DOCSLIB.ORG

Venetian Early Modern Single-Leaf Prints After Contemporary Sculpture: Questions of Form and Function

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Venetian Early Modern Single-Leaf Prints After Contemporary Sculpture: Questions of Form and Function Matej Klemenčič VENETIAN EARLY MODERN SINGLE-LEAF PRINTS AFTER CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE: QUESTIONS OF FORM AND FUNCTION Riassunto rappresentare un singolo pezzo di scultu- ra e potevano essere realizzate per scopi Durante l’epoca moderna, sia la scultura di marketing, celebrativi o propagandistici classica che quella moderna furono spesso o altro ancora. L’articolo discute alcune di tradotte a stampa. Queste stampe sono state queste stampe singole, incise per illustrare pubblicate in diverse occasioni e utilizzate le opere dello scultore veneziano Antonio per vari scopi, spesso in serie con illustrazio- Corradini, e pubblicate a Venezia, Vienna e ni di importanti opere d’arte, come ad esem- Roma. Le incisioni vengono discusse in vi- pio a Roma, o come cataloghi di intere col- sta della loro funzione e dello sviluppo della lezioni di sculture. D’altra parte, potevano carriera di Corradini. Keywords: single-leaf prints, sculpture, Venice, Baroque, Antonio Corradini n one of his early drawings, Giambat- sculptor, therefore, whom Tiepolo wanted tista Tiepolo portrayed his colleagues to distinguish from the others, most prob- Iand friends, gathered sometime be- ably all of them painters. It would be in- tween 1716 and 1718 in a so-called “ac- triguing to identify him with one of the cademia del nudo”, a drawing academy younger Venetian sculptors of the time organised by Collegio dei pittori on Fon- but, unfortunately, there is little evidence damenta Nuove in contrada Santa Maria that would help us deduce his name.1 Formosa, in Venice (Fig. 1). Recently, the Even though our anonymous sculptor two figures on the right were identified as was carefully singled out by his contem- Gregorio Lazzarini (standing) and Antonio porary Tiepolo, at the time still a young, Balestra (sitting, and acting as a corrector), but already a very promising painter, this while the others remain anonymous. Most- 1 For the drawing see, most recently, e. luccHese, ‘Nel ly they are immersed in the drawing of a segno della grazia. Antonio Balestra maestro di Anton standing naked male model on the left. Maria Zanetti di Girolamo e nella “Scuola del Nudo” di Giambattista Tiepolo’, in: Valori Tattili, 9 (2017), 166 The only exception is the artist sitting in ss. (with bibliography). The drawing, still in private the upper row who stands out not only as a collection, has been earlier in Haseltine collection little taller than the others but also because in London and later in Rasini collection in Milan; see A. Morassi, Disegni antichi dalla collezione Rasini in he is evidently not drawing, but instead Milano (Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1937), 47, cat. num. modelling a statue in clay with his hands: a LXVIII; A. Morassi, “A ‘Scuola del Nudo’ by Tiepolo”, in: Master Drawings, 9 (1971), 43-50. 103 Works_of_Art_FINAL.indd 103 15.11.2019 10:18:35 Works of Art on Parchment and Paper Fig.1: G. Tiepolo, Scuola del Nudo, 1716-1718. Private collection (Morassi, note 1 (1937), tab. LXVIII). essay will discuss one of many specific could be made for marketing, celebratory, connections between the arts of painting or propagandistic purposes, among others. and sculpture, and especially the presen- In the case of Venice, we will concentrate tation of sculpture in two dimensions. Re- on this last group, on the single-leaf prints garding this, there are several questions, of contemporary sculpture, on prints that for example, the importance of prepara- were not originally intended to become tory drawings for sculptors, drawings and part of a larger compendium. Since they paintings of sculpture, and presentation of were not bound into books, they were also sculpture in prints. Unfortunately, all these more vulnerable, and several prints are questions have rarely been discussed and therefore available today in a very small only a small number of drawings by Vene- number. Their form and function will be tian sculptors from the decades around discussed on the example of Antonio Cor- 1700 have been identified; the number of radini, arguably most famous of the 18th- known prints made after contemporary century Venetian sculptors before Antonio sculpture also remains considerably small. Canova. His unique position among con- During the early modern period, these temporary Venetian sculptors and his ex- prints were published on different occa- traordinary international career can shed a sions and used for various purposes, often special light on illustrations of his most es- in series as illustrations of important works sential achievements in marble, their func- of art, or as catalogues of whole collections tion, and contemporary response to them. of sculpture. Furthermore, they could also Relations between sculptors and paint- represent a single piece of sculpture and ers, reciprocal reception of their works, 104 Works_of_Art_FINAL.indd 104 15.11.2019 10:18:36 Matej Klemenčič: VENETIAN EARLY MODERN SINGLE-LEAF PRINTS... and possible influences have been at least and riccordi have been preserved in two partially studied, especially for the later 17th workshop collections – fondo di bottega – century and for some of the most impor- of Giovanni Maria Morlaiter and the Mari- tant artists of the Settecento: for Giusto Le nali family, and several other works have Court, Enrico Merengo, Antonio Zanchi, also been identified.5 However, the number and Johann Carl Loth, as well as for Sebas- of known drawings remains relatively small, tiano Ricci, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Piet- and the largest collection is again from the ro Baratta, Antonio Tarsia, Giovanni Maria workshop collection of the Marinali fami- Morlaiter, and Antonio Corradini, among ly.6 Nevertheless, we know that sculptors’ others.2 One of the most direct demonstra- drawings were already eagerly collected by tions of painters’ reception of sculptural some contemporaries. Marble statues and work is a drawing after a certain piece of drawings alike, works of Giusto Le Court, sculpture. In such cases, we can observe the foremost Venetian sculptor of the 17th how important for them was the choice of century, nicknamed by contemporaries as different points of view just to capture the “Bernini Adriatico”, have been an essential main characteristics of the statue under ob- part of the collection of Zaccaria Sagredo.7 servation. Classical statuary was evidently Unlike his Veronese drawings, they prob- one of the most obvious choices to study,3 ably remain unidentified in museums and and so sometimes was also modern sculp- private collections. Recent discoveries of ture. Among the latter, drawings by Giam- some of Le Court’s drawings and models for battista Tiepolo and his sons after busts the sculptural decoration of the Monument by Alessandro Vittoria are among the best- to Giovanni Pesaro show how important known examples.4 these works can be for understanding of his In contrast, studies of contemporary overall oeuvre.8 drawings of sculptors are of great impor- Sometimes, drawings were made of tance for understanding their working pro- sculptures in order to prepare prints. Es- cedures. For Venice (and Veneto), an impor- pecially with regard to classical sculpture, tant nucleus of sculptural bozzetti, modelli, it became increasingly necessary for ar- tists and connoisseurs to have easy access 2 See, for example, P. rossi, ‘Il ruolo della scultura nel to the most important items in churches, Seicento e la sua interrelazione con la pittura’, in: La private or public collections, in Rome and pittura nel Veneto. Il Seicento (ed. by M. Lucco, Mila- no: Electa, 2001 ), 2, 617-644; G. Pavanello, ‘Tiepolo e elsewhere. Even modern sculpture was la scultura: dalla copia all’invenzione’, in: Giambatti- sta Tiepolo nel terzo centenario della nascita (ed. L. 5 For Morlaiter esp. M. De vincenti, ‘Catalogo del “fondo Puppi, Padova: Poligrafo, 1998), 1, 165-170; P. rossi, di bottega” di Giovanni Maria Morlaiter’, in: Bollettino ‘Giambattista Tiepolo e la scultura del suo tempo’, in: dei Musei Civici Veneziani, 6 (2011), 12-77; for Marinali, Giambattista Tiepolo nel terzo centenario della nasci- for example, S. carMellini, Zwischen Steinbruch und Stu- ta (ed. L. Puppi, Padova: Poligrafo, 1998), 1, 171-176; M. dio: die Bildhauerwerkstatt von Orazio Marinali und De vincenti, ‘Per Giovanni Maria Morlaiter: uno scul- Giacomo Cassetti (1683-1754) (Marburg: Tectum, 2011). tore nella cerchia di Sebastiano Ricci’, in: Sebastiano Among several recent publications see, for example (for Ricci, 1659-1734 (ed. G. Pavanello, Verona: Scripta, Le Court), M. cleMente, ‘Giusto Le Court e i suoi “bellissi- 2012), 375-382. mi modelli di creta”: un’aggiunta al catalogo’, in: Giusto Le Court, due opere ritrovate (Firenze: Giovanni Pratesi, 3 See, for example, many drawings and paintings that 2015), 43-63. include the so-called Bust of Vitellio; an interesting, al- beit rather earlier example of actual drawing study with 6 See carMellini, note 5. three heads of Vitellio from different points of view by 7 C. MaZZa, I Sagredo: committenti e collezionisti d’arte Jacopo Palma il Giovane, see S. Mason, Palma il Giovane nella Venezia del Sei e Settecento (Venezia: IVSLA, 2004), 1548-1628. Disegni e dipinti, <Venice, Museo Correr> 105; S. Guerriero, “Un disegno di Giusto Le Court nella (Milano: Electa, 1990), 39, cat. 2b. collezione Certani”, in: Saggi e memorie di storia dell’ar- 4 See, for example, K. E. Maison, ‘The Tiepolo Drawings te, 27 (2003), 254. after the Portrait Bust of Palma Giovane by Alessandro 8 M. De Grassi, ‘Un modellino di Giusto Le Court per il Vittoria’, in: Master Drawings, 6 (1968), 392-294, 448- monumento Pesaro ai Frari’, in: Arte veneta, 53 (1998), 460; G. Knox, t. Martin, ‘Giambattista Tiepolo: A Series 124-127; Guerriero, note 7, 251-264; D. tulić, ‘Giusto Le of Chalk Drawings after Alessandro Vittoria’s Bust of Court e il Monumento Pesaro ai Frari: un bozzetto per i Giulio Contarini’, in: Master Drawings, 25 (1987), 158- “quattro bellissimi Affricani”’, in: Arte veneta, 69 (2012), 163, 189-200.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Industry and the Ideal
    INDUSTRY AND THE IDEAL Ideal Sculpture and reproduction at the early International Exhibitions TWO VOLUMES VOLUME 1 GABRIEL WILLIAMS PhD University of York History of Art September 2014 ABSTRACT This thesis considers a period when ideal sculptures were increasingly reproduced by new technologies, different materials and by various artists or manufacturers and for new markets. Ideal sculptures increasingly represented links between sculptors’ workshops and the realm of modern industry beyond them. Ideal sculpture criticism was meanwhile greatly expanded by industrial and international exhibitions, exemplified by the Great Exhibition of 1851, where the reproduction of sculpture and its links with industry formed both the subject and form of that discourse. This thesis considers how ideal sculpture and its discourses reflected, incorporated and were mediated by this new environment of reproduction and industrial display. In particular, it concentrates on how and where sculptors and their critics drew the line between the sculptors’ creative authorship and reproductive skill, in a situation in which reproduction of various kinds utterly permeated the production and display of sculpture. To highlight the complex and multifaceted ways in which reproduction was implicated in ideal sculpture and its discourse, the thesis revolves around three central case studies of sculptors whose work acquired especial prominence at the Great Exhibition and other exhibitions that followed it. These sculptors are John Bell (1811-1895), Raffaele Monti (1818-1881) and Hiram Powers (1805-1873). Each case shows how the link between ideal sculpture and industrial display provided sculptors with new opportunities to raise the profile of their art, but also new challenges for describing and thinking about sculpture.
    [Show full text]
  • ITALIAN ART SOCIETY NEWSLETTER XXIX, 3, Fall 2018
    ITALIAN ART SOCIETY NEWSLETTER XXIX, 3, Fall 2018 An Affiliated Society of: College Art Association Society of Architectural Historians International Congress on Medieval Studies Renaissance Society of America Sixteenth Century Society & Conference American Association of Italian Studies President’s Message from Sean Roberts Rosen and I, quite a few of our officers and committee members were able to attend and our gathering in Rome September 15, 2018 served too as an opportunity for the Membership, Outreach, and Development committee to meet and talk strategy. Dear Members of the Italian Art Society: We are, as always, deeply grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for their support this past decade of these With a new semester (and a new academic year) important events. This year’s lecture was the last under our upon us once again, I write to provide a few highlights of current grant agreement and much of my time at the moment IAS activities in the past months. As ever, I am deeply is dedicated to finalizing our application to continue the grateful to all of our members and especially to those lecture series forward into next year and beyond. As I work who continue to serve on committees, our board, and to present the case for the value of these trans-continental executive council. It takes the hard work of a great exchanges, I appeal to any of you who have had the chance number of you to make everything we do possible. As I to attend this year’s lecture or one of our previous lectures to approach the end of my term as President this winter, I write to me about that experience.
    [Show full text]
  • Immodest Modesty
    Immodest Modesty Marie GAILLE The Renaissance reinvented modesty—that contradictory passion which reveals while hiding. In a masterful book, Dominique Brancher shows how this art of circumvention spanned a variety of knowledge, especially medical knowledge, in the sixteenth century. Review of Dominique Brancher, Équivoques de la pudeur: Fabrique d’une passion à la Renaissance (Ambiguities of modesty: The production of a passion in the Renaissance), Genève, Droz, 2015, 904 pages, € 89. When entering the Sansevero Chapel Museum in Naples, one discovers not only Giuseppe Sanmartino’s extraordinary sculpture of the Veiled Christ (1775), but also a modesty statue— Pudicizia—executed by Antonio Corradini (1752). This white marble statue reveals its charms by concealing them with a veil so thin that it adapts to the smallest curves of the female body; meanwhile, its face turns away, eyes half closed, to escape direct confrontation with those of its admirer. The suggestive power of this sculpture illustrates how much the art of concealing can be associated with provocation, indecency, even obscenity. This ambivalence is particularly striking in the context of the Sansevero Chapel, a marble temple dedicated to the virtues and values cultivated by its founder, Prince of Sansevero, seventh of the name, which have little to do with the pleasures of the body and the charms of seduction: decorum, liberality, religious zeal, sweetness of the conjugal yoke, piety, disillusionment, sincerity, education, divine love. This ambivalence is the running theme of the book by Dominique Brancher, Équivoques de la pudeur: Fabrique d’une passion à la Renaissance. The book is a thoroughly original and ambitious one.
    [Show full text]
  • Color Plate A
    Color Plate a Stephen H. Kawai, Enantiomeric Snails Reveling in Their Encounter on a Leaf Inspired by Chinen, land snails (Amphidromus), rock, steel wire, 90 cm, 1995. (© S.H. Kawai. Photo: D. Kubin.) 37 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00482 by guest on 28 September 2021 Color Plate B Amit Zoran, hybrid reassemblage: The masks. Glazed ceramic, spray paint, Objet PolyJet 3D-printed heads and epoxy glue, 2010. (left) a broken helmet. (middle and right) A broken element glued around a 3D-printed head. (© Amit Zoran) 38 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00482 by guest on 28 September 2021 Color Plate C Julian Voss-Andreae, (a–c) Heart of Steel, weathering steel and glass, height 5 ft (1.60 m), 2005. (© Julian Voss-Andreae) The images show a time-sequence of the hemoglobin-based sculpture’s metamorphosis: Photo (a) was taken right after unveil- ing, (b) after 10 days and (c) after several months of exposure to the elements. (d) Alpha Helix for Linus Pauling, powder- coated steel, 10 ft (3 m) high, 2004. (© Julian Voss-Andreae. Collection of The Linus Pauling Center for Science, Peace, and Health.) This memorial for Linus Pauling is located in front of Pauling’s childhood home in Portland, OR. (e) Angel of the West, stainless steel, 12 × 12 × 4 ft (3.70 × 3.70 × 1.20 m), 2008. (© Julian Voss-Andreae. Photo by James McEntee, courtesy of The Scripps Research Institute.) Commissioned as the signature sculpture of The Scripps Research Institute’s new cam- pus in Jupiter, FL, this sculpture plays upon the striking similarity between the human body and our immune system’s key molecule, the antibody.
    [Show full text]
  • Bowdoin Sculpture of St. John Nepomuk
    Bowdoin College Bowdoin Digital Commons Museum of Art Miscellaneous Publications Museum of Art 1975 Bowdoin Sculpture of St. John Nepomuk Bowdoin College. Museum of Art Zdenka Volavka Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/art-museum-miscellaneous- publications Part of the Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons Recommended Citation Bowdoin College. Museum of Art and Volavka, Zdenka, "Bowdoin Sculpture of St. John Nepomuk" (1975). Museum of Art Miscellaneous Publications. 7. https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/art-museum-miscellaneous-publications/7 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Museum of Art at Bowdoin Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Museum of Art Miscellaneous Publications by an authorized administrator of Bowdoin Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE BOWDOIN SCULPTURE OF ST. JOHN NEPOMUK OCCASIONAL PAPERS II The Bowdoin Sculpture of St. John Nepomuk Zdenka Volavka BOWDOIN COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART BRUNSWICK, MAINE COPYRIGHT 1975 THE PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUE CARD NO! 75" I3487 Also published as Number 396 of the Bouodoin College Bulletin Series PRINTED AT THE MERIDEN GRAVURE COMPANY, MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT COMPOSITION BY THE ANTHOENSEN PRESS, PORTLAND, MAINE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THIS paper was commissioned by Richard V. West during his tenure as director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, but the work of publishing it did not begin until after he assumed the position of director of the E. B. Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento, California. Nonetheless, Mr. West retained a lively interest in the project and for his help, especially his careful reading of the manuscript, we are very grateful.
    [Show full text]
  • Color Plate A
    Color Plate a Stephen H. Kawai, Enantiomeric Snails Reveling in Their Encounter on a Leaf Inspired by Chinen, land snails (Amphidromus), rock, steel wire, 90 cm, 1995. (© S.H. Kawai. Photo: D. Kubin.) 37 Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-pdf/46/1/37/1575267/leon_a_00482.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 Color Plate B Amit Zoran, hybrid reassemblage: The masks. Glazed ceramic, spray paint, Objet PolyJet 3D-printed heads and epoxy glue, 2010. (left) a broken helmet. (middle and right) A broken element glued around a 3D-printed head. (© Amit Zoran) 38 Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-pdf/46/1/37/1575267/leon_a_00482.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 Color Plate C Julian Voss-Andreae, (a–c) Heart of Steel, weathering steel and glass, height 5 ft (1.60 m), 2005. (© Julian Voss-Andreae) The images show a time-sequence of the hemoglobin-based sculpture’s metamorphosis: Photo (a) was taken right after unveil- ing, (b) after 10 days and (c) after several months of exposure to the elements. (d) Alpha Helix for Linus Pauling, powder- coated steel, 10 ft (3 m) high, 2004. (© Julian Voss-Andreae. Collection of The Linus Pauling Center for Science, Peace, and Health.) This memorial for Linus Pauling is located in front of Pauling’s childhood home in Portland, OR. (e) Angel of the West, stainless steel, 12 × 12 × 4 ft (3.70 × 3.70 × 1.20 m), 2008. (© Julian Voss-Andreae. Photo by James McEntee, courtesy of The Scripps Research Institute.) Commissioned as the signature sculpture of The Scripps Research Institute’s new cam- pus in Jupiter, FL, this sculpture plays upon the striking similarity between the human body and our immune system’s key molecule, the antibody.
    [Show full text]
  • Between Academic Art and Guild Traditions 21
    19 JULIA STROBL, INGEBORG SCHEMPER-SPARHOLZ, quently accompanied Philipp Jakob to Graz in 1733.2 MATEJ KLEMENČIČ The half-brothers Johann Georg Straub (1721–73) and Franz Anton (1726–74/6) were nearly a decade younger. There is evidence that in 1751 Johann Georg assisted at BETWEEN ACADEMIC ART AND Philipp Jakobs’s workshop in Graz before he married in Bad Radkersburg in 1753.3 His sculptural œuvre is GUILD TRADITIONS hardly traceable, and only the figures on the right-side altar in the Church of Our Lady in Bad Radkersburg (ca. 1755) are usually attributed to him.4 The second half- brother, Franz Anton, stayed in Zagreb in the 1760s and early 1770s; none of his sculptural output has been confirmed by archival sources so far. Due to stylistic similarities with his brother’s works, Doris Baričević attributed a number of anonymous sculptures from the 1760s to him, among them the high altar in Ludina The family of sculptors Johann Baptist, Philipp Jakob, and the pulpit in Kutina.5 Joseph, Franz Anton, and Johann Georg Straub, who worked in the eighteenth century on the territory of present-day Germany (Bavaria), Austria, Slovenia, Cro- STATE OF RESEARCH atia, and Hungary, derives from Wiesensteig, a small Bavarian enclave in the Swabian Alps in Württemberg. Due to his prominent position, Johann Baptist Straub’s Johann Ulrich Straub (1645–1706), the grandfather of successful career in Munich awoke more scholarly in- the brothers, was a carpenter, as was their father Jo- terest compared to his younger brothers, starting with hann Georg Sr (1674–1755) who additionally acted as his contemporary Johann Caspar von Lippert.
    [Show full text]
  • Portego ENG Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo
    Portego ENG Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo Flanked by the other rooms, this large central hall is typical of the structure of Venetian palazzi and was used for celebrations and official occasions. The paintings on display here are either nearly all portraits of the Mocenigo family or depict events in which they were involved. Four of the large portraits of the walls (1,2,4,5) are of the sovereigns under whom the Mocenigo family were ambassadors, while two of the seven doges from the family are portrayed above the door (6,8) and the others (18, 28,38,40,41) in the long frieze below the ceiling– inspired by the one in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge’s Palace -, together with numerous illustrious members of the family. The walls were decorated with architectural motifs by Agostino Mengozzi Colonna in 1787. The itinerary to visit the museum begins in the room on our right, looking at the main entrance, with its marble double door. Captions on the back In black if the work belongs to the palazzo In grey if the work comes from other collections >>> Please return this card Portego ENG Walls 1. French scene? , 17th cent. Portrait of King Louis XIV (?) 29 oil on canvas, 1670 30 9 th Room 7 2. Manner of Peter Lely, 17 cent. 10 Room 5 Portrait of King Charles II Stuart 28 oil on canvas, 1651 31 3. Veneto scene, 17th cent. 27 2 Portrait of procurator Alvise Mocenigo 32 oil on canvas, 1621 th 26 4. Flemish scene? 17 cent.
    [Show full text]
  • Raimondo Di Sangro Y El Motivo Escultórico De La Cappella Sansevero
    FACULTAD DE GEOGRAFÍA E HISTORIA GRADO EN HISTORIA DEL ARTE Raimondo di Sangro y el motivo escultórico de la Cappella Sansevero Raimondo di Sangro and the sculptural motif of Cappella Sansevero Dirigido por: Delfín Rodríguez Ruiz Realizado por: Carlos Lozano Guillem A mi familia, por su apoyo incondicional. 2 Resumen La Cappella Sansevero de Nápoles se remonta en sus orígenes a finales del siglo XVI, pero alcanzaría su máximo esplendor en la segunda mitad del Settecento. El embellecimiento de este mausoleo familiar fue protagonizado por el séptimo príncipe de la casa Sansevero: Don Raimondo di Sangro, hombre versado en infinidad de artes y con un recorrido vital marcado por la controversia y el afecto de sus contemporáneos. Tanto su mecenas como el templo han sido centro de mitos y leyendas, pero de lo que no hay ninguna duda es de que se trata de una de las capillas más creativas -en cuanto a su motivo escultórico-, y que propone una lectura ligada al simbolismo hermético, alquimista y masón. Todas ellas doctrinas que el príncipe Sansevero acogió en unos tiempos en los que el Illuminismo comenzaba a establecerse en el viejo continente. Abstract The Cappella Sansevero in Naples dates back to the end of the 16th century, but would reach its peak in the second half of the 18th century. The embellishment of this family mausoleum was carried out by the seventh prince of Sansevero: Don Raimondo di Sangro, a man versed in a multitude of arts and with a life journey marked by controversy and the affection of his contemporaries.
    [Show full text]
  • LADIES-IN-WAITING: Art, Sex and Politics at the Early Georgian Court
    LADIES-IN-WAITING: Art, Sex and Politics at the early Georgian Court By Eric Jonathan Weichel A thesis submitted to the Department of Art in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada (April 2013) Copyright © Eric Jonathan Weichel, 2013. i Abstract This thesis discusses the cultural contributions – artistic patronage, art theory, art satire - of four Ladies-in-Waiting employed at the early eighteenth-century century British court: Mary, Countess Cowper; Charlotte Clayton, Baroness Sundon; Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk; and Mary Hervey, Baroness Hervey of Ickworth. Through a close reading of archival manuscripts, published correspondences and art historical treatises, I explore the cultural milieu, historical legacy and historiographic reception of these individuals. I argue that their writing reveals fresh insight on the switch from Baroque to Rococo modes of portraiture in Britain, as it does critical attitudes to sex, religion and politics among aristocratic women. Through the use of satire, these courtiers comment on extramarital affairs, rape, homosexuality and divorce among their peer group. They also show an interest in issues of feminist education, literature, political and religious patronage, and contemporary news events, which they reference through allusions to painting, architecture, sculpture, engravings, ceramics, textiles and book illustrations. Many of the artists patronized by the court in this period were foreign-born, peripatetic, and stylistically unusual. Partly due to the transnational nature of these artist’s careers, and partly due to the reluctance of later historians to admit the extent of foreign socio-cultural influence, biased judgements about the quality of these émigré painters’ work continue to predominate in art historical scholarship.
    [Show full text]
  • The Veiled Christ, Part 1 on the Last Monday in April, the Day After
    The Veiled Christ, Part 1 On the last Monday in April, the day after Easter Sunday, Elizabeth and I set off for a chapel Len and June had recommended, the Sansevero Chapel (17th & 18th centuries). The chapel is small but it contains some fantastic marble statues, including one that has been called “one of the most fascinating and mysterious statues that you can see in Naples” and “one of the most famous and impressive works of art in the world,” Christo Velato or, the Veiled Christ. We thought there wouldn’t be much a crowd at the chapel on a Monday, but it turned out that this was Easter Monday and a legal holiday in Italy. We would fight a crowd after all, the real test of an experienced traveler. Elizabeth had checked a map (she is the navigator in the family) and found that the chapel was located to the northeast of our apartment, near the Piazza Dante, a large 19th century square named after the poet Dante Alighieri. It’s easy to identify because there’s a large statue of Dante in the square. We first walked down to the area around the Gran Caffe Gambrinus, Piazza del Plebiscito and the Umberto I Galleria with which we were now quite familiar. From there we took Via Toledo, the main boulevard toward Piazza Dante. Via Toledo was crowded with people, much like on a Sunday, most of them heading in the opposite direction from us, toward Gambrinus, et al. In Naples, where there are lots of people, there are also bound to be street performers (Photos 1 & 2).
    [Show full text]
  • La Campania E Il Grand Tour Immagini, Luoghi E Racconti Di Viaggio Tra Settecento E Ottocento
    LA CAMPANIA E IL GRAND TOUR IMMAGINI, LUOGHI E RACCONTI DI VIAGGIO TRA SETTECENTO E OTTOCENTO a cura di Rosanna Cioffi, Sebastiano Martelli, Imma Cecere, Giulio Brevetti «L’ERMA» di BRETSCHNEIDER La Campania e il Grand Tour Immagini, luoghi e racconti di viaggio tra Settecento e Ottocento © Copyright 2015 «L’ERMA» di BRETSCHNEIDER Via Cassiodoro, 11 - 00193 Roma http://www.lerma.it [email protected] Progetto grafico: «L’ERMA» di BRETSCHNEIDER Tutti i diritti riservati. È vietata la riproduzione di testi e illustrazioni senza il permesso scritto dell’Editore. La Campania e il Grand Tour. Immagini, luoghi e racconti di viaggio tra Settecento e Ottocento / Roma : «L’ERMA» di BRETSCHNEIDER, 2015. -528 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. - (LermArte ; 15) ISBN cartaceo: 978-88-913-0933-4 ISBN digitale: 978-88-913-0936-5 CDD 910.031 1. Grand Tour SOMMARIO prefazione Rosanna Cioffi e Sebastiano Martelli . IX introduzione Giulio Sodano Il viaggio nel Mezzogiorno dell’età moderna: stereotipi, ragioni e suggestioni . 1 impressioni da una capitale i francesi Renzo Rabboni Napoli e la Campania nelle Lettres familières sur l’Italie di Charles de Brosses . 19 Ornella Scognamiglio 1808-1815: il nuovo volto di una capitale. Mémoires, vedute e racconti ai tempi dei Murat. 31 gli inglesi Antonella Piazza 1638-39: la visita di John Milton a Napoli . 45 Aniello Califano Tra immagine ideale e immagine reale: Napoli nelle impressioni di George Berkeley . 55 Claudia Pingaro Napoli nelle Letters From Italy di Samuel Sharp, un chirurgo prestato alla letteratura. 65 Vincenzo De Santis Napoli nelle Lettres d’un voyageur anglois (1779) di Martin Sherlock e nell’editoria di viaggio in Francia nel secondo Settecento .
    [Show full text]