From survey to pictorial drawing, the fantastical antiquities of Giuliano da Sangallo, in Beguiling Structures, Architecture in European painting 1300-1550, 19th september 2014, The national Gallery (original) (raw)
‘Paintings in Palaces: Descriptions and Inscriptions’, in: Palazzi del Cinquecento a Roma, a cura di Claudia Conforti e Giovanna Sapori (volume speciale del Bollettino d’Arte), 2016 [2018] (Serie VII), “Palazzi del Cinquecento a Roma”), pp. 101-110 This paper explores the relationship between the accessibility of Roman palazzi and the visibility of their painted decorations on the one hand, and the subject matter of these painted decorations on the other. It is observed that sites such as the Palazzo dei Conservatori (or parts thereof) and the Vatican Palace, with a markedly public function and of relatively easy access, were in both cases decorated with paintings of a propagandistic nature in order to communicate a message as directly as possible. These paintings are accompanied by inscriptions intended to guide the beholders understanding of the depicted subjects in a very specific way, namely in accordance with the propagandistic intentions of the patron(s). Private palaces, on the contrary, accessible only to relatives and other persons from the owner’s inner circle, present a set of painted decorations that, though sometimes with uncanonical subjects, did not necessarily require explanatory inscriptions. Visitors to the palace were likely to have been familiar with the owner’s history and interests, and were therefore able to identify and understand the iconography. Otherwise the visitor’s puzzlement would have provided the palace owner with the opportunity to explain the painted subjects and impress the visitor with his knowledge. Dipinti nei palazzi: descrizioni e iscrizioni L’articolo indaga la relazione tra accessibilità dei palazzi romani e visibilità delle loro decorazioni dipinte, da un lato, e l'oggetto delle relative decorazioni dipinte, dall'altra. Se ne desume che palazzi come quello dei Conservatori (parte di esso) e del Palazzo Vaticano, con spiccata funzione pubblica e relativamente facilmente accessibili, sono stati decorati con dipinti di natura propagandistica. Per rendere chiaro il messaggio propagandistico, inoltre, le decorazioni dipinte sono accompagnate da iscrizioni con funzione di guida per gli osservatori a capire i soggetti raffigurati in modo molto specifico, in particolare in base alle intenzioni propagandistiche del committente. I palazzi privati, al contrario, accessibili solo ai parenti e a persone provenienti dalla cerchia familiare, presentano, invece, un apparato decorativo dipinto, che, se anche difficile da identificare, non sembra necessitare delle iscrizioni esplicative, in quanto i visitatori del palazzo, grazie alla familiarità con la storia e gli interessi del proprietario, possono facilmente identificare e comprendere i soggetti raffigurati. Se ciò non fosse, invece, si creerebbe una buona opportunità per il proprietario del palazzo di spiegare i soggetti dipinti, impressionando i visitatori con la sua personale cultura.
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN IN LATE MEDIEVAL ITALIAN PAINTING. A CASE STUDY
Eikón Imago, 3 (2013 / 1), ISSN-e 2254-8718, 2013
This paper aims to highlight the artistic and conceptual relevance acquired by the iconographic theme of The Coronation of the Virgin in Italy during the Late Middle Ages. To achieve this goal we analyzed twenty-seven Trecento and Quattrocento paintings, with the purpose of discovering in them the more or less innovative compositional formulas proposed by these artists, as well as the possible literary sources that inspired them. From the formal perspective we have discovered three different iconographic types, which complement themselves mutually, as progressively complex variations of a similar basic structure. From the conceptual perspective we could also specify that these three different iconographic types of The Coronation of the Virgin in Italy are inspired directly in specific comments by some Church Fathers and medieval theologians.
A wall painting from the domus of Palazzo Govone Caratti at Alba Pompeia (Italy).
CeROArt (online), 2016
The fragmentary wall painting originally decorated a refined hall of the so-called Palazzo Govone-Caratti domus at Alba Pompeia (Cuneo, Northern Italy), perhaps corresponding to the triclinium. Despite the difficulties in reading the fragments, due to the poor state of their preservation, the importance of the artefact was clear from the beginning thanks to its original location, in a room where the floor was decorated with a precious chess-board mosaic. During the archaeological excavation, the plasters were found in fragments: the position of each piece was accurately documented by photographs and surveyed. The thesis project started with the hope, but without the assurance, of identifying the entire decoration, although the quality of the excavation documents and the amount of fragments gave us hope for a positive result. During the inventory and cleaning of the fragments, the daily discovering of fine decorations confirmed the expectations, stimulating and gratifying the research. The paintings, belonging to a transitional phase between the third and fourth Pompeian style, can be paralleled with other wall paintings found in Alba Pompeia, now preserved in the Museo Civico F. Eusebio, and with other specimens from Northern Italy and other sites in the peninsula as well. The restoration project, followed by practical interventions, provided the opportunity to give back readability to the artefact and to assure its conservation; at the same time, it constituted an important chance of handwork study and analysis. We’ve the expectation that the cognitive analysis performed on the materials during the thesis will provide a basis for future studies. Proposing a virtual hypothesis about the entire south wall decoration represented a source of real gratification for us: we’re now waiting for new studies that could confirm (or deny) the reconstruction, on the occasion of the overall restoration. The restoration of the first panel, conducted in the master thesis, will provide the guidelines for the intervention on the entire wall paintings of the room.
In 15th-century Italy, ephemeral structures complemented live performances representing court life and enabled ruling princes to project political and cultural messages. These events also offered unique opportunities for collaboration among architects, painters, sculptors, and woodcarvers. Except for one or two cases, this category of artefacts made in Milan has never been systematically studied, primarily because of a dearth of sources. This paper presents, with the help of documents recently discovered and published, some examples of the short-lived yet intensely programmatic use of public spaces by the Sforza family.
Renaissance Quarterly, 2022
drawings. The rise of the family to a solid middle-class status and Giulio Cesare's marriage to a noblewoman is given relatively little weight in this career change, while the Procaccini emphasis on Correggio and Parmigianino as models and their incorporation of stylistic elements from Flemish masters are seen as business strategies on a par with the Carracci synthesis extolled by Agucchi and Bellori. Despite a few minor omissions (Greco Grasilli, 2010, on commissioning Garbieri), the author has both brought together much-published information and discovered exciting new information about the overlooked contribution of Carlo Antonio, who developed a unique market in Lombardy for garland paintings and landscapes. Yet the last three chapters, which survey the paintings each Procaccini brother produced for public and private patrons, have so much information packed into dense paragraphs that readers unfamiliar with their immense output are left longing for a more leisurely pace and for richer interpretive explanations to shape the mass of detail. The absence of professional editing is noticeable in missing words, extra prepositions, errors of punctuation, mistyped dates, and excessive repetitions that obscure the gems of Lo Conte's valuable approach, leaving the reader wishing this book were as lucid and as focused as his recent journal articles on Carlo Antonio in Italian Studies (2016) and Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte (2020).
2013
Abstract: This paper aims to highlight the artistic and conceptual relevance acquired by the iconographic theme of The Coronation of the Virgin in Italy during the Late Middle Ages. To achieve this goal we analyzed twenty-seven Trecento and Quattrocento paintings, with the purpose of discovering in them the more or less innovative compositional formulas proposed by these artists, as well as the possible literary sources that inspired them. From the formal perspective we have discovered three different iconographic types, which complement themselves mutually, as progressively complex variations of a similar basic structure. From the conceptual perspective we could also specify that these three different iconographic types of The Coronation of the Virgin in Italy are inspired directly in specific comments by some Church Fathers and medieval theologians. Keywords : Medieval Art, Marian iconography, Coronation of the Virgin, Trecento , Quattrocento , theological sources. Resumen: E...
HERITAGE 2022 - International Conference Vernacular Heritage: Culture, People and Sustainability, 2022
Articolo (ENG) in atti di convegno internazionale che analizza i prototipi di architetture vernacolari inseriti nella dieci formelle per la Porta del Paradiso del Battistero di Firenze da Lorenzo Ghiberti. Il maestro raffigura in bassorilievo episodi dell’antico testamento narrati attraverso una successione di scene nelle quali il linguaggio figurativo assolve contemporaneamente anche una funzione catechetica ed ambienta le Istorie dei principali personaggi della Bibbia sullo sfondo di paesaggi che ritraggono territori e architetture a lui note, ritraendo con dovizia di particolari la flora, la fauna e le strutture antropiche. Relativamente a queste ultime, nella quinta, sesta e decima formella gli scenari sono costituiti da architetture monumentali di ispirazione classica e rinascimentale, mentre nella seconda, terza, quarta, settima e ottava formella Ghiberti rappresenta abitazioni e ricoveri legati alla tradizione locale. In un unico manufatto il maestro orafo-scultore ripropone, pertanto, una sintesi dell’eterogeneo paesaggio antropizzato, fornendo una descrizione fedele di tutta una serie di costruzioni vernacolari che, per la loro importanza e diffusione sul territorio, sono frequentemente testimoniate anche in altre opere artistiche coeve. Da questo punto di vista le formelle possono essere considerate una inedita fonte per l’analisi dei caratteri salienti di alcune tra le architetture tradizionali più diffuse nel primo Quattrocento, che ancora oggi caratterizzano il paesaggio rurale circostante il capoluogo toscano.
Chapels in Roman Churches of the Cinquecento and the Seicento. Form, Function, Meaning, ed. by C. Franceschini, P. Tosini, S. F. Ostrow, Milano, Officina Libraria, 2020, 2020
This essay examines the history and decoration of the Salviati Chapel at San Gregorio al Celio in Rome as the repository of an image of the Virgin and in relation to two other chapels created by the same patron (Antonio Maria Salviati) in the church of San Giacomo in Augusta. In considering this dialogue among the chapels, I analyze the rationale behind the project at San Gregorio and its purpose to valorize antique images, reconstructing the particular design and function in the space of the now lost altarpiece with St. Gregory by Annibale Carracci. I also discuss more broadly th theme of the artistic experimentation and confrontation between "old" and "ruined" 'images' and "new" and "beautiful" 'works of art', that took place in Rome at the turn of the seventeenth century.