Cicognara's revaluation found its echo not only in art historiography but also in the art works of his own time - first and foremost in the oeuvre of Antonio Canova (1757-1822).1 The art historian ...Lionello Venturi (1885-1961) was the first to make reference in this context to the metopean reliefs in Possagno in which Canova assimilated older Italian art from Giotto to Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia, Agostino di Duccio, and others.2 However, the impact of Cicognara's research on the work of the Venetian sculptor is first to be seen in the so-called Italian busts of Beatrice, Laura, Eleonora, and Lucrezia d'Este, created between 1817 and 1822 - as a direct response to the publication of the second volume of the Storia, which deals, among other things, with 15th-century sculpture. 4 On the other hand, the bust of Beatrice is a variant of his portrait bust of Juliette Récamier as Beatrice from 1813, which Canova had intended as a token of friendship and gratitude (testimone d'amicizia) for the many years Cicognara had devoted to perpetuating the memory of Canova's achievement in the Storia della scultura (fig. 1). Just like his predecessors, he constructed his chronological presentation of the stylistic development of art not only through information gathered from previous art literature, but also on the basis of his own analyses of artworks which he documented through engravings he commissioned for the Storia. The artists followed Cicognara's precise instructions: he insisted on a largely uniform format as well as standardised views, which were taken at eye level as far as possible.
A micro-core sample taken from the panel “The histories of Joseph” of Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise bas-relief was fully investigated during the last restoration in the eighties of the twentieth ...century. Recently, the systematic analysis via field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) of the whole surface of this micro-sample allowed to well understand the artwork conservation state. Moreover, the modern advanced analytical technique allowed to find and localize two AuCu- and AuCu
3
-ordered phases due to diffusion phenomena, highlighted for the first time in an ancient artefact in gilt bronze exposed outdoors. Considerations on the thermodynamic stability of these ordered phases, along with estimation of reasonable diffusion coefficient values, seem to support K. Anheuser’s hypothesis on the fire-gilding manufacturing technique that the final step is a thermal treatment of a few minutes, conducted at a temperature certainly below 400 °C and with estimated values between 250 and 300 °C.
This paper deals with the views of the Franciscan preacher Saint Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444) on baptism and civic peace and the associations he created between art and baptism and preaching. The ...widespread building and decoration of baptisteries in Italy points to the civic importance of that ritual in Italian cities. There was a close connection between baptism and the sense of civitas: the sacrament of Christian initiation also served to introduce an individual into the Christian society of the city. Bernardino's emphasis on the relationship between baptism and civic peace followed a long-standing tradition in mendicant preaching. The present study has two major sections: it introduces Bernardino's views on the arts and then suggests correlations between his ideas on baptism and the artistic program of the fifteenth-century baptismal font in the Siena baptistery created by Lorenzo Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia, Donatello, and others. The central issues concern the way Bernardino referred to works of art as a way of making his sermons more approachable and graphic for his illiterate listeners and how his sermons may have influenced the decorative program for the baptismal font in the Sienese baptistery.
An anonymous Jew arrived in Florence in the second half of the fifteenth century and spotted a pair of porphyry columns at the entrance of the Florence Baptistery. The spot overwhelmed the Jew, as it ...reminded him of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and he began to cry. Some time later he recorded his intense emotional experience in a quasi‐Zoharic homily on the margins of a manuscript of the Zohar. In this study, the homily is presented for the first time; copied, translated and contextualized. The article argues that it has to be understood as a response to the view of the Florence Baptistery entrance in its entirety – the columns surrounding Lorenzo Ghiberti’s famous ‘Porta del Paradiso’ (Gates of Paradise), with the Christian biblical images inscripted on them. Following this approach, a suggestion is made to see the homily as a Jewish reaction to the Christian use of the Old Testament during the Renaissance.
Il 13 novembre 2015, in occasione dei 40 anni dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure, è stata organizzata una giornata di studio presso l’auditorium di Sant’Apollonia a Firenze. Questo scritto ricalca ...l’intervento presentato in quell’occasione. Non si è ritenuto opportuno fare variazioni per attualizzare il testo, a suo tempo redatto per pubblicare gli atti della giornata e specifiche in tal senso sono indicate nelle note. Si fa qui riferimento all’attività di restauro del Settore Bronzi e Armi antiche dell’Opificio che ha da poco tempo riconsegnato la Porta Nord del Ghiberti al rinnovato Museo dell’Opera del Duomo di Firenze. L’opera è ora esposta nella grande sala al piano terra, accanto alla Porta del Paradiso.
This article examines the technological development of artillery production in Florence during the last two decades of the fifteenth century, before and after the assimilation of the most efficient ...French ordnance into Italian warfare. The study starts from the notes, drawings, accounts, and guns produced by Bonaccorso di Vettorio Ghiberti (1451–1516), the heir of the foundry of his illustrious ancestor Lorenzo di Cione (1378–1455). Data have been collected from the historical archives of the Istituto degli Innocenti, from the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence, and from the Florentine State Archive. This article demonstrates the existence of a lively and reactive war-related industry in Renaissance Italy, which was aware of new ideas and new techniques. The article highlights, moreover, the leading role of public demand in fostering military innovations.
El paso de la pdad Media a la Modernidad; Ma Mar Ramírez; Caracas, Monte Ávila; 2010; 282 páginas El libro de Ramírez Alvarado combina en su justa medida dos aspectos que cobran importancia en la ...actualidad: la imprenta y la imagen. Detalla así cuáles fueron los principios de la impresión tipográfica y de qué modo entra la imprenta en Europa, y específicamente en España, descubriendo datos curiosos: «quien fuera uno de los mayores expertos en la materia, Francisco Vindel, desarrolló la tesis de que la imprenta se reinventò en Sevilla cuando llegaron las primeras noticias de la creación de Gutenberg y a través del uso de tipos xilográficos» (p. 55). María del Mar Ramírez Alvarado cuenta con muchas otras publicaciones dedicadas, en gran parte, a la representación de la imagen asociada a múltiples aspectos de la historia y de la sociedad actual.
La présente étude se donne pour but de répondre aux questions que soulève l'oeuvre magistrale d'Auguste Rodin, La Porte de l'Enfer. Celle-ci puise dans les sources historiques et littéraires parmi ...lesquelles il faut mentionner, en premier lieu, la Divine Comédie de Dante. En réalité, en dehors des références que fournit le chantre florentin, l'oeuvre d'Auguste Rodin serait impensable. Rodin lui-même avait une prédilection pour les cathédrales, les édifices qui reconstruisent le sentiment de verticalité en recompensant le porte-à-faux. Celui-ci pris dans le sens analogique fournit une explication à la structure de La Porte, surtout lorsqu'on la compare à capolavoro di Ghiberti La Porta del Paradiso qui est censé servir de modèle à Rodin. La conclusion du présent article serait que La Porte de l'Enfer est impensable en dehors du contexte philosophique du Moyen-Age.
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