Renaissance antiquarianism

Abstract - Roma Triumphans by Biondo Flavio represents the first treatise offering a systematic investigation of the religious, civic and political institutions of ancient Rome, evaluating data from a historical-comparative viewpoint. Observations on the religious structures of ancient Rome show Biondo’s original aptitude for noticing some specific aspects of Roman Paganism, civic meaning of some of its rituals and values, their evolution and influence on Christian ceremonies. reflecting nonetheless a critical position on Paganism and his profoundly Christian perspective influenced by Eusebius of Caesarea and Augustin. Key words: Biondo Flavio, Pagan Rome, religious institutions, critical position on Paganism, Eusebius of Caesarea
Key words: Biondo Flavio, Pagan Rome, religious institutions, critical position on Paganism, Eusebius of Caesarea - Augustin. ---

Sintesi - La Roma Triumphans di Biondo Flavio costituisce il primo trattato che offre una ricognizione sistematica delle istituzioni religiose, civili e politiche dell’antica Roma, valutando i dati dal punto di vista storico-comparativo. Le osservazioni sulle strutture religiose dell’antica Roma mostrano l’inclinazione originale di Biondo nel rilevare alcuni aspetti specifici del Paganesimo romano pur riflettendo una posizione critica nei riguardi del Paganesimo e la sua prospettiva strettamente cristiana, influenzata da Eusebio di Cesarea e Agostino.
Biondo Flavio, Roma pagana, istituzioni religiose, posizione critica nei riguardi del paganesimo, Eusebio di Cesarea - Agostino

Der „Kitzinger Tucherschrank“ befand sich ursprünglich wohl im zweiten Obergeschoss des Kitzinger
Rathauses, im dortigen Sitzungssaal. Diese ehemalige Ratsstube ist mit einer Wandvertäfelung
und einer schweren, mit perspektivischen Fantasielandschaften verzierten Tür ausgestattet, die
den hohen Stand der Kitzinger Schreinerkunst im 16. Jahrhundert erkennen lassen.
Der Tucherschrank, der sich bis ins frühe 20. Jahrhundert noch dort befunden haben soll, ist
in seiner Ausführung etwas älter als dieses Vertäfelungswerk. Er ist als nicht höfisches und
für eine öffentliche Funktion konzipiertes Möbel Ausdruck eines gesteigerten bürgerlichen
Selbstbewusstseins, welches das gängige Repertoire des antiken Formenkanons offenbar genauso
kennt, wie es hohes kunsthandwerkliches Können freizusetzen vermag.

No full title for the historical-linguistic compendium of Sextus Pompeius Festus can be found in his manuscript tradition, because the first half of the Codex Farnesianus, the only organic witness of this work, has been missing since it was discovered in 1457. Festus’ text was an abridged version of De verborum significatu, the extensive treatise of Verrius Flaccus, and was subsequently abridged during the early Middle Ages by Paul the Deacon in an epitome known as De verborum significatione. These two titles and the lack of a reliable formulation for Festus’ work brought about variations in the head titles used throughout its entire editorial history. This phenomenon began to emerge during the Renaissance, when some scholars appear not only to have perceived semantic differences between Paul’s epitome and the Codex Farnesianus, but also attempted to represent these in the title. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reasons behind the different Renaissance titles for Festus, which could offer an interesting overview on how this author was perceived in the history of Classical tradition.

L’articolo tratta due disegni custoditi presso la Biblioteca Ambrosiana che inducono a riflettere sul considerevole fascino che le collezioni romane hanno esercitato sugli artisti, specie nel corso dei secoli XV–XVI; si fa riferimento, in particolare, alla raccolta di Andrea della Valle, tra i primi a riunire ingenti quantità di sculture antiche, considerato precursore del moderno collezionismo.
Il primo foglio preso in esame, databile entro il primo quarto del ’500, trova rispondenza in un rilievo raffigurante "Artemide e Apollo" presso Villa Medici a Roma, ma che precedentemente era parte di quell’insieme di marmi che scenograficamente ornavano il giardino pensile di palazzo della Valle.
Il secondo disegno - da ricondurre a un maestro toscano attivo nella seconda metà del secolo XVI, forse gravitante intorno alla cerchia di Andrea Boscoli - deriva dal "Ganimede con l’aquila" agli Uffizi e dal "Bacco con cane", oggi nel Palazzo Medici-Riccardi a Firenze, sculture esposte entrambe nella raccolta del cardinale della Valle fino all’acquisizione da parte di Ferdinando de’ Medici all’inizio degli anni ’80 del XVI secolo.
Seppure di attribuzione incerta, i due disegni dell’Ambrosiana costituiscono un’ulteriore testimonianza del momento aureo vissuto dalla collezione della Valle prima della sua dispersione.

Les relations entre le texte et l’image ont été surtout étudiées sous l’angle de l’iconographie, de l’illustration et de la présence – occasionnelle et souvent paradoxale – de mots dans la peinture. C’était sans compter avec l’estampe qui constitue, dès la fin du XVe siècle, un champ d’expérimentation majeur pour tous ceux qui cherchent à concilier les qualités formelles, esthétiques et sémantiques d’un texte et d’une représentation artistique. Les techniques de gravure permettent en effet de réunir dans une même composition une grande variété de signes, verbaux et iconiques, dont l’ensemble constitue l’image : la « lettre » gravée est donc la partie écrite et effectivement lisible de l’estampe.
Centré sur la gravure de la Renaissance, ce livre explore une période particulièrement féconde, le XVIe siècle, qui a vu l’émergence en Europe d’une véritable industrie des arts de l’imprimé. Signatures, titres, légendes, dédicaces, commentaires, etc. sont passés au crible de l’analyse critique et interprétés suivant des méthodologies variées. Qui rédigeait les textes ? Comment étaient-ils gravés ? Quelle était la fonction des différentes inscriptions ? Comment étaient-elles lues et comprises par les usagers ? Ce livre offre, pour la première fois, une vision d’ensemble sur des questions d’écriture et de composition propres à l’estampe ; ce faisant, il nous invite à repenser de nombreux aspects de la création dans l’histoire artistique européenne.

Emmanuel Lurin est maître de conférences en histoire de l’art moderne à Sorbonne Université, Paris. Il s’intéresse aux relations entre l’estampe, la création artistique et la circulation des savoirs dans l’Europe du XVIe siècle.

Marianne Grivel a été conservatrice au Département des estampes et de la photographie à la Bibliothèque nationale de France. Spécialiste de l’estampe française, elle occupe la chaire d’histoire de l’estampe et de la photographie à Sorbonne Université, Paris.

This study is devoted to the emotional experience of the famous Renaissance sculptor, goldsmith, and writer, Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571), as it is portrayed in his life writing, the Vita. Providing the variety of arguments on the connection between the artist and contemporary intellectuals, who attended the Florentine Academy (1540–1583) together, I demonstrate that Cellini’s literary production can be examined productively against the background of Neoplatonic thought. In particular, Marsilio Ficino’s On Love, first published in the vernacular Italian in 1544, helps to establish an explanation of what Cellini meant when he decided to play the cornet while falling in love simultaneously with a young boy and girl, or  how he justified kicking or punching his servants, or why he did not kill his adversary, the artist Baccio Bandinelli, when he had the chance. These cases of radical affectivity are inscribed into Ficino’s concept of the “melancholy genius” manifesting melancholic madness. In Cellini’s Vita, the latter can not only turn humans almost into beast, literally (for example, in a bat); but, properly tempered by the means of music and poetry, as well as of individual and collective magic, it elevates one’s soul “on high,” which corresponds to the Neoplatonic concept of divine madness.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1.  Benvenuto Cellini and the Florentine Academy
1.1 Why did the Italian academies emerge?
1.2 Academic movement before the Florentine Academy
1.3 The Florentine Academy
1.4 Benvenuto Cellini’s writings in the context of the Florentine Academy
Chapter 2.  “Essendo io per natura malinconico”: Benvenuto Cellini and the Ficinian Legacy
2.1 “Grand theories” and “grounded” early-modern artists
2.2 Marsilio Ficino’s On Love
2.3 “Melancholy genius” concept
2.4 (Neo)Platonic love
Chapter 3.  “Tu ten sei gito a contemplar su ’n Cielo l’alto Fattore”: Benvenuto Cellini Ascending on High
3.1 Esoteric knowledge and censorship
3.2 “Furor divino” and “diabolico furore”
3.3 Different kinds of furor divino in the Vita
Conclusion

This collection offers a set of new readings on the history, meanings, and
cultural innovations of the grotesque as defined by various current critical theories and practices. Since the grotesque frequently manifests itself as striking incongruities, ingenious hybrids, and creative deformities of nature and culture, it is profoundly implicated in early modern debates on the theological, philosophical, and ethical role of images. This consideration serves as the central focus from which the articles in the collection then move outward along different lines of conceptualization, chronology, cultural relevance, place, and site. They cover a wide spectrum of artistic media, from prints to drawings, from sculptures to gardens, from paintings to stuccos. As they do this, they engage with, and bring together, theoretical perspectives from writers as diverse as Plato and Paleotti, Vitruvius and Vasari, Molanus and Montaigne. Whether travelling a short distance from Nero’s Domus Aurea to Raphael’s Vatican logge, or across the ocean from Italy to New Spain, this volume goes further than any previous study in defining the historic understanding of grotesque and, in so doing, providing us with a more nuanced resource for our understanding of an art form once viewed as peripheral.

This book examines the inter-relationships between language and architecture in early modern Italy, from the early 15th to the early 18th centuries. Focusing on the linguistic debates and architectural/artistic activities in Florence and Rome, the book evidences the rich cross-fertilisation of ideas between both areas, and how humanists, theologians, philosophers, artists and architects recognised the importance of buildings and urban spaces as communicative settings for vocal and gestural exchanges that drew upon a legacy of ancient and medieval literature, from Cicero to Dante. The book is divided into four historical periods: early 15th century (Early Renaissance), late 16th century (Late Renaissance), 17th century (Baroque) and early 18th century (beginnings of Neo-Classicism).

The ‘Oxford Codex’ of Pirro Ligorio is actually an album comprising 180 folios of diverse material, for the most part but by no means entirely by Ligorio. The Ligorian folios, dating between the 1540s and the 1580s, include drafts of material found in more finished form in his Paris and Neapolitan codices, compiled before he left Rome in 1568, on the topography of the city of Rome and of the Campagna, especially the tombs lining the consular roads radiating from the city; on ancient dress; and on ancient religious practices. Particularly interesting is that in many cases, he continued to work on these drafts after settling in Ferrara in 1568, so that we can see when he changes his mind or adds information from sources newly available to him. Twelve folios also appear to be the greater part of the final draft of what should have been the second book of the Libro delle antichità of 1553. Why it was not published is not known but even in its incomplete state it throws new light on the Libro. Another folio is a draft from the Turin alphabetical encyclopaedia, while yet others include drawings of building projects Ligorio was concerned with such as the emergency works to the Sistine Chapel in 1564, fortifications at Civitavecchia, and buildings erected or proposed after his move to Ferrara.

In addition, there are around thirty folios not by Ligorio, although some, such as one showing ancient architectural details, were almost certainly in his possession. Others, however, including drawings of churches designed by Giovanni Battista Aleotti after Ligoro’s death, and twenty folios of a sixteenth-century Italian translation of Vitruvius, appear to have no association with him. Aleotti, who, remained in Ferrara, after the Este moved to Modena, appears to have owned the Ligorian folios, then still unbound, and began putting them into order. That, in many cases, the order has been disturbed, especially by the insertion in the middle of material unrelated to the Libri della antichità suggests it was bound after leaving Aleotti’s hands, most likely, immediately after his death in 1636. It then disappears from history until 1817, when the Bodleian Library acquired it as part of the largest single purchase of manuscripts in its history from the heirs of the Venetian Jesuit Matteo Luigi Canonici, a voracious bibliophile and art collector (1727-1807).

Recognising the preciousness of its contents, the Bodleian restricted access to the album to only those who demonstrated a need to look at the original, meaning it is far less studied than the Neapolitan and Turin codices. The present edition for the first time reveals the full complexity of this mosaic of tantalising fragments with all its lacunae and intrusions. They make it the key codex for understanding Ligorio’s corpus as a whole, and in particular, his working methods, showing that, whatever his reputation as an epigraphical forger, in his drawings of ancient buildings he is scrupulous in explaining where his recording finishes and conjecture begins.

Et si le paysage n'était pas seulement un genre pictural, mais aussi une construction culturelle et sociale... Des décors peints aux jardins, des parcs de chasse aux cartes géographiques, les formes changeantes du paysage révèlent les intérêts territoriaux d'une élite aux yeux de qui posséder la terre revêtait une dimension éminemment symbolique. Rome à la Renaissance offre un terrain d'observation idéal pour comprendre la nature de ces enjeux et leurs modalités. À travers l'analyse d'un riche corpus de vues peintes dans les loges des palais - paysages de villes ou de campagnes, séries de villas ou de bourgades -, ce livre met en œuvre une "archéologie du regard" en conviant le lecteur à une promenade dans ces lieux de mémoire et de pouvoir.

The ‘De rebus antiquis memorabilibus’ by Maffeo Vegio (1407-1458) is the last de- scription of the basilica of St Peter before Nicolas V began its radical remodelling. The work is not simply a collection of inscriptions and antiquarian information about the old building, but constitutes an essential chapter in the papal historiography of the mid- 15th century, actively concerned to defend papal primacy, which had been sorely tested in the conciliar period. Study of the printed and manuscript tradition of this short work en- ables us to see better the factors governing its circulation in the Renaissance period; neg- lected by contemporaries, it was rediscovered about the time of the Council of Trent. By concentrating on the localities which contributed most to circulation, the Vatican Library and the Chapter of St Peter, it is possible to reconstruct the network of readers in the 15th-17th centuries.

The famous "Seal of Nero, a Roman intaglio depicting Apollo, Marsyas and Olympus, was once in the collection of Lorenzo il Magnifico and is now in the National Museum of Naples. Two gems related to that "Seal of Nero" are published here for the first time: one, a severely damaged intaglio kept in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, is supposed to date from the third quarter of the first century BC. Another gem with a similar motif, a refined Renaissance cameo, recentlya ppeared in Oxfordshire and is now in a private collection in London. It is presumed that this perfectly preserved piece originally was in the possession of the Medici. The author considers a possible attribution of this work to the young Michelangelo Buonarroti and discusses a copy shown in a portrait painting by Botticelli now in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt on the Main. (summary by Matthias Barth)

Andrea Mantegna's much-admired nine-panel monumental cycle Triumphs of Caesar (1480s-1506?) celebrates imperial power by visualizing in meticulous detail a Roman triumph.  Though their precise historical subject remains elusive, the panels are replete with careful representations of authentic, known ancient objects.  At the same time, a triumphal column surmounted by a colossal bronze horseman that features prominently on one of the panels remains a historiographic mystery.  I argue here that the legacy of two intellectuals steeped in knowledge of Byzantium, Manuel Chrysoloras and Cyriac of Ancona, provided the inspiration for this prominent elevated horseman.  Memories of the triumphal column of Justinian, the Constantinopolitan signifier of empire, were instrumental in Mantegna's decision to populate his historical landscape of old Rome with a colossal monument.  Mantegna inserted the column into his monumental vision of ancient Rome to elide the historical space between the Old and the New Rome, and in doing so implicitly expanded the category of monuments redolent of Rome's imperial past.
Manteqna's antiquarian relocation of Constantinople's greatest imperial monument to Rome brought Manuel Chrysoloras's ideas full circle.  Chrysoloras elevated monuments of the past as worthy evidence.  Cyriac of Ancona made them worthy of admiration, demonstrating their value to antiquarian pursuits and alerting scholars to the enormous importance of visual and epigraphic evidence.  After the fall of Constantinople, the lost monument was granted new life in intellectual spaces between the real and the imagined, the antiquarian and the allegorical.  It took Andrea Mantegna to give this lost monument a place in history.  Taking the greatest and most cross-culturally significant Byzantine sculptural monument, he projected it back into the past of Rome and into a vision of Roman and Western history cherished by antiquarians.

Nella Mantova gonzaghesca tra la metà del '400 e l'inizio del '500, l'interesse verso l'antico si esplica in varie forme (collezionismo, riproposizione di motivi classici). Al suo arrivo nella capitale dei Gonzaga, Mantegna trova un ambiente fecondo di ispirazione per i suoi orientamenti stilistici e gli interessi di collezionista.

This thesis analyses medals issued between 1560 and 1792 in Sweden and studies the practices and roles related to these objects. It aims to contribute to the understanding of the varying uses and functions of early modern medals by applying a long-term perspective that connects Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical medals. The study asks why are medals commissioned, how the intention is reflected in the visual design and materiality of the medal, how medals were used during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, which continuities and changes the practices show over time, and what cultural significance medals have in early modern Swedish society. Theoretically, the thesis applies an art anthropological approach to the medium, focusing on its materiality, meaning and use. By drawing on visual and archival sources materials and examining material from a Northern European context, the thesis provides an unprecedented wide-ranging study of the functions and meanings of early modern medals.

Parallel to Sweden’s historical and cultural development, the analysis follows medal art chronologically and thematically in five chapters. The study addresses the transformation from being a royal gift to prize medals and rewards and from limited use to being available at an open market. It examines how the medal was viewed, handled, circulated, and used plus what significance people ascribed to it. The medium aided the sitter’s commemoration, self-fashioning, and legitimisation while being used as a gift, worn as a jewel, collected, discussed, or viewed as an artefact with antiquarian purposes. The medal was appreciated for its potential to express various themes on a small surface, its exclusive material and practical size. However, much of its meaning was connected to the sensory experience of touching the medal. The medium’s materiality was an essential element of how the medal was used, the way its visual design communicated with the beholder, and the importance that the object conveyed. By its broad and exhaustive timeline, the thesis presents a comprehensive case study on the phenomenon of medal art and aids in understanding how early modern art and visual culture was used and how these uses changed over time.

Nicholas Copernicus' De revolutionibus (1543) is a frequent starting point for histories of the Scientific Revolution on account of his dramatic reversal of the cosmic order handed down from antiquity. Nevertheless, Copernicus also mounted a surprisingly sharp attack on one of his contemporaries who tried to correct ancient astronomers. This uneasy balance between respecting and criticizing ancient works was part of broader contemporaneous attempts to grapple with the fragmentary legacies of past generations. Debates over stone ruins as well as manuscript texts shaped the evolution of early printed books, and artists, printers, and instrument makers joined natural philosophers in pursuing novelties even while emulating tradition.

This thesis critically engaged with the narrative of the Hypnerotomachia and with Poliphilo as a character within this narrative. Using narratological analysis, it examines the journey of Poliphilo and the series of symbolic, allegorical, and metaphorical experiences narrated by him that are indicative of his metamorphosing interiority within a mystagogic journey. This is conducted through an analysis of the relationship between Poliphilo and his external surroundings in sequences of the narrative pertaining to thresholds; the symbolic architectural, topographical, and garden forms and spaces; and Poliphilo’s transforming interior passions pertaining to his love of antiquarianism, language and rhetoric, and of Polia, the latter of which leads to his elegiac description of lovesickness. The thesis analyses the relationship between the narrative, which functions both realistically and symbolically to portray the protagonist’s transforming self into its final state at the climax of the narrative, and the symbolic function of the architecture and objects of art within the narrative. The thesis engages with the source material for the narrative drawn from classical, medieval and humanist literature in the areas of philosophy, poetry, natural history, travel diaries and architectural treatises, using a mixed methods methodology combining philology with narratology and socio-historic approaches. It demonstrates, through analysis of the broad literary source material of the Hypnerotomachia, how antiquarian objects, buildings, gardens, and topography are used as expressive narrative devices by the author, drawing on medieval and Renaissance concepts, to demonstrate Poliphilo’s transforming interiority, symbolically, metaphorically or allegorically, established through the character’s encounters during the narrative.