Italian Renaissance Art

Il contributo presenta disegni inediti e altri già pubblicati, dei quali viene rivelata la destinazione; i fogli presi in considerazione appartengono a numerose collezioni pubbliche italiane e europee o sono comparsi sul mercato; sono qui riferiti ad artisti attivi nel XVI secolo a Roma o in Lombardia.

This paper focuses on a falchion in the Luigi Marzoli Museum, Brescia (inv. G15). Its entire blade is covered with a distinctive design comprising lines of short and deep parallel semi-circular niches. This unusual detail is found on other arms in international museum collections, two of which bear the signature "Faustino Gelpho bresciano". This paper will consider connections between this idiosyncratic style and the unknown craftsman, Faustino Ghelfo. It will also attempt to reconstruct a portrait of master Ghelfo based on a possible personal modus operandi.

Painted in 1576, Jacopo Bassano’s 'The Flood of the Colmeda' commemorates a deluge that swept through the small town of Feltre, in the mountains to the north of Venice, in 1564. Drawing attention to aspects of 'The Flood of the Colmeda' that evoke period speculation about the potential human causes of flooding on the Venetian mainland, a topic of increasing concern during a period of aggressive agricultural and industrial expansion in Venetian territory, this article advances an ecocritical interpretation of the painting and of Bassano’s work, in general.

The paper chapter the Procaccini family's relocation from Bologna to Milan. One of the most important families of painters active in Northern Italy at the start of the seventeenth century, the Procaccini established a family business that played a fundamental role in the development of Lombard art. By looking at recent studies in the field of socio-economic history, the study describes Milan as a microcosm of international influences, offering a perspective on the city’s connections with Flanders and Spain. Aside from demonstrating that the Procaccini consciously elected to move to a more dynamic city, the study emphasises that Milan was involved in the largest program of Post-Tridentine diocesan reform ever enacted in Italy. The city had the largest diocese in Italy and one of the largest in Europe, counting over 2000 churches and 200 monasteries. From 1580 onwards, many of these buildings were renovated, presenting opportunities for capable artists. The Procaccini took advantage of this situation easily superseding local competition.

Questo saggio ripercorre la storia di una pala d’altare raffigurante Cristo risorto con un angelo e i Santi Carlo Borromeo, Maria Maddalena e Rocco, eseguita dal pittore bolognese Giovan Francesco Gessi tra il 1639 e il 1640 per l’oratorio della confraternita del Santissimo Sacramento di Porretta Terme ed oggi dispersa. Attraverso la documentazione rintracciata nell’Archivio Parrocchiale di Porretta e nell’Archivio Diocesano di Bologna, è stato possibile ricostruire molti aspetti riguardanti il dipinto perduto, dalle vicende riguardanti la commissione al soggetto e alla composizione dell’opera, dalla forma dell’altare che la pala condivideva con una statua della Madonna del Carmine al momento della sua scomparsa, da collocare probabilmente in epoca napoleonica.

Architecture stems from a sapient working together of writing, drawing, and construction lines. The critical study of genetic architectural representations by examination of the sedimentation of architectural materiality inscribed in weathered boards, papers and models develops the ability of architects to become architecturally conscious. Architectural lines are material, spatial, cultural and temporal occurrences of refined multi-sensorial and emotional understandings of architecture. Architectural lines create a graphesis, a course of actions based on factures by which architects actualize future and past architecture into representations. Architectural drawings must not be understood as visualizations of building, but as essential architectural factures. Leon Battista Alberti's term lineamenta carries embedded in itself the idea of facture since Alberti's understanding of lineamenta derives from the use of tracing lines, ropes, ribbons, strings or threads mostly made with flax fibres and used by the builder on construction sites during the facture of buildings.
"Tota res aedificatoria lineamentis et structura constituta est."
Leon Battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria

The Church and Convent of Sant’Andrea in Vineis in Faenza:
Two previously unpublished 18th–Century plans and reflections on the Work of Domenico Paganelli
The recent discovery of two 18th–century plans associated with the Sant’Andrea in Vineis complex in Faenza, known today as San Domenico, served as a catalyst for exploring the remarkable life of Father Domenico
Paganelli (1545–1624). Paganelli was an architect, scientist, and scholar, working actively in Rome and the Pontifical legations, particularly during the pontificates of Clement VIII and Leo XII. This paper delves into
Paganelli’s contributions to the Faenza convent, including the cloister of the dead, the dormitory, and the apothecary. His architectural work on the church is also examined, such as the choir, the portico attached to
the façade, the presbytery, the high altar, and noteworthy chapels like the opulent one dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, regrettably lost. Looking into unpublished sources, the study sheds new light on Paganelli’s
multifaceted character, examining inventories that describe his living quarters, his collections of rare objects, and his library. The research also reveals the names of a group of artists associated with Paganelli’s circle,
active in Faenza during the early 17th century. The investigation also includes the Church of Sant’Andrea. Detailed descriptions of its decorative elements, documented in archival records, have come to light. Unfortunately, these ornamentations were lost during Francesco Tadolini of Bologna’s extensive transformations in the latter half of the 18th century

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Through a careful description of its architecture, paintings and sculptures, this book offers the first comprehensive analysis of the Villa Barbaro at Maser, one of the most famous masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance. Commissioned and designed by Daniele Barbaro, a leading humanist of the Venetian Renaissance, and his brother Marc’Antonio, an important politician of the Republic of Venice and a talented amateur artist, the villa’s architecture and painted decoration were created by two canonical figures of Renaissance art: the architect Andrea Palladio and the painter Paolo Veronese. By offering a new and holistic reading of the iconographic program of Villa Barbaro, the study highlights in particular the importance of women, childbirth and motherhood. With a strong multidisciplinary approach, the book is also a contribution to the history of astronomy, philosophy and domesticity in sixteenthcentury Venice.

Presented by: Le séminaire des Nouveaux Modernes: groupe de recherche en histoire de l'art du Moyen âge aux Lumières https://nouveauxmodernes.wordpress.com/ LA FLAGELLATION DU CHRIST DE PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA : une triade entre exégèse biblique et anthropologie de la ressemblance Rosa Maria Dessì Professeure d'histoire du Moyen Âge et des images médiévales Université Côte d'Azur, CEPAM

The Transfiguration by Giovanni Bellini in the Museo di Capodimonte (Naples) is an iconic image of a transcendental event at the heart of the Christian religion. Using non-destructive chemical imaging, and focusing on the central image of the transfigured Christ we have studied by what means and with what materials the artist represented this divine event. The results showed what is to date the earliest use of the pigment stibnite. The techniques employed demonstrate both continuity with Bellini’s earliest works (such as the combination of the use of shell-gold and organic, tinted layers), but also his knowledge of Netherlandish painting. This research has furthered our understanding of how he achieved the luminosity so characteristic of his translation of the divine into the materiality of paint.

Die Publikation widmet sich einem bislang wenig behandelten Thema der Handzeichnung und Druckgrafik: Wie wurde in der Zeit zwischen ca. 1500 und 1700 über die Schraffur reflektiert? Anhand von fünf Fallstudien werden zentrale Aspekte der künstlerischen Technik untersucht. Der Blick geht dabei über europäische Ländergrenzen hinweg und sucht nach Antworten auf diese Frage. Methodisch werden Ansätze der Diskursgeschichte und Rezeptionsästhetik vereint. Die gute Quellenlage eröffnet einen Schatz an historischen Texten, von denen viele erstmals in diesem Zusammenhang transkribiert und übersetzt wurden. Detaillierte Bildanalysen zeigen, wie das volle Potenzial der Schraffur allein in den Kunstwerken und ihrer Betrachtung aufgehen kann.

Ferrarese man of letters and son of Battista Guarini. He is famous for his Il farnetico savio overo il Tasso, (1610); its thesis is that Torquato Tasso feigned his madness as a noble self-defence mechanism, in order to give a hostile and unfair world an excuse for not recognizing his poetic talent. Such a view appears feasible, not only because of our knowledge of Tasso's letters, but also because of the evidence of mental lucidity demonstrated by the dialogues Tasso produced while 'mad'. It may be related to the theme, best represented by Torquato Accetto's works and in Quietism, of honest dissembling for self-protective reasons. Guarini is also known as an often naïve and certainly most enthusiastic supporter of Dante in an age not given to such support. He wrote military historical works and a treatise on the Catholic faith.

La revolución del diseño tecnológico no sólo se deriva del uso de nuevas tecnologías, sino de un diálogo entre el valor arquitectónico, histórico y funcional que conservan los lugares y su valor simbólico. Se trata de un proceso complejo y lleno de matices que tiene en cuenta no sólo las características físicas de un edificio, sino también su significado cultural e histórico. Al analizar las características arquitectónicas e históricas de un edificio, los diseñadores son capaces de identificar la calidad formal y material de la arquitectura, así como el poder creativo vinculado al genius loci, o espíritu del lugar. La afirmación de Servius, "Nullus locus sine genius", subraya la importancia de comprender el carácter único de un lugar, ya que influye en el diseño y la función del espacio. Esto es especialmente cierto en el caso de los lugares de culto cristianos, donde cada piedra, distribución espacial y ornamento conlleva un profundo significado simbólico, moral y social....

Les lapidaires de talent introduisirent au cours du XVIe de profonds changements dans la technique et l’esthétique de la taille du cristal. Tout d’abord par la forme des vases qui renoncent à imiter ou évoquer la vaisselle métallique, ce qui était le principe même de leur miraculeuse absurdité depuis l’antiquité. Ils ne sont plus de vertigineuses traductions dans un médium paradoxal mais adoptent des formes qui leur sont propres, non plus inspirées d’objets mais de formes organiques. Ce sont de molle nefs, des coquillages incertains puis des créatures composites. L’instabilité de ces formes, leurs contours changeants impossibles à saisir (et même à décrire) parlent d’une autre manière de considérer la Nature, non comme un cosmos mais comme un devenir permanent ...

The representation of Parisian wetnurses is a recurrent motif in painting from the 19th century’s latter half. On-site wetnurses are often depicted in settings characteristic of Haussmann’s urban transformations, such as public gardens and boulevards. These anonymous figures of motherhood and domestic life underline these places’ picturesque quality and contribute to their idealisation. However, these pictorial representations warp the reality of their laborious activity. Images conceal the violence and the control exercised over the wetnurses and confer prescriptive power to the cliché.

This paper investigates the Academia Aretiniana, a still unexplored group of literati and artists who gathered in Venice around the eclectic figure of Pietro Aretino (1492-1556). I argue that this pseudo-academy represents a critical network which aligned with the ideals of cultural restoration of the city from the 1530s. Through a close intellectual dialogue among the members, the group introduced fundamental innovations for both literature and visual arts, which informed art theory and kindled formal experimentation. This project, therefore, seeks to explore how this humanistic circle contributed to reshape artistic production in sixteenth-century Venice. By unpacking the theoretical discussion on the arts carried on by the group, as well as exploring how artistic practice fed into it, the project proposes an interdisciplinary approach to understand how the group elaborated a novel aesthetic vocabulary that permeated the creative processes of artists and writers. It is the aim of the project to answer the question as to the academic aspirations of this circle and how they eventually shaped the coeval artistic practice, paving the way for Venetian Mannerism. The presentation will address the topic by elaborating on its status quaestionis, the inherent limits of such research and the methodological approach.

This article analyses how several art historians around 1900 explain the rise of naturalism in Flanders and Italy in the early fifteenth century. This debate reveals the issues and tensions at stake in the discipline in the years around 1900. On the one hand, it bears witness to the growing internationalisation of scientific exchanges. On the other, it highlights the multiformity of the factors that affect scholars' interpretations and how they are intertwined: Exchanges with other disciplines, such as psychology, political tensions, sensitivity to contemporary artistic creation, the development of major exhibitions, ideological issues, personal attachments and institutional frameworks can all influence art historians' thinking in varying proportions and combinations. Analyses are also conditioned by the authors' attention to the different media and techniques of creation. Their responses to the same question also show that the whole range of methods we use today had already been defined, allowing for explanations that are formal, functional, spiritual, iconographic or social. Finally, we note that this controversy is not confined to a specific, distant moment in our discipline. In fact, it brought to the attention of the scientific community a question that is still relevant today.

John Stuart, duke of Albany was born in France, but acted as Regent of Scotland from 1514 until 1524. He visited Scotland three times and, in the early years of his regency, is credited with bringing a degree of stability back to Scottish governance during an otherwise troubled political period. Albany was also noteworthy for his love of visual splendour and magnificence. In France, he was an astute patron of the visual arts, commissioning a number of important manuscripts and architectural projects, such as the Sainte-Chapelle at Vic-le-Comte in the Auvergne. Albany’s main architectural achievement in Scotland was the fortification and extension his principal residence, Dunbar Castle, in the form of a great artillery blockhouse: perhaps the first such structure to have been built in the British Isles. The plan of the blockhouse appears to follow the basic form of a contemporary Italian angle bastion. The fortification earned a formidable reputation during this period, contemporary ...