Gender and the Body in Greek and Roman Sculpture offers incisive analysis of selected works of ancient art through a critical use of cutting-edge theory from gender studies, body studies, art history ...and other related fields. The book raises important questions about ancient sculpture and the contrasting responses that the individual works can be shown to evoke. Rosemary Barrow gives close attention to both original context and modern experience, while directly addressing the question of continuity in gender and body issues from antiquity to the early modern period through a discussion of the sculpture of Bernini. Accessible and fully illustrated, her book features new translations of ancient sources and a glossary of Greek and Latin terms. It will be an invaluable resource and focus for debate for a wide range of readers interested in ancient art, gender and sexuality in antiquity, and art history and gender and body studies more broadly.
In 1667, on the day of his election, Pope Clement IX (born Giulio Rospigliosi, 1600-1669), who had a severe form of insomnia, commissioned Bernini to create a tool to help him to sleep. Since the ...sound of the fountains generally helped Pope Clement IX to sleep, Bernini invented a machine that imitated the sound of flowing water: the movement of a wheel worked in concert with a series of carefully placed paper globes which produced the sound when struck.3-4 The machine, which had been placed in the room next to that of the Pope, was successful. The historian Filippo Baldinucci (1625-1697) described how the following morning after using the machine for the first time, the Pope “could not stop saying Bernini's genius expressed itself in the same way in little things as in great ones”.4 1 J Spencer, D Moran, A Lee, D Talbert, White noise and sleep induction, Arch Dis Child, Vol. 65, 1990, 135-157 2 L Forquer, The effect of continuous white noise on the sleep patterns, mood and cognitive performance of college student, 1st ed., 2006, Central Michigan University, Michigan 3 D Bernini, Vita del Cavalier Gio.
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3.
A Transitory Star Lehmann, Claudia; Lloyd, Karen J
2015, 2015-07-24, Volume:
10
eBook
Examining Bernini's works from 1665 on, from Paris and Rome, the essays collected here use visual and material examination, archival research, and comparative textual analysis to illuminate the ...growing distance of Gallic absolutism from the fading dream of papal hegemony over Europe, and the complexities of Bernini's role as mouthpiece, obstacle, and flatterer of the Princes of the Papal States.
The Ecstasy of St. Teresa is arguably the most controversial work created by the Roman Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). The debate surrounding the statue centers on the question: did ...the artist's radically non-traditional depiction of Teresa's transverberation transgress the boundaries of decorum as understood by seventeenth-century Catholicism? This debate has lasted for many years and is likely to endure for many more to come, for, as the mass of, at times, contradictory documentation leads us to conclude, the line of decorum that Bernini did, or did not, cross would seem to resist any firm pinpointing, that is was, indeed, fluid and subjective, even when seen through seventeenth-century eyes. The aim of this article is not to deny the subjective fluidity of that line of decorum, but rather to propose that it was perhaps far less fluid and subjective than some examiners of the issue today seem inclined to believe. At the same time, and perhaps more importantly, its aim is also to disabuse the staunch defenders of Bernini's decorum of the belief that no matter where that line of decorum might have been located in the seventeenth century, there cannot possibly be any reasonable grounds for suggesting that Bernini may have crossed it. Defenses of Bernini's decorum rest on three claims: (1) Bernini faithfully followed the literal description of Teresa's transverberation as described by the saint herself; (2) the Church understood that mystical union often entailed erotic elements and thus had no problem with religious art depicting that reality; and (3) since there is no nudity in Bernini's statue, it cannot be accused of violating decorum. Through detailed analysis of Roman Catholic catechetical teaching (from Augustine to Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino), Teresa's writings and other primary texts relating to the saint's transverberation, and an extremely close examination of the statue itself, this article argues that none of these defenses is completely accurate and thus unassailable in its conclusion, while, however, not claiming to resolve the decorum debate once and for all.
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The interface between verbal and visual modes of artistic expression is demonstrated in the work of the poet Antonio Bruni and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Bruni published verse on Apollo and ...Daphne and the bronze Urban VIII, epitomizing their poetic effects. Conversely, his ode on the transverberation of Saint Teresa by an angel creates a dramatic mise-en-scène that antecedes the amorous conceits, bodily forms, and celestial staging in Bernini's sculpture of the ecstatic mystic within the multimedia Cornaro Chapel. Both Bruni and Bernini exemplified a new poetica sacra, applying lyrical tropes to religious truth, presented vividly to the senses.
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The recent re-discovery in Dresden, Germany, of a well-provenanced sculpted marble skull by Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) allowed the first forensic anthropological examination of a ...work of this kind, comparable to those performed on biological skulls. The natural details conveyed included an overall natural and unstylized appearance, hollowed interior vault space, detailed anatomical structures, natural morphological variability and asymmetry, dental pathology, and postmortem changes common to real skulls. Morphological traits useful for ancestry estimation also were depicted in sufficient detail to allow standard scoring methods. Metrical and morphological analysis indicated that the skull was most consistent with an adult male individual of European ancestry, although up-scaling in overall size was estimated at around 10%. The authors conclude that Bernini used a biological skull as a model in order to achieve this level of anatomical detail, in contrast with many other skeletal depictions in Renaissance and Baroque sculpture.
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By the early twentieth century, the representation of a woman giving birth identified on the marble base piers of Bernini's Baldacchino in St Peter's basilica was, for some, emblematic of the Roman ...Catholic Church as a corrupt, greedy and libidinous institution that had for too long stood in the way of modernity and national sovereignty from South America to Europe. There is, however, no evidence to suggest that when the altar canopy was first revealed in 1634 that it was in any way problematic. The birth metaphor is a biblical trope for joy following pain, and an established cultural reference to both divine and artistic creative impulses. Nevertheless, Bernini's visual language has become increasingly hard to read. This essay considers the gap in understanding between the Baldacchino's original audience and more recent viewers. In doing so, it elucidates Bernini's inventions with reference to early modern spirituality and identifies the historical and political baggage that obstructs current comprehension.
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Oggetto dell’articolo è una splendida cornice, realizzata probabilmente per essere inserita in un piccolo oratorio privato, durante la seconda metà del XVII secolo da un abile intagliatore ben ...informato non solo sulle creazioni di Gian Lorenzo Bernini, dalle cui opere trasse ispirazione per la composizione degli angeli in volo e dei due angioletti che si librano alla sua sommità innalzando una corona di fiori, ma anche sulle successive trasformazioni del gusto operate dai suoi allievi, come testimonia l’inserimento della ghirlanda fiorita presente nelle decorazioni a stucco e nella mobilia romana eseguita durante la seconda metà del secolo.
Baroquemania explores the intersections of art,
architecture and criticism to show how reimagining the Baroque
helped craft a distinctively Italian approach to modern art.
Offering a bold ...reassessment of post-unification visual culture,
the book examines a wide variety of media and ideologically charged
discourses on the Baroque, both inside and outside the academy. Key
episodes in the modern afterlife of the Baroque are addressed,
notably the Decadentist interpretation of Gianlorenzo Bernini, the
1911 universal fairs in Turin and Rome, Roberto Longhi's
historically grounded view of Futurism, architectural projects in
Fascist Rome and the interwar reception of Adolfo Wildt and Lucio
Fontana's sculpture. Featuring a wealth of visual materials,
Baroquemania offers a fresh look at a central aspect of
Italy's modern art.
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