'arte e tutela in Italia: figure e protagonisti nel secondo dopoguerra, 2017

Annali di Critica d'Arte , 2015

This little known study is here presented in a revised translation, whose purpose is to emphasise... more This little known study is here presented in a revised translation, whose purpose is to emphasise the critical import of this rather complex article, where Panofsky analysed the birth and dissemination of the Man of Sorrows as a devotional image. The critical note considers Imago Pietatis against the broader framework of Panofsky’s Hamburg years – notably marked by his friendship and philosophical kinship with Ernst Cassirer and his association with Aby Warburg’s famous Bibliothek, focusing on its key methodological points and critical fortune. The concept of Typus, drawn from archaeological studies and applied to stylistic and iconological motifs, is thus studied, in light of its significance and the different meaning it would take on in Panofsky’s following iconological groundwork. The contemporary and later debate on Andachtsbilder and the philosophical implications of the concept of imago are also examined.

Annali di Critica d'Arte, 2013

When Adolfo Venturi founded Le Gallerie Nazionali Italiane, he sought to lay the foundations of a... more When Adolfo Venturi founded Le Gallerie Nazionali Italiane, he sought to lay the foundations of a scientific approach to art criticism by creating a journal which would discuss the issues regarding museums and galleries reorganisation and cataloguing, and publish previously unknown documents. His programme also entailed the promotion of other fields of research, which had been overlooked by Italian scholars, i.e. illumination, decorative arts, and graphics, thus paving the way to modern art history. This essay analyses the attention and interest given to such areas, focusing on the European models Venturi referred to and the reactions he aroused within the national debate.

Annali di Critica d'Arte, 2011

This is a critically annotated translation of Millard Meiss' article 'Light as Form and Symbol in... more This is a critically annotated translation of Millard Meiss' article 'Light as Form and Symbol in Some Fifteenth-Century Paintings', which first appeared in The Art Bulletin in 1945. Meiss had noticed that fifteenth-century artists shared a specific interest in the study of light, which resulted in the use of previously seldom represented iconographical subjects and in certain variations to traditional ones, together with a pivotal formal emphasis on this element, in order to endow light with a symbolical meaning. Indeed, in such works as The Virgin in the Church (Berlin) by Jan van Eyck, light penetrating through glass became the symbol of the Immaculate Conception. This theory is supported by evidence in contemporary religious literature, especially the Nativity hymns the author refers to. The critical note includes a biographical and critical profile of this American art historian, assessing his methodological approach, which combined formal and iconological analysis, and his critical fortune and misfortune.

Crepuscoli dottorali, 2011

Nonostante la recensione negativa di La pittura fiorentina e il suo ambiente sociale di Frederick... more Nonostante la recensione negativa di La pittura fiorentina e il suo ambiente sociale di Frederick Antal, Millard Meiss fu spesso, soprattutto dalla critica italiana, assimilato al suo approccio sociologico. Questo preconcetto fu alimentato dallo stesso Antal, che in un articolo più tardo vide un riflesso del proprio metodo nella storia culturale di Meiss, e fu sicuramente influenzatoalmeno per il contesto italiano -dalla maggiore fortuna del marxismo antaliano. Infine, viene proposta una speculazione più teorica sull'applicabilità della definizione di Kulturgeschichte all'attenzione per il contesto socio-culturale di Meiss e di una certa parte della critica americana.

Crepuscoli dottorali, 2011

Lo storico dell'arte americano Millard Meiss (1904Meiss ( -1975 studiò lo sviluppo e la ricorrenz... more Lo storico dell'arte americano Millard Meiss (1904Meiss ( -1975 studiò lo sviluppo e la ricorrenza delle figure dormienti nell'arte rinascimentale veneziana nel saggio Sleep in Venice (1964Venice ( , 1966, avanzando al contempo il proprio contributo teorico -basato sulla combinazione di analisi formale e approccio iconologico. Le fonti dell'interpretazione delle mitiche fanciulle dormienti si potrebbero individuare nella Scuola di Warburg -in particolare nella ricerca sul mito condotta da Frizt Saxl -e nella fondamentale opera coeva di Panofsky sulle rinascenze nell'arte occidentale. Quindi, la fortuna critica dell'affascinante articolo di Meiss è strettamente legata al maggiore consenso incontrato dalla sua indagine sull'interazione di forma e contenuto. studied the development and recurrence of slumbering figures in Venetian Renaissance art in the essay Sleep in Venice (1964Venice ( , 1966), yet setting forth his theoretical contribution -based on the combination of formal analysis and iconological approach. The sources of his interpretation of mythical sleeping maidens could be traced back to the Warburg school -namely to Fritz Saxl's research on myth -and to Panofsky's coeval seminal work on the renascences in Western art. Therefore, the critical fortune of Meiss' fascinating article is closely related to the wider acceptance of his investigation on the interplay of form and content. "Sonno a Venezia". Millard Meiss e l'interpretazione cronologica del mito 5 Il mito An eternal book Whence I may copy many a lovely saying About the leaves, and flowers -about the playing Of nymphs in woods, and fountains; and the shade Keeping a silence round a sleeping maid. John Keats, Sleep and Poetry (1816) 1 A partire dalla ninfa dionisiaca 'inseguita' da Warburg, proseguendo con gli studi di Wind, Saxl e Panosfky nella generazione successiva, si potrebbe concludere che l'interpretazione del mito nel corso della storia dell'arte rappresentò un ideale campo di analisi per gli studi di carattere iconologico -declinato nelle sue varianti metodologiche. In linea con questa impostazione critica, Millard Meiss (1904-1975) 2 -da alcuni definito il «Panofsky americano» 3 -erede della tradizione iconografica e iconologica panofskiana negli Stati

Annali di Critica d'Arte, 2010

This study stems from the correspondence between Fritz Saxl and Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti held at... more This study stems from the correspondence between Fritz Saxl and Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti held at the Warburg Institute Archive (London) - hereby published. The few letters date back to Ragghianti's attendance at the Institute during his sojourn in London in 1938-1939, where he was on a political mission as an opponent to the Fascist Regime. Moreover, this exchange provides the opportunity for a broader insight into Saxl-Ragghianti relationship in light of the former's activity at the Institute in those years and the latter's writings. One must observe that his initial appreciation of Saxl - based on the acknowledgement of a methodological common ground - veered in the following decades to strong criticism alongside his attacks against the iconological school.

L’arte dello scrivere tra autobiografia e narrazione Esercizi in prosa e in versi di storici dell’arte, letterati e storici/ The Art of Writing between Autobiography and Fiction Pieces of Prose and Verse by Art Historians, Literary Scholars, and Historians, 2022

Storici dell’arte e case editrici nel secondo dopoguerra. Orientamenti di una politica culturale , 2021

by Maria Beatrice Failla, Silvia Cecchini, Patrizia Dragoni, Almudena Pérez de Tudela, Chiara Piva, Antonio García Bascón, Andrea Leonardi, Jennifer Cooke, Caterina Paparello, Stefania Zuliani, Alessandra Galizzi Kroegel, Alessandro Martini, Matilde Cartolari, and Valeria Finocchi

Il 26 e il 27 febbraio si svolgerà presso l'Università degli Studi e il Politecnico di Torino un ... more Il 26 e il 27 febbraio si svolgerà presso l'Università degli Studi e il Politecnico di Torino un convegno sulla cultura museologica, il dibattito critico, la gestione dei musei negli anni a ridosso della Conferenza di Madrid del 1934

Musei in Europa negli anni tra le due guerre. La Conferenza di Madrid del 1934: un dibattito internazione

This paper intends to examine Frederick Antal’s methodological transformations, from an initial f... more This paper intends to examine Frederick Antal’s methodological transformations, from an initial formalist outlook to the markedly sociological approach he is best known for. The analysis of some significant examples from his writings will shed some light on the pivotal moments in this theoretical and personal migration. Dissatisfied with Wölfflin’s strictly stylistic views, Antal opened up to the geistesgeschichtlich teachings of Strzygowski and Dvořák, which consistently shaped his method in the first two decades of the 20th century. Indeed, before turning in the English years to the more overt sociological penchant developed alongside his Sunday Circle fellows, Antal was a keen connoisseur, whose shrewd eye was highly praised for instance by Roberto Longhi in the 1920s. Moreover, as editor of Kritische Berichte in Berlin, Antal furthered the theories of the Second Vienna School, marked by a resurgence of Riegl’s formalism in Hans Sedlmayr’s Strukturanalyse. We shall thus attempt to offer a more nuanced perspective on the Hungarian art historian who was, despite himself, made into a champion of Marxist art theory, focusing on the gradual methodological shift of a connoisseur turned social historian of art, who – in John Berger’s words – «worked to release a vision».

ore 10:00 Riflessioni e orientamenti sul metodo della storia artistica Presiede: Donata Levi Gian... more ore 10:00 Riflessioni e orientamenti sul metodo della storia artistica Presiede: Donata Levi Gianni Carlo Sciolla, Critica d'arte nell'Italia della ricostruzione. Alcune riflessioni Franco Bernabei, Motivazioni estetiche nella critica d'arte italiana al tramonto dell'idealismo Angelo Trimarco, Teoria e critica d'arte. Il dibattito storicismostrutturalismo Riccardo Lattuada, Il conoscitore sciamano

LABORATORIO INTERDISCIPLINARE FONTI E METODI PER LA STORIA DELL'ARTE, May 2022

This module will delve into the study of correspondences between art historians debating its ever... more This module will delve into the study of correspondences between art historians debating its ever-growing use within a broader methodological and critical reflection. Alongside outlining the basic criteria for transcription, several Italian and international exchanges published in the last decade will be examined and the ways to approach letters as a historiographical source will be discussed. Panofsky, Berenson, Longhi, Ragghianti, and Chastel are among the examples that will be considered.

Empowering vulnerable communities in marginalised areas , 2021

Presentation delivered in Empowering vulnerable communities in marginalised areas, UNITA – Resear... more Presentation delivered in Empowering vulnerable communities in marginalised areas, UNITA – Research & Innovation Cultural Heritage Hub Workshop (Turin, 14th-15th October 2021)

"L’intervento intende analizzare la fortuna critica del libro Pittura a Firenze e Siena dopo la M... more "L’intervento intende analizzare la fortuna critica del libro Pittura a Firenze e Siena dopo la Morte Nera dello storico dell’arte statunitense Millard Meiss pubblicato nel 1951, in cui l’autore spiegava gli esiti della produzione figurativa toscana nella seconda metà del Trecento alla luce della crisi politico-economica culminante nella peste del 1348 e i suoi effetti sulla psicologia collettiva, analizzandone il riflesso nei testi letterari e, soprattutto, nelle nuove forme di religiosità . L’approccio adottato da Meiss, che per il respiro interdisciplinare si può inscrivere nella tradizione della Kulturgeschichte di Burckhardt e Warburg – in linea con il coevo Architettura gotica e filosofia scolastica del maestro Panofsky –, venne di fatto assimilato all’impostazione determinista di stampo marxista di Pittura fiorentina e il suo ambiente sociale di Frederick Antal (da cui peraltro lo studioso americano aveva preso le distanze in una precedente recensione) .
La ricostruzione della ricezione del testo sulla Morte Nera – esaminata attraverso le recensioni e le corrispondenze con lo studioso – restituisce, pertanto, uno spaccato emblematico del più generale confronto metodologico della critica dell’epoca, tenendo conto anche del clima culturale statunitense che, negli anni della Guerra Fredda, non poteva che guardare con sospetto a un approccio storico-culturale.
Se, da un lato, l’opera raccolse l’apprezzamento degli storici, dall’altro, dietro l’ostile accoglienza dei difensori di una storiografia artistica esclusivamente interessata ai valori formali – come Berenson sul fronte americano oppure Longhi e Ragghianti su quello italiano – è possibile leggere il consumarsi di un ancien régime di fronte a una lettura interdisciplinare e contestuale dell’opera d’arte. Ciò inevitabilmente gravò sulle sorti del libro di Meiss, cui traduzione italiana giunse con un significativo ritardo solo nel 1982. Il dato che emerge dal dibattito critico, dunque, è una generale miopia nell’evidenziare le diverse componenti e sfumature metodologiche tra iconologia, storia culturale e sociologia dell’arte.
"

Non è un caso che storici dell’arte come Erwin Panofsky fossero appassionati lettori di libri gia... more Non è un caso che storici dell’arte come Erwin Panofsky fossero appassionati lettori di libri gialli, in fondo il loro era andare alla ricerca di un colpevole, fosse esso l’autore o il soggetto dell’opera, e per scovarlo dovevano seguire indizi e interrogare ‘muti’ testimoni. Analizzeremo insieme alcuni celebri casi cercando di capire il procedere dei nostri Sherlock Holmes tra falsi sospetti, disvelamenti e coup de théâtre, in una sfida tra l’occhio del conoscitore e la materia dell’opera. Al di là delle insormontabili differenze e delle reciproche diffidenze attribuzionismo e iconologia hanno, infatti, almeno una cosa in comune: il metodo indiziario.

Entries: Gruppo di sei formelle della porta nord del Battistero di Firenze; Gruppo di sei formell... more Entries: Gruppo di sei formelle della porta nord del Battistero di Firenze; Gruppo di sei formelle con i Profeti della porta del Paradiso del Battistero di San Giovanni; Testa del David; Tondo Pitti; Tondo Taddei (pp. 92-95, 100-105)

L'Indice dei Libri del Mese, 2020

Review of Emanuele Pellegrini, Storico dell’arte e uomo politico. Profilo biografico di Carlo Lud... more Review of Emanuele Pellegrini, Storico dell’arte e uomo politico. Profilo biografico di Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, pp. 233, € 22, ETS, Pisa 2018

exhibition catalogue (Inifini.TO, 31 October - 28 November 2014)

This book is published r,vith thc lJrnanistici (University ol' Turin) support ol the Diitartirlen... more This book is published r,vith thc lJrnanistici (University ol' Turin) support ol the Diitartirlento cli Stucli t:Ntvunsl t,\ l)lt(;t.t s I Llt)t I)t tr)tuN() an<l of Regior-re Piemonte ffiREGIONE ffi ## PIEMONTE Trzrnslatecl byJcr-rnifcr Cooke (O 2014 edizioni kaplan Via Saluzzo "l2his 10125'Ibrino