Tintoretto's Holy Hermits at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco (original) (raw)
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Mary Magdalene, Iconographic Studies from the Middle Ages to the Baroque
Mary Magdalene, Iconographic Studies from the Middle Ages to the Baroque examines the iconographic inventions in Magdalene imagery and the contextual factors that shaped her representation in visual art from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Unique to other saints in the medieval lexicon, images of Mary Magdalene were altered over time to satisfy the changing needs of her patrons as well as her audience. By shedding light on the relationship between the Magdalene and her patrons, both corporate and private, as well as the religious institutions and regions where her imagery is found, this anthology reveals the flexibility of the Magdalene’s character in art and, in essence, the reinvention of her iconography from one generation to the next.
2012
"Mary Magdalene, Iconographic Studies from the Middle Ages to the Baroque examines the iconographic inventions in Magdalene imagery and the contextual factors that shaped her representation in visual art from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Unique to other saints in the medieval lexicon, images of Mary Magdalene were altered over time to satisfy the changing needs of her patrons as well as her audience. By shedding light on the relationship between the Magdalene and her patrons, both corporate and private, as well as the religious institutions and regions where her imagery is found, this anthology reveals the flexibility of the Magdalene’s character in art and, in essence, the reinvention of her iconography from one generation to the next. Contributors include: Joanne Anderson, Barbara Baert, Andrea Begel, Elizabeth Carroll Consavari, Bobbi Dykema, Jane Eade, Michelle Erhardt, Rachel Geschwind, Barbara Johnston, Patrick Hunt, Annette LeZotte, Amy Morris, Margaret Morse, Michelle Moseley-Christian, Vibeke Olson, and Lisa Rafanelli, with a preface by Susan Haskins."
Florentine Art and the Evolving Magdalene.docx
This essay attempts to show how the popular image of Mary Magdalene in Renaissance art was changed based on what documentation was consulted: The Mary of the Biblical New Testament, the Mary of traditional teaching, and the Mary of the Golden Legend are all perceived in unique ways, yet all have an underlying current of being an image of a woman quite unusual in the cult of saints.
Hans Hoeken, Andre Lardinois, Sophie Levie, Christoph Lüthy (eds.), Texts, Transmissions, Receptions. Modern Approaches to Narratives, 2014
Mary Magdalene's conversion to Christianity must have been a turning-point of paramount importance in her life. This chapter explores the relationship between text and image, in relation to the portrayal of Mary Magdalene in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance in the Western World, and more specifically with regards to portrayals of her conversion. It briefly introduces the complex legendary persona of the Magdalene as it emerges from biblical texts, as well as later legends. The reception of specific aspects of the Magdalene's legend in both high and low culture becomes clear through the presentation of her conversion in both popular theatre and more elitist manifestations in the visual arts. It is a well-known fact that in the Western tradition, Mary Magdalene as a 'literary' character is the result of a fusion of several biblical and legendary figures. Keywords: Christianity; Late Middle Ages; Mary Magdalene's conversion; Renaissance
Mary Magdalene's iconography, between red passion and dark melancholy, critically revisited in the history of art and within the cultural context of the times.
Michelangelo’s lost Noli Me Tangere cartoon for Vittoria Colonna is known to us today through the painted copies of Pontormo (1531), Bronzino (1531-32), and Battista Franco (1537). These paintings bear witness to the originality of Michelangelo’s composition, which defies iconographical expectations established for scenes of the Noli me tangere. His innovative interpretation of the subject focuses on the Magdalene’s privilege and the worth and redemptive power of her words and deeds, rather than her sinful past and penitence, as was typical of other renditions of the Noli me tangere. By celebrating the more empowered aspects of the Magdalene’s identity, this painting participates visually in the debate raging in humanist and theological circles over the status of women in religion and society, and not only reflects Colonna’s personal devotion to the Magdalene but also her active participation in the contemporary pro-feminist dialogue.
This document provides a summary of the evidence gathered in the volume Adamo: Il segreto che riscrive la storia dell'arte (in Italian: Adam: The Secret That Rewrites the History of Art) and delves into the iconographic confusion between Mary Magdalene and Mary of Egypt, particularly evident in the work Penitent Magdalene and Eight Stories of Her Life by the Master of the Magdalene (1280-1285). The analysis shows that at least four of the stories depicted actually belong to Mary of Egypt, a hermit described in the Legenda Aurea by Jacopo da Varazze, and not to Mary Magdalene. Through iconographic and textual comparison, it proposes the renaming of the work to Penitent Mary of Egypt and Four Stories of Mary Magdalene and the reattribution of the Master of the Magdalene as the Master of Mary of Egypt. It is further discussed how Giotto, while respecting the elegance of the figure of Magdalene, may have been influenced by this iconographic ambiguity, introducing into his depiction of Magdalene incongruous elements not present in the narrative by Jacopo da Varazze. Finally, it is highlighted how the penitential scroll, historically linked to Mary of Egypt, cannot be associated with Mary Magdalene, who never appears as a penitent figure in the Legenda Aurea.
Damaged Soul. Visual Cultures of the Repentant Magdalene
Book, 2024
The Spanish Gallery at Bishop Auckland holds a small yet remarkable collection of works representing the Penitent Magdalene in her cave in Southern France. These were painted by three seventeenth-century artists who are now little known outside Spain but who were celebrated during their lifetimes. Juan Bautista Maíno spent time in Rome and later became a Dominican friar. Luis Tristán was El Greco’s most famous pupil. Mainly active in Toledo, he spent his early years in Italy, possibly in the company of Jusepe Ribera. Finally, Mateo Cerezo was the most important painter to emerge from his hometown, Burgos, although he had a short-lived career, dying young. Using the works at the Spanish Gallery – three paintings and a small oil sketch – as a starting point this book explores some of the visual narratives concerning Mary Magdalene as a repentant saint, a key devotional figure during the Spanish Golden Age. It investigates contemporary views on sin, attitudes to the body and the role of women in Hispanic society. After a short introduction to the significance of the Magdalene’s image during the Counter-Reformation, the author explores its function in the context of material culture of domestic Spain. This is followed by an in-depth analysis of the paintings themselves. Through these four works, the present study opens up new opportunities for discussions regarding patronage, taste and style, and particularly the extent to which we should consider Maíno and Tristán to be segundos Caravaggios, or followers of Caravaggio.
Saints, Miracles and the Image. Healing Saints and Miraculous Images in the Reinassance, Sandra Cardarelli and Lara Fenelli eds., Turnhout: Brepols, 2018, pp. 229-249.
The icon of the Madonna Bruna del Carmine is the most famous cult image in Naples. Its immense devotional status has earned it a place on the high altar of the fourteenth-century Carmelite church situated in Piazza Mercato, the bustling hub of Neapolitan social and economic life for more than seven centuries. Venerated as miraculous since the sixteenth century, its prodigious healing powers have continued to inspire the devotion of all social classes. The icon as we see it today is an enigmatic artefact. Its format and iconography testify to medieval origins, while its current appearance dates to 1975 when the overpainting of earlier restorations was removed, and it was almost entirely repainted. This article hypothetically reconstructs the material history of the Madonna Bruna del Carmine and explores the social dynamics that gave rise to its veneration. A close examination of the painting and its restorations allows a better understanding of the icon’s history, style, and iconography. The possible dating to c. 1280 links the icon to the early history of the church and convent of Santa Maria del Carmine in Naples. Founded in 1270, the church was rebuilt at the beginning of the 1300’s but its importance in the city emerged in the second half of the 1400’s when it was incorporated into the city walls, became the seat of public rituals and a destination of civic processions, as well as a privileged site for artisans' city guilds. Textual and visual sources testify to the events that determined the affirmation of the icon as a cult image in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when it became a formidable tool of propaganda and social control.
Holmes Disrobing the Virgin: The Madonna Lactans in Fifteenth-Century Florentine Art
Picturing Women in Renaissance and Baroque Italy, eds. S. Matthews Grieco and G. Johnson (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997) 167-195., 1997
The popular late medieval devotional image, the Madonna lactansor nursing Madonna -has recently received considerable attention from scholars interested in the significance of the Virgin's "nudity." 1 The controversial issue has been whether the Virgin's breast, bared for the Christ Child to suckle, was understood by contemporaries in terms of established religious doctrine, or whether it had the potential to trigger erotic associations. The question of whether viewers "saw a breast when they saw the Virgin's bared breast" 2 is by no means an idle one when considering the Madonna lactans in fifteenthcentury Florence. In the pictorial arts, religious imagery was increasingly reliant upon a variety of naturalism refined through the introduction oflinear perspective, proportional diminution, a point-light source, and differentiated surface values. A Quattrocento Florentine Madonna lactans painting could thus present the viewer with a vividly rendered, anatomically approximate, and palpable bare breast. What effect did this have upon the efficacy and stability of the Madonna lactans as a religious image?