Sculpture
More general subjects:
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Stones of Zadar
The Capital of Venetian Dalmatia
The book investigates the transformation of the architectural and visual language in Zadar eastern Adriatic town at the dawn of the early modern era when the mighty mediaeval commune was being transformed by the emerging governmental structures of the Republic of Venice. These events coincided with the Ottoman Empire's takeover of the hinterland of Dalmatian cities transforming Zadar into a city on the brink of two worlds.
A highly autonomous mediaeval commune was a lively trans-Adriatic artistic centre a network of builders painters and sculptors from Dalmatia Venice Marche and Lombardy so with the early adoption of humanist concepts by the local elite this practice continued. However the transformations the governmental structure and economic policies steadily limited its community autonomy and commercial sources. The crisis worsened in the 16th century when the local elites lost a large portion of their revenue from the fertile hinterland captured by the Ottoman Empire.
This launched an ongoing militarisation of social structures and fortifying the town. These events were reflected in the fields of architecture and art. The process of adopting a new architectural and artistic language began in the second half of the 15th century as demonstrated by motifs in architectural decoration and sculpture with impulses from important Dalmatian sculptural and stonemasons’ circles as well as Venetian models from the circles of Pietro Lombardo and Mauro Codussi. When the new classical language of architecture began spreading in the middle of the 16th century it expressed mostly in the renovation of administrative structures with occasional departures from the stylistic canons of artistic centres.
Les colonnes du ciborium de San Marco à Venise
La recherche s’articule autour de trois axes principaux : une lecture approfondie des aspects visibles et matériels qui composent l’œuvre d’art c’est-à-dire les parties sculptées et les inscriptions ; la relation de l’œuvre avec les sources littéraires ; enfin la relation de l’œuvre avec le contexte. L’application d’une méthode globale qui considère l’œuvre d’art comme un objet complexe fait de signes de lieux et d’intentions artistiques a permis une nouvelle interprétation de l’œuvre ouverte à des enjeux tout à fait actuels d’histoire de l’art et connectée à la notion d’histoire et d’anthropologie des objets en constante relation avec le temps et l’environnement.
Ce livre se compose de huit chapitres qui affirment et décomposent à la fois le « système » des colonnes ; ils sont précédés d’une mise en perspective historiographique. L’ouvrage présente également un catalogue exhaustif de fiches décrivant pour la première fois une à une les scènes et les inscriptions des colonnes.
L’Église et les églises
Iconographie du monde grégorien
Vers le milieu du xi e siècle le pape s’empare d’un projet à vocation universelle : la réforme de l'Église. L'initiative entraîne à de profonds changements de société et au renouvellement des formes et moyens d'expression architecturaux et iconographiques. Nouveau chapitre dans un débat ancien ouvert dans les années 1970 par Hélène Toubert et Ernst Kitzinger et sans cesse réinvesti par les spécialistes du roman l'ouvrage vise à mieux comprendre la réception artistique des idées de réforme à Rome en Italie et en France. L’enquête procède par cumul d’expériences acquises sur des monuments singuliers et emblématiques des XIe et XIIe siècles. Elle révèle la diversité des discours et des solutions en écho à leur temps et à leur lieu et montre aussi l’unité des répertoires iconographiques des systèmes de pensée et des enjeux tous liés au nouveau modèle de la société chrétienne.
Crusader Rhetoric and the Infancy Cycles on Medieval Baptismal Fonts in the Baltic Region
This is the first comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis to demonstrate that the representation of Infancy cycles on twelfth-and-thirteenth-century baptismal fonts was primarily a northern predilection in the Latin West directly influenced by the contemporary military campaigns. The Infantia Christi Corpus a collection of approximately one-hundred-and-fifty fonts verifies how the Danish and Gotland workshops modified and augmented biblical history to reflect the prevailing crusader ideology and rhetoric that dominated life during the Valdemarian era in the Baltic region. The artisans constructed the pictorial programs according to the readings of the Mass for the feast days in the seasons of Advent Christmas and Epiphanytide. The political ambitions of the northern leaders and the Church to create a Land of St. Peter in the Baltic region strategically influenced the integration of Holy Land motifs warrior saints militia Christi and martyrdom in the Infancy cycles to justify the escalating northern conquests.
Neither before nor after in the history of baptismal fonts have so many been ornamented with the Infancy cycle in elaborate pictorial programs. A brief revival of elaborate Infancy cycles occurs on the fourteenth and fifteenth century fonts commissioned for sites previously located in the Christian borderlands east of the Elbe River with the rise of the Baltic military orders and the advancement of the Church authority. This extraordinary study integrates theological liturgical historical and political developments broadening our understanding of what constituted northern crusader art in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The Many Faces of the Lady of Elche
Essays on the Reception of an Iberian Sculpture
On 4 August 1897 farm workers in Elche — the site of ancient Ilici — discovered an Iberian sculpture of a woman that dated from the fifth– fourth centuries BCE. French archaeologist Pierre Paris dubbed this figure ‘the Lady of Elche’ and promptly purchased the sculpture on behalf of the Louvre Museum. There she drew the attention of European scholars who were intrigued by her stylistic features finally concluding that she bore witness to the existence of a specifically Iberian art. Since her discovery the Lady of Elche has been a source of fascination not only for scholars but also for artists and she has become an icon of regional and national identity across Spain. This volume co-written by an archaeologist and an anthropologist and translated here into English for the first time seeks to explore the importance of the Lady of Elche both for students of the past and for the peoples of Iberia. The authors here explore not only what we know — and still do not know — about her creation but also engage with key questions about what she represents for the men and women of our time who have questioned manipulated admired loved and often reinvented the singular beauty of this iconic figure.
Raffaele Riario, Jacopo Galli, and Michelangelo’s Bacchus, 1471–1572
On Michelangelo’s first day in Rome in June 1496 Cardinal Raffaele Riario asked him if he could create ‘something beautiful’ in competition with the antique. The twenty-one-year old sculptor responded to this unique challenge with the statue of Bacchus now in the Bargello museum. This statue as well as the Sleeping Cupid which first brought Michelangelo to Riario’s attention have long been shrouded in mystery and the Bacchus as well as its patron have long suffered from critical censure.
Through a comprehensive analysis of overlooked and previously-unpublished sources this study sheds new light on the Sleeping Cupid the Bacchusand a fascinating period in the history of Renaissance Rome when the careers of Riario Galli and Michelangelo were closely intertwined. It considers the rise of the Riario dynasty starting with the election of Pope Sixtus IV in 1471 Riario’s partnership with Jacopo Galli in the reconstruction of the palace now known as the Palazzo della Cancelleria the attempted sale of Michelangelo’s Sleeping Cupid in Rome as an antiquity Riario’s patronage of the Bacchus and the Bacchus’s displayin the house of the Galli up until its sale to the Medici in 1572. Taking a broad interdisciplinary perspective it offers a fundamental reassessment of Cardinal Riario’s career as a patron of Jacopo Galli’s role as an intermediary for both Riario and Michelangelo and of Michelangelo’s collaboration with Riario and Galli.
Odds and Ends
Unusual Elements in Palmyrene Iconography
The funerary art that was produced in Roman Palmyra a caravan city in the Syrian steppe desert is rightly world-renowned. The frontal depictions of the deceased featured in torso-length portraits and the large-scale banqueting scenes are iconic and lent an added mystique by the absence of any literary sources that might aid in their interpretation. But while from a distance these exquisite portraits might seem rather formulaic when examining more closely it is clear that these scenes reveal a surprisingly rich and varied funerary décor. Alongside the more popular iconographic choices are singular scenes motifs and elements that deviate from the norm while new patterns and connections between Palmyra and its surroundings are identifiable.
This volume which draws on the vast materials gathered under the auspices of the Palmyra Portrait Project directed by Professor Rubina Raja explores the ‘oddities’ raised by the Palmyrene corpus; it examines one-off scenes or elements and unusual or unparalleled iconographical choices and questions how and why such unusual choices should be interpreted. The chapters gathered here not only focus on these visual ‘hapax legomena’ in Palmyra but also explore the city’s connections with the art of Roman centres to the west as well as the nearby Hellenistic city states regional centres of production and Parthian and Persian sites to the east. Through this approach the authors engage with the visual richness and sheer amount of choice that existed in Palmyrene funerary art while also providing unique insights into the knowledge culture that existed within Palmyrene society.
Palmyrene Sarcophagi
While the funerary portraiture of Palmyra is rightly world-renowned up to now the corpus of sarcophagi from the ancient city has received relatively little attention as a cohesive group in their own right. Comprising sarcophagi banqueting reliefs and founder reliefs as well as sarcophagus reliefs most of these objects share a common iconographic motif that of the banquet although other scenes mostly drawn from the daily life of the city’s caravan leaders and their families also appear. The emphasis on the banqueting scene in particular reveals the crucial importance of dining in ancient Palmyrene society: for the living banquets were a marker of social standing and gave hosts a chance to honour the gods and offer an ephemeral benefaction to their fellow citizens while for the dead the banquet motif offered the opportunity for the entire family to be depicted together and showcase their wealth and sophistication as well as their connections outside the city.
This single corpus of material gathered through the Palmyra Portrait Project is presented in this beautifully illustrated two-volume monograph. Through careful analysis of the portraits and the costumes and attribute choices that appear in these images the authors explore how the sarcophagi were used by Palmyrenes to project an image of local pride while at the same time participating in the visual cultures of the Roman and Parthian Empires between which their city was situated.
Tributes to Paul Binski
Medieval Gothic: Art, Architecture and Ideas
This volume is published in honour of Paul Binski whose scholarship and teaching have done so much to illuminate the material and intellectual worlds of Gothic art and architecture. Remarkable for its material scope and philosophical depth Paul’s work has had a powerful influence on the current state of the field: this is reflected here in thirty-four essays on buildings works of art and ideas in a wide range of historical and geographical contexts from Iberia to Scandinavia and Italy to Ireland. Consistently fresh in their scholarship these essays combine to make an important contribution to medieval art history. In doing so they reflect the admiration and affection which Paul inspires in his students and colleagues. With contributions by: Gabriel Byng Meredith Cohen Emily Guerry James Hillson Ethan Matt Kavaler Tom Nickson Zoë Opačić Claudia Bolgia Jean-Marie Guillouët Justin E. A. Kroesen Julian Luxford Robert Mills John Munns Matthew M. Reeve Laura Slater Beth Williamson Jessica Berenbeim Spike Bucklow Marcia Kupfer Jean-Pascal Pouzet Miri Rubin Kathryn M. Rudy Rocío Sánchez Ameijeiras Lucy Wrapson Patrick Zutshi Mary Carruthers Jill Caskey Lucy Donkin Kate Heard Robert Maniura Alexander Marr M. A. Michael Conrad Rudolph Betsy Sears.
The Allure of Glazed Terracotta in Renaissance Italy
This book explores the role of glazed terracotta sculpture in Renaissance Italy from c. 1450 to the mid-1530s. In its brightness and intense colour glazed terracotta strongly attracted the viewer’s gaze. Its pure and radiant surfaces also had the power to raise the mind and soul of the faithful to contemplation of the divine. The quasi-magical process of firing earthenware coated with tin-based paste promoted initially by imports from the East was seized upon by Luca della Robbia who realised that glazed terracotta was the ideal vehicle for the numinous. He began to create sculptures in the medium in the 1430s and continued to produce them for the rest of his life. After Luca’s death his nephew Andrea della Robbia inherited his workshop in Florence and continued to develop the medium together with his sons. The book considers some of the large-scale altarpieces created by the Della Robbia family in parallel with a number of small-scale figures in glazed terracotta mostly made by unidentified sculptors. The captivating illustrations integrate these two categories of glazed terracotta sculpture into the history of Italian Renaissance art. By focusing on a specific artistic medium which stimulated piety in both ecclesiastical and domestic contexts this book offers new ways of thinking about the religious art of the Italian Renaissance. The links it establishes between lay devotion and the creation of religious images in glazed terracotta invite reassessment of habitual distinctions between private and public art.
Studies on Palmyrene Sculpture
A Translation of Harald Ingholt’s Studier over Palmyrensk Skulptur, Edited and with Commentary
This volume presents the first English translation of Harald Ingholt’s seminal work Studier over Palmyrensk Skulptur together with a number of studies that contextualize this important volume in the light of current research. Almost a century after its publication in 1928 Ingholt’s ground-breaking Danish-language monograph remains essential reading for all scholars of Palmyrene archaeology and iconography setting out observations on the typology and style of securely dated Palmyrene portraits and establishing a stylistic and chronological sequence that remains in use today. Included alongside the translation of Ingholt’s writings are contributions by leading scholars in the field who seek to introduce Harald Ingholt and explore the impact of his work in Palmyra as well as presenting a survey of all the portraits from Palmyra that can be securely dated by inscription. The translation and commentary have been realized as part of the Palmyra Portrait Project directed by Prof. Rubina Raja.
Les portails romans de Bourgogne
Thèmes et programmes
Dans le domaine de la sculpture romane la Bourgogne est incontestablement l’une des terres les plus fécondes avec des centaines de chapiteaux et une cinquantaine de portails historiés. L’iconographie de ces portails n’a pourtant jamais fait l’objet d’une étude d’ensemble. Cet ouvrage vient donc combler cette lacune à travers une démarche originale consistant à étudier séparément les thèmes et les programmes. Cette méthode qui a déjà montré sa pertinence dans l’analyse des chapiteaux romans de Bourgogne permet de comprendre les programmes les plus rudimentaires à travers ceux qui intègrent des composantes iconiques plus explicites et tenter ainsi de dégager les sens génériques partagés par la totalité ou la majorité des œuvres appartenant à la même série. Il est alors plus aisé de dégager dans un second temps les significations plus spécifiques des programmes à travers une approche monographique.
Le premier chapitre de l’ouvrage consacré à la genèse et au développement des portails romans de Bourgogne vise à les situer dans leur contexte chronologique et artistique. Les chapitres centraux qui constituent le cœur de l’étude traitent des thèmes principaux en les confrontant aux textes à la tradition iconographique et au contexte historique et culturel pour pouvoir déterminer le plus précisément possible la part de leur vaste champ sémantique privilégiée par les concepteurs : l’Ascension et les théophanies dérivées de l’Ascension le Jugement dernier la Pentecôte de Vézelay et la Vierge à l’Enfant. Le sixième et dernier chapitre aborde chaque portail du corpus dans l’ordre alphabétique en reprenant brièvement les conclusions issues des chapitres précédents et en approfondissant les traits originaux des programmes. Cet ouvrage offre ainsi pour la première fois un panorama exhaustif et une étude approfondie de l’iconographie des portails romans de Bourgogne.
Jerusalem in the Alps
The Sacro Monte of Varallo and the Sanctuaries of North-Western Italy
The Sacro Monte (Holy Mountain) at Varallo is a sanctuary in the Italian Alps west of Milan. It was founded in the late fifteenth century by a Franciscan friar with the support of the town’s leading families. He designed it as a schematic replica of Jerusalem to enable the faithful to make a virtual pilgrimage to the Holy City if they could not undertake the perilous journey to visit it physically. The Sacro Monte consists of a sequence of chapels containing tableaux of life-size painted terra-cotta figures with fresco backgrounds recounting the life and Passion of Christ. A century later in the era of the Counter-Reformation a ‘second wave’ of Sacri Monti was constructed in the north-western Alps modelled on Varallo but dedicated to other devotional themes like the Rosary or the life of St Francis. All these sanctuaries like Varallo were the result of local initiatives initiated by the clergy and the leaders of the communities where they were situated. Like Varallo they were the work of artists and craftsmen from the alpine valleys or from nearby Lombardy. Long dismissed as folk art unworthy of serious critical attention the Sacri Monti are now recognised as monuments of unique artistic significance. In 2003 UNESCO listed nine of them in its register of World Heritage Sites. This book studies their development as the products of the religious sensibilities and the social economic and political conditions of the mountain communities that created them.
Studies on Florence and the Italian Renaissance in Honour of F.W. Kent
This volume honours F. W. (Bill) Kent (1942–2010) internationally renowned scholar of Renaissance Florence and founding editor of the Europa Sacra series. Kent belonged to an energetic generation of Australians who in the late 1960s tackled the Florentine archives and engaged key issues confronting historians of that ever-fascinating city.
With his meticulous archival findings and contextual interpretations spanning a scholarly career of more than forty years Kent engaged with indeed drove the scholarly response to many of the issues that have shaped not just our current and emerging understanding of Florence and other urban centres of Italy but along with that a more nuanced view of the role of frontier towns and the countryside.
Interdisciplinary in scope and grounded in visual literary and archival materials the essays presented here explore a variety of facets of the society of Renaissance Italy confronting and extending themes that have been emerging in recent decades and exemplified by Kent’s work. These themes include the role of kinship and networks power and agency in Laurentian Florence gender ritual representation patronage spirituality and the generation and consumption of material culture.
D’un jugement à l’autre
La représentation du jugement immédiat dans les Jugements derniers français: 1100-1250
Au moment où le thème du Jugement dernier a connu un essor sans précédent on a régulièrement associé aux événements de la fin des temps une représentation du jugement immédiat celui qui se déroule après la mort. La pensée chrétienne considère qu’après avoir quitté leur corps les âmes font l’objet d’une première évaluation au terme de laquelle elles sont conduites dans des séjours temporaires : le paradis d’attente pour les élus l’enfer pour les damnés. À la fin des temps ces âmes séparées s’unissent à leur corps ressuscité elles sont jugées une seconde fois et les élus sont conduits dans le royaume des cieux où ils peuvent enfin jouir de la vision béatifique. La présence du jugement immédiat ou du paradis d’attente peut être montrée pour une série de Jugements derniers français dont certains comptent parmi les œuvres les plus significatives de la production sculpturale des XIIe-XIIIe siècles : les portails de Mâcon Conques Saint-Denis Chartres et Reims deux chapiteaux de Saint-Nectaire et le Psautier de Marguerite de Bourgogne. Cette lecture inédite implique que l’Église se préoccupait autant du salut des âmes que des fins dernières probablement parce que c’est dans le temps présent qu’elle pouvait intervenir efficacement en faveur des défunts en administrant les suffrages : prières aumônes et messes. Ce livre développe les fondements textuels et iconographiques de cette lecture en abordant successivement le thème du jugement immédiat et chacune des œuvres interprétables dans la perspective du double jugement. Ont également été abordées plusieurs représentations isolées du Jugement dernier dont l’iconographie éclaire le sens des autres compositions: Autun Laon Paris et Amiens. Cette série d’analyses monographiques détaillées et originales offre un panorama très complet des Jugements derniers français mis en œuvre entre 1100 et 1250.
Marcello Angheben est maître de conférences habilité à diriger des recherches en histoire de l’art à l’Université de Poitiers et membre du Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale. Il a publié Les chapiteaux romans de Bourgogne (2003) et avec Valentino Pace Le Jugement dernier entre Orient et Occident (2007).
Gods and Settlers
The Iconography of Norse Mythology in Anglo-Scandinavian Sculpture
Stone sculpture constitutes the richest surviving corpus of Viking-Age artefacts from the British Isles. In northern England the geographical focus of the present study sculptural production in the Viking period increased dramatically compared to the previous centuries and stone monuments underwent changes in style and iconography as well as in function and patronage. Consequently stone sculpture provides rare visual evidence for the cultural changes that took place in the Scandinavian settlement areas and bears witness to intellectual and social processes that have otherwise left few traces in either the textual or material records.
Gods and Settlers is an interdisciplinary study that brings together iconography literature history and religious studies to investigate a unique subset of this sculptural corpus: stone monuments with mythological and heroic iconography of Scandinavian origins. These carvings are particularly interesting because of the ecclesiastical roots of stone sculpture as a mode of artistic expression in England and the undoubtedly Christian context of the majority of the surviving monuments. The first half of the book is a detailed survey of the relevant carvings from northern England and a wide range of textual and visual parallels together with an investigation of the sources and use of individual heroic and mythological characters and motifs. The second half focuses on the intellectual framework and social context of the artefacts and presents a new view of these sculptures as cultural documents of the conversion of the Scandinavian settlers of northern England.
L’image médiévale: fonctions dans l’espace sacré et structuration de l’espace cultuel
Cet ouvrage rassemble les travaux de chercheurs réunis autour du groupe IMAGO sur L’image médiévale: fonctions dans l’espace sacré et structuration de l’espace cultuel (CÉSCM). L’approche de l’image médiévale s’est considérablement enrichie ces dernières décennies suscitant de nouveaux enjeux méthodologiques. Les travaux qui lui ont été consacrés ont en effet montré que l’image médiévale était un objet complexe polysémique nouant des liens étroits avec son lieu d’inscription. S’interroger sur la définition et le fonctionnement du lieu cultuel revient à poser les bases et les cadres de l’analyse des images. La réflexion sur l’espace ecclésial permet de cerner la dialectique entre le monument – construit – et le lieu – institué symboliquement – pour mieux en comprendre l’organisation. En appréhendant l’image dans son contexte il est alors possible de saisir les usages et les pratiques qui lui sont associés. Au-delà de l’approche iconographique l’attention portée à la construction de l’image à sa composition et à sa structure permet d’ouvrir de multiples champs d’investigations. Les contributions réunies dans ce recueil sont autant de regards croisés qui illustrent la diversité des approches et la richesse des problématiques liées à l’image. Ces réflexions s’inscrivent dans le cadre des activités du groupe IMAGO (CÉSCM Poitiers) qui depuis 1999 rassemblent dans une dynamique commune étudiants jeunes chercheurs et chercheurs dont les recherches sont consacrées aux images médiévales.
La Sainte-Chapelle de Paris. Royaume de France ou Jérusalem céleste?
Actes du Colloque (Paris, Collège de France, 2001)
La Sainte-Chapelle est un chef-d’œuvre hors du commun l’un des monuments du XIIIe siècle les plus appréciés du grand public. Emblème du gothique à son apogée elle est aussi une œuvre majeure dont on connaît exceptionnellement bien le contexte historique et politique de sa création et la personnalité de ses commanditaires le roi Louis IX et sa mère Blanche de Castille. Négligée par les historiens de l’art dès les années 60 du siècle dernier elle connaît heureusement un regain d’intérêt depuis quelques années.
Ce volume rassemble les communications d’un colloque international réuni pour faire la synthèse des acquis les plus récents concernant cet exceptionnel monument. Les contributeurs y traitent de divers aspects de la Sainte-Chapelle: restaurations architecture décor sculpté vitraux fonction signification et mise en scène des reliques liturgie et héraldique personnalité et préoccupations artistiques politiques et religieuses du commanditaire royal à la veille de son départ pour la croisade. Il en résulte une image fascinante et très complète de ce chef-d’œuvre unique qu’est la chapelle palatine de saint Louis.
The Renaissance Pulpit
Art and Preaching in Tuscany, 1400-1550
This volume examines the relationship between preaching and art addressing with particular detail the use of works of art in preaching and the importance of the pulpit itself. A challenging issue in the field of sermon studies is the relationship between preaching and art in particular the manner in which preachers used works of art in their preaching and described specific pictures in their sermons; and the pulpit itself.
The thesis of the book is that pulpits should be viewed in the context of the world of preaching in Renaissance Florence and in connection with sacred oratory. Indeed like preached sermons pulpits used rhetorical strategies to deliver religious messages. The author adopts an interdisciplinary approach to the topic by combining art history historical analysis and sermon studies; and she examines the pulpit's patronage location and function as well as its chronological development. This book combines a general survey of pulpits in Tuscany with close analysis of five specific pulpits. Designed and executed by important artists located in Florence and Prato these five pulpits are the most exquisite and impressive monuments of their type and each has a complex and rich iconographic programme. The author reveals that the period between the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries constitutes a distinct phase in the development of pulpits different from the earlier tradition and from pulpits constructed after the Council of Trent and during the Catholic Reformation.