Defining Artistic Identity in the Florentine Renaissance: Vasari, Embedded Self-Portraits, and the Patron’S Role
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by D-Scholarship@Pitt DEFINING ARTISTIC IDENTITY IN THE FLORENTINE RENAISSANCE: VASARI, EMBEDDED SELF-PORTRAITS, AND THE PATRON’S ROLE by Azar M. Rejaie BA, Louisiana State University, 1996 MA, Louisiana State University, 1999 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2006 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Azar Rejaie It was defended on March 28, 2006 and approved by Kathleen Christian, Assistant Professor, History of Art and Architecture Ann Sutherland Harris, Professor, History of Art and Architecture Dennis Looney, Associate Professor, French and Italian Barbara McCloskey, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture Dissertation Advisor: David Wilkins, Professor Emeritus, History of Art and Architecture ii Copyright © by Azar M. Rejaie 2006 iii DEFINING ARTISTIC IDENTITY IN THE FLORENTINE RENAISSANCE: VASARI, EMBEDDED SELF-PORTRAITS, AND THE PATRON’S ROLE Azar M. Rejaie, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2006 Readers of Vasari’s Vite will be aware of the lively Renaissance tradition of the artist’s embedded portrait within commissioned works. We are told of numerous embedded self- portraits, a notion that earlier authors including Alberti, Filippo Villani, and Ghiberti, corroborate. This dissertation argues that the Vite, our most extensive source on the subject, set up ideas and expectations that continue to pervade our understanding of their purposes and functions. A primary aim here is to move beyond Vasari’s assumptions and examine self-images from the standpoint of their audience rather than their creators. Chapter One examines aspects of our current knowledge concerning Vasari’s historical context and his motivations as an artist, courtier, and writer in order to understand how his views informed his interpretation of the genre. Chapter Two examines a manuscript self-portrait by Pietro da Pavia and a sculpted self-portrait of Andrea Orcagna. It investigates issues of artistic identity and authority and how these notions were displayed and commemorated to discern how self-portraits may have served the aims of the commissioner(s). The third and fourth chapters delve into the history of Quattrocento Florentine embedded self-portraits. First with Masaccio’s self-portrait in the Brancacci Chapel, and then with self-images of Benozzo Gozzoli, Botticelli, Filippino Lippi and Domenico Ghirlandaio, these chapters examine aspects of the Renaissance culture of art commissioning to establish the patron’s role with regard to embedded self-portraiture. Discussion here suggests ways in which a patron might have understood the artist’s embedded self-portrait during the early Quattrocento. It further explores the notion that while professional, intellectual, and social-status driven concerns may have dominated the creation of embedded self-images, not all of these were the concerns of the artists. The final chapter investigates transitional images between the embedded and autonomous self-portrait traditions by examining two fictively autonomous self-images – one by Perugino in Perugia’s Collegio del Cambio and the other by Pintoricchio in Santa Maria Maggiore, Spello. The case-studies presented here illuminate neglected aspects regarding iv Renaissance embedded self-images, and cast light on both sides of the transaction between artist and patron that resulted in the inclusion of the artist’s embedded self-portrait in narrative paintings. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... VII 1.0 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 1 2.0 SELF-PORTRAITURE IN VASARI’S VITE........................................................ 19 2.1 VASARI ON PORTRAITURE.......................................................................... 21 2.2 VASARI IN CONTEXT..................................................................................... 32 2.3 BEYOND VASARI ............................................................................................. 35 3.0 SELF-PORTRAITURE IN THE TRECENTO ..................................................... 39 3.1 THE ARTIST/SCRIBE AND THE MEDIEVAL BOOK ............................... 42 3.2 THE ARTIST IN A TRECENTO NARRATIVE ............................................ 65 4.0 MASACCIO AND THE QUATTROCENTO FLORENTINE PRACTICE OF EMBEDDED SELF-PORTRAITS.......................................................................... 81 4.1 EVIDENCE PRIOR TO VASARI .................................................................... 81 4.2 SELF-PORTRAITURE: A PATRON’S CONCERN...................................... 85 4.3 MASACCIO AND THE BRANCACCI CHAPEL .......................................... 94 4.4 MASACCIO’S LOST SAGRA AND THE BRANCACCI CHAPEL............. 97 4.5 PICTORIAL SPECIFICITY IN THE BRANCACCI CHAPEL ................. 100 4.5.1 Renaissance Notions of Sight, Memory and Imagination in Religious Themes ...................................................................................................... 106 4.5.2 Masaccio’s Embedded Self-Portrait........................................................ 115 4.6 THE GENERATION AFTER MASACCIO.................................................. 121 5.0 FLORENTINE QUATTROCENTO EMBEDDED SELF-PORTRAITURE AFTER MASACCIO.............................................................................................. 125 5.1 BENOZZO GOZZOLI..................................................................................... 125 5.2 FLORENTINE EMBEDDED SELF-PORTRAITURE OF THE 1470S AND 1480S .................................................................................................................. 145 5.2.1 Sandro Botticelli........................................................................................ 152 5.2.2 Filippino Lippi........................................................................................... 162 5.2.3 Domenico Ghirlandaio.............................................................................. 170 6.0 SELF-PORTRAITURE IN TRANSITION.......................................................... 186 6.1 PERUGINO....................................................................................................... 195 6.2 PINTORICCHIO.............................................................................................. 211 6.3 PERUGINO AND PINTORICCHIO IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EARLY 16TH CENTURY................................................................................................ 217 7.0 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 225 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................... 239 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No project the size and scope of a doctoral dissertation can be accomplished without the generous aid of many individuals and institutions. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support that has made this dissertation possible from the University of Pittsburgh in the forms of a Teaching Fellowship and an Andrew Mellon Pre-Dissertation Fellowship. The latter made a year spent writing and doing research at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz possible, an institution from which I derived enormous scholarly and personal benefits. Equally important have been encouragement and support I have received from friends, faculty, and members of my family – I trust that these individuals know who they are and know how much I have appreciated them. Two members of my committee deserve special mention here: David G. Wilkins an amazing mentor who has been able to encourage, inspire and jolt when necessary; and Kathleen Christian, who although arriving late on my committee graciously took the time to study my work and made insightful comments that have greatly improved the final product. Ann Sutherland Harris, Dennis Looney and Barbara McCloskey have also provided me with inspiration and encouragement, and have helped to guide the course of this dissertation. My friends and fellow students at the University of Pittsburgh also deserve mention for their consistent willingness to provide helpful commentary on grant applications, seminar projects, and prospectus drafts, and for the general atmosphere of collegial support maintained in our department. Especially helpful were April Eisman, Sheri Lullo, Kathy Johnston-Keane, Cindy Persinger, and Cornelie Piok-Zanon. When I found myself most at sea during the course of my doctoral studies, I discovered from these individuals just how important it is to have friends who both appreciate the pressures of graduate studies and who are willing to help one to forget them. Friends abroad have also been wonderfully supportive, most especially Marianna Cerno, whose aid in translating medieval Latin proved especially helpful. In the same vein but vii closer to home, Kathleen Christian and Ann Wilkins also provided aid in translations and deserve my gratitude. Lastly, while my entire family deserves a resounding thank-you, I wish to mention especially the generosity of my grandmother, Paula L. Thorson. Without her support, both moral and financial, as well as her belief in me, this project might never have been