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After 1500, as Catholic Europe fragmented into warring sects, evidence of a pagan past came newly into view, and travelers to distant places encountered deeply unfamiliar visual cultures, it became ever more pressing to distinguish between the sacred image and its opposite, the 'idol'. Historians and philosophers have long attended to Reformation charges of idolatry - the premise for image-breaking - but only very recently have scholars begun to consider the ways that the idol occasioned the making no less than the destruction. The present book focuses on how idols and ideas about them matter for the history of early modern objects produced around the globe, especially those created in the c...
"The brilliantly expressive clay models created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) as "sketches" for his works in marble offer extraordinary insights into his creative imagination. Although long admired, the terracotta models have never been the subject of such detailed examination. This publication presents a wealth of new discoveries (including evidence of the artist's fingerprints imprinted on the clay), resolving lingering issues of attribution while giving readers a vivid sense of how the artist and his assistants fulfilled a steady stream of monumental commissions. Essays describe Bernini's education as a modeler; his approach to preparatory drawings; his use of assistants; and the response to his models by 17th-century collectors. Extensive research by conservators and art historians explores the different types of models created in Bernini's workshop. Richly illustrated, Bernini transforms our understanding of the sculptor and his distinctive and fascinating working methods."--Publisher's website.
At first glance, Borromini's architecture is a flight of Baroque fantasy, the product of limitless imagination. A closer look reveals an almost ruthlessly logical geometry underlying his creation. Blunt shows how the combination of revolutionary inventiveness and intellectual control gives Borromini's work its great appeal.
Cleopatra—a brave, astute, and charming woman who spoke many languages, entertained lavishly, hunted, went into battle, eliminated siblings to consolidate her power, and held off the threat of Imperial Rome to protect her country as long as she could—continues to fascinate centuries after she ruled Egypt. These wide-ranging essays explore such topics as Cleopatra’s controversial trip to Rome, her suicide by snake bite, and the afterlife of her love potions. They view Cleopatra from the Egyptian perspective, and examine the reception in Rome of Egyptian culture, especially of its religion and architecture. They discuss films about her, and consider what inspired Egyptomania in early modern art. Together, these essays illuminate Cleopatra’s legacy and illustrate how it has been used and reused through the centuries.
To this day, no comprehensive academic study of the development of guidebooks to Rome over time has been performed. This book treats the history of guidebooks to Rome from the Middle Ages up to the early twentieth century. It is based on the results of the interdisciplinary research project Topos and Topography, led by Anna Blennow and Stefano Fogelberg Rota. From the case studies performed within the project, it becomes evident that the guidebook as a phenomenon was formed in Rome during the later Middle Ages and early Renaissance. The elements and rhetorical strategies of guidebooks over time have shown to be surprisingly uniform, with three important points of development: a turn towards ...
Investigates representations of the legend of Pope Joan in Early Modern England and their implications on social, political, and religious thought
Shortly after the death in 161 of Antoninus Pius, his sons dedicated a column to him as a funerary monument. The form of the column in general and the reliefs on the pedestal in particular raise problems central to the understanding of Roman art. In this first thorough study, illustrated with nearly 100 photographs, Lise Vogel restores the column to its rightful place as one of the major monuments of Roman art. In addition, she re-evaluates the meaning of the column of Antoninus Pius in the context of the development of second century Roman imperial sculpture.
Preliminary material -- HISTORICAL CONDITIONS -- TYPE AND STYLE OF THE EGYPTIAN AND EGYPTIANIZING MONUMENTS OF IMPERIAL ROME -- THE SETTING OF THE EGYPTIAN AND EGYPTIANIZING MONUMENTS IN IMPERIAL ROME -- CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ -- APPENDIX I -- APPENDIX II -- APPENDIX III -- APPENDIX IV -- ADDENDA -- CAPTIONS TO THE FIGURES -- INDEX OF PROPER NAMES -- INDEX OF MUSEUMS -- Plates I-CCXXX and Plans.
Unique among early modern artists, the Baroque painter, sculptor, and architect Gianlorenzo Bernini was the subject of two monographic biographies published shortly after his death in 1680: one by the Florentine connoisseur and writer Filippo Baldinucci (1682), and the second by Bernini's son, Domenico (1713). This interdisciplinary collection of essays by historians of art and literature marks the first sustained examination of the two biographies, first and foremost as texts. A substantial introductory essay considers each biography's author, genesis, and foundational role in the study of Bernini. Nine essays combining art-historical research with insights from philology, literary history,...
On construction sites the world is altered in a very solid, material way. This is not the whole story, of course: if someone builds a house, a railroad or any other thing, there is more under construction that the mere object itself. With spade and excavator contemporary imaginations, visions and historical concepts are equally reshaped or renewed. Interventions into the physical landscape are always accompanied by interventions into the imaginary landscape. Here, eleven authors from seven European countries examine the discursive alongside the performative construction of reality when things are being built.