Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Painting, Italian Painting, Renaissance Women in art'

This thesis analyses selected paintings and aspects of life of the Italian Renaissance in terms of the aesthetic properties of sadistic and masochistic symptomatologies and creative production, as these have been explored by philosophers such as Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Marcel Henaff, and Gilles Deleuze. One question which arises from this analysis, and is considered in this thesis, is of the relation between sexual perversion and history, and in particular between experiences of violence, (dis)pleasure and desire, and historically specific forms of discourse and power, such as legislation on rape; myths and practices concerning marriage alliance; the depiction of such myths and practices in art; religion; and family structures. A second question which this thesis explores is the manners in which sadistic and masochistic artistic production function politically, to bolster pre-existing gender ideologies or to subvert them. Finally, this thesis considers the relation between sadism and masochism and visuality, both by bringing literary models of perversion to an interpretation of paintings, and by exploring the amenability of different genres of visual art to sadism and masochism respectively.

The concerns of this thesis are aligned with approaches to the historical study of sexuality, gender and identity in art, society and culture which are increasingly articulate and questioning at present. However, it is distinct from these recent studies because it redirects attention toward a stimulating encounter with the past through new theoretical proposals and interpretive perspectives on the manner in which mythology asserts itself as the vehicle for expressing male same-sex erotic behaviour, gender performance and masculine identity in the visual culture of the Italian Renaissance. By following a methodological, historiographical and interdisciplinary mode of enquiry, this thesis formulates and expresses new perspectives which engage with the representation of masculine concerns relating to these historically specific matters in the visual domain of the period. Conventional historical definitions of traditional art historical models of masculinity are also called into question through reassessment of how the function of the ideal male nude body in Renaissance art was shaped by particular social and historical contexts in different regions of Italy during the sixteenth century. These interrelated themes are approached in three stages. Firstly, there is interpretation of the complex and convoluted meanings within the narrative of the mythic sources, as well as decoding and contextualising of the symbolic messages of the images in question. Secondly, I assemble and examine the textual evidence that exists about erotic and social relationships between males in the Renaissance so that their historical significance can be tracked and placed in the context of the tension which existed between Renaissance Italian judicial and religious proscription and commonplace behaviour. And thirdly, I offer comprehensive analyses and interpretive frameworks which are informed by and based upon a wide range of written as well as visual sources together with evaluation of competing theoretical perceptions. The main arguments are presented in three chapters: The central theme of Chapter One is gender performance with specific focus upon the integral and didactic role of pederasty in visual representations of myths which conflate erotic desire between males and philosophical allegory. The historical phenomenon of pederastic relationships between males is addressed through interrogation of the pictorial vocabulary of Benvenuto Cellini’s marble Apollo and Hyacinth (1545), and Giulio Romano’s drawing of Apollo and Cyparissus (1524).The arguments and theories discussed and analysed in Chapter Two deal with Michelangelo’s depiction of Ovidian mythic narratives. Here, close attention is paid to the intricate nuances and sophisticated iconography used by Michelangelo for three highly finished presentation drawings - The Rape of Ganymede (1532), The Punishment of Tityus (1532) and The Fall of Phaeton (1533) - which Michelangelo presented to Tommaso De’ Cavalieri. The chapter aims to encourage a re-evaluation of these three drawings as a meaningful and connected narrative endowed with significant cultural and personal significance relating to their creator’s anguish about physical desire and its relationship to what modernity terms as ‘sexuality’. In Chapter Three, I consider how several works featuring the theme of Apollo flaying Marsyas can be read as articulations of the imaginative and ideological structures of the formation and preservation of masculine identities. The chapter addresses the iconographic visibility of the theme of flaying and explores the philosophical and literary metaphoric significance of this myth. Primacy is given to destabilising dominant conceptualizations of the heroic male nude as a subject in art throughout all these selected case studies. Centred as they are on sexual attraction or destruction rather than idealisation of the male figure, these chapters offer a revaluation of ways of seeing the archetypal heroic nude in a myriad of ways.

This study examines the artistic output in the diocese of Grosseto, which was part of Sienese controlled territories in Medieval and Renaissance times, and sheds light on the artists who worked there, the works that they produced, the purpose of these works and the way that these were shaped by local patrons, popular beliefs and long- standing traditions. It encompasses a period in the history of Siena that starts in c. 1380 with the political turmoil that followed the fall of the government of the Nine in 1355, and ends in c. 1480, around the time of Pandolfo Petrucci’s exile from the city. A contextualized overview of the activity of artists from Siena and beyond, such as Matteo di Giovanni, Sassetta, Vecchietta Francesco di Giorgio, Giovanni da Ponte and Andrea Guardi in the diocese of Grosseto is provided by means of visual examination and new documentary evidence. Relevant case studies offer a new perspective on the development of local visual imagery, the style and iconography of panel paintings, sculptures and fresco cycles and how these related to local devotional practices and patronage. The study shows that the development of independent taste in commissioning and acquiring artworks transcended geographical boundaries and political influence, and that original developments took place alongside the imitation of imported models. This research contributes to a new understanding of the relationship between Siena and Grosseto and proposes that notwithstanding Sienese influence, other cultural models were available, and that these were adapted to suit local requirements. A thorough investigation of local patronage establishes that this involved civic, religious and lay sources and that these shaped civic rituals and devotional responses to the cult of patron saints. It brings to light a vivid, yet complex image whereby all the realms of society interacted and benefitted from cultural exchange.

Renaissance art historians concur that women were characteristically depicted as ideal types in Renaissance portraiture. Nonetheless, the historiography of portraits of women in Renaissance Italy reveals generational shifts between scholars. Male scholars writing in the nineteenth-century to the mid twentieth-century applied formalist and cultural historical methodologies. Recent scholars raise issues that were previously neglected, such as social historical and feminist concerns. Following this rationale, I argue that the changing interests of scholars have altered the interpretations of portraits of Renaissance women. Moreover, this historical difference is split along gender lines in the historiography of Titian's La Bella. A critical review of the literature on this painting shows that male scholars, such as John Pope-Hennessey, Harold E. Wethey, and Charles Hope define the work in formal terms, such as "charming" and "pretty," whereas female scholars such as Elizabeth Cropper, Patricia Simons and Rona Goffen concur the work to be a synecdoche for the beauty of painting itself. A historiography of Titian as a portrait painter confirms that recent scholars have shifted focus from formal studies to an assessment of the social context, conditions of patronage and the feminist issues surrounding the artist's portraits.

La présente thèse a pour point de départ une exposition florentine organisée en 1990 et intitulée « Pittura di luce ». Ses organisateurs entendaient désigner ainsi un courant de la peinture florentine du milieu du XVe siècle fondé sur la lumière et la couleur claire. Comme l’avait bien compris l’exposition, cette « peinture de lumière » est d’abord identifiable dans la « manière colorée » portée par Fra Angelico et Domenico Veneziano, mais elle doit aussi être élargie à une manière plus « blanche », qui va de Masaccio aux premières œuvres d’Andrea del Verrocchio, au début des années 1470. Les implications techniques et symboliques d’un tel style méritent également d’être étudiées car elles renforcent le sens et la cohérence d’un mouvement publiquement soutenu par les Médicis et dont l’ambition majeure fut de « faire surgir » les peintures religieuses de la pénombre des églises (I). L’étude du développement géographique vaste mais discontinu de la pittura di luce approfondit les hypothèses proposées dans le cas florentin : tout autant qu’une façon moderne et proprement « renaissante » de peindre, la « manière claire » est aussi fondée sur une lumière théologique, associée en partie à la religiosité franciscaine. Piero della Francesca est assurément le grand protagoniste de ce double rayonnement, dans les cours et dans les campagnes (II). C’est également Piero qui sera au cœur de la redécouverte d’une peinture que les XIXe et XXe siècles ont réappris à voir grâce aux historiens de l’art et aux artistes, mais également en raison du changement des conditions de vision des œuvres d’art. En ce sens, la pittura di luce constitue un chapitre important de l’histoire du regard, que l’on propose de rapprocher d’autres redécouvertes picturales elles aussi fondées sur la notion d’apparition (III)
This thesis starts from an 1990 Florentine exhibition called “Pittura di luce” which intended to identify a trend in the mid-15th-century Florentine painting. This “painting of light” is not only, as was said at the time, a “coloured style” led by Fra Angelico and Domenico Veneziano, but it should be extended to a more “white manner”, from Masaccio to the first works of Andrea del Verrocchio, in the early 1470s. The technical and symbolical meanings of this style are to be studied as they reinforce the sense and the coherence of a trend publicly sustained by the Medici. The major aim of the “pittura di luce” is to make “emerge” religious paintings from the darkness of the churches (I). The study of the vast but also discontinuous geographical development of this “bright style” amplifies the hypotheses of the Florentine case: as much as a modern way of painting, it has very often a more archaic connotation of divine light. Piero della Francesca is surely the major figure of this ambivalent development (II). He is also one of the most significant examples of the way in which the “pittura di luce” was forgotten, and then rediscovered during the 19th and 20th centuries, thanks to art historians and artists, but also to the changes of the conditions of vision of the works of art. In this sense, the “pittura di luce” is an important chapter of the history of look, that we propose to compare with other rediscoveries of similar “paintings of apparition” (III)

Répondant au caractère « pelegrino » attribué à Luca Signorelli par son contemporain Giovanni Santi, notreréflexion s’articule autour de la triple itinérance du peintre cortonais. La première, fondée sur une géographieartistique, met en jeu commanditaires et collaborateurs entre centres et périphéries et réévalue son imaged’artiste provincial. Il s’agit consécutivement d’établir l’incidence des dévotions locales sur le langage picturalsignorellien, notamment par le biais de la sacra rappresentazione (I). La seconde itinérance, de typeinterdisciplinaire, s’attache à son traitement de la figure humaine et du nu. L’élaboration de sa vision du corpsest confrontée à l’essor contemporain d’une anatomie scientifique et d’une approche expérimentale ou théorique,ainsi qu’à la question des convenances. La sensibilité tactile particulière de Signorelli, sa position dans le débatnaissant du Paragone et les modalités des transferts entre peinture et sculpture sont examinées, tout commel’éventualité d’un passage à l’acte sculptural (II). L’esprit vagabond de Luca, qui s’affirme enfin par uneitinérance temporelle, oscille entre intérêt pour le passé, goût archaïsant et aspiration au renouveau. Sont ainsiétudiés son rapport à l’art antique et sa place entre « seconda e terza età », en spécifiant ses liens avec l’ars novaet les ferments inédits semés. Au-delà des étiquettes de retardataire local ou de précurseur écrasé par un Michel-Ange, cette étude vise à restituer la curiosité, la sociabilité et les échanges d’un artiste de transition (III)
Giovanni Santi has depicted his contemporary Luca Signorelli as a « pelegrino » painter. From this startingpoint, our study deals with the cortonese master’s triple itinerary. The first one, relative to artistic geography,concerns patrons and collaborators between centers and peripheries and we intend to reappreciate his image of aprovincial artist. We investigate consequently the impact of local devotions and sacra rappresentazione on hispictorial language (I). The second itinerary, a interdisciplinary one, focuses on the treatment of the human figureand on the nude. His vision of the body is compared with the contemporary development of a scientific anatomyand with practical and theoretical approaches. Indeed it raises the question of the proprieties. The tactile qualitiesof signorellian art, his position in the emerging Paragone debate and the modalities of his volumetric translationare also studied ; we consider the possibility of a sculptural activity (II). Finally, Luca’s roaming imaginationarises from a temporal oscillation between interest for the past, archaic taste and an aspiration for renewal. Wethus examine his relationship with antique art and his position between « seconda e terza età », analyzing hisconnections with ars nova and the original seeds he sow. Beyond the reputation of a local latecomer or of aforerunner in the shade of Michelangelo, we aim to emphasize this way the curiosity, the sociability and theexchanges of a transitionary artist (III)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 1988.
Illustrations on p. 516-633 of the original dissertation were not filmed at the request of the author. Includes bibliographical references (p. 472-498).

This study takes as its starting point the artist's elusive pictorial surfaces in order to address changing notions of interiority in early sixteenth-century Italy. Correggio's innovative treatment of these surfaces -- what is referred to in the critical tradition in terms of softness, melting, and erasure -- enacts the desire to grasp a divinity at once human and ineffable. As such, it evokes the lyrical self-expression of the language of the Italian reform movements. A varied collection of voices, these currents of religious reform share an emphasis on achieving the ecstatic effects of authentic devotional feeling. The articulation of intense longing characteristic of this discourse coincides with similar modes of expression woven into the criticism around Correggio's painting. The language of Italian reform in this way offers a conceptual frame for understanding the resonance of the artist's distinct pictorial touch. At the same time, Correggio's melting surfaces represent an ideal metaphor for a mode of engagement that can be said to define what might otherwise be characterized only as a loosely connected series of devotional declarations. By tracing the parallels between artistic and spiritual practices, I offer new insights into facets of Italian Renaissance culture that have remained to a large extent unexplored.

In the period following the Cinquecento Renaissance, contemporary seventeenth century Venetian artists were presented with two enormous challenges. The first was to attempt to reinterpret their visual tradition within a shifting political climate without declining into an overt stylistic retrospection. The second was to try and retain a semblance of the personification of state identity—those qualities that had been established and distinguished by Venetian art in the Cinquecento —and which were present in the visual patrimony of paintings and drawings. Carlo Ridolfi, art critic and author of Le maraviglie dell’Arte (1648) eloquently stated the problem in his biography of Giovanni Contarino, a student of Titian’s, when he praised the work of the Cinquecento masters as the epitome of artistic production to the extent that he says, “it is with reason that one could use as motto the two columns of Hercules with the words: “Ultra quid faciam?" it is in fact vain to pretend better examples, and rarer beautiful things could be made.” This dissertation considers two parallel issues at work: the stylistic legacy of Cinquecento Venetian masters and their importance in the work of their Seicento heirs, and the purposeful dissolution and sale of collections of work by those masters during the seventeenth century. The business activities of art dealers Marco Boschini (1602/5—1681), Paolo del Sera (1614—1672) and their associates are examined alongside their perceptions and criticisms of Cinquecento and Seicento artistic production, and the voracious appetite of English collectors for Venetian pictures in the opening decades of the seventeenth century is considered. Exploring the situations—political (the artist), economic (the dealer), and social (the patron)—present in Venice during the early seventeenth century and their direct relation to the perceived aesthetics of a cultural legacy, this project provides a reassessment of how established value sets in Venetian art were considered successful or not within their cultural context, and how those stylistic evaluations affected artists working in Venice during the early Seicento.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004.
Advisor: Jack Freiberg, Florida State University, College of Visual Arts, Theatre, and Dance, Art History Dept. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 12, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 245 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation focuses on the artistic and architectural patronage of the Pucci family, Medici stalwarts whose carefully constructed political and cultural alignment with the ruling family of Florence was the impetus for their rising fortunes over the course of the 15th and 16th centuries. Their homes, chapels, and palaces in Tuscany and Rome were designed and furnished with paintings, sculpture, and intarsiated woodwork attributable to Michelozzo; the Pollaiuolo brothers; Botticelli; Giuliano da Sangallo and the heirs to his workshop: Francesco da Sangallo and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger; Baccio d'Agnolo; Pontormo; Bronzino; Baccio and Raffaello da Montelupo; Pietro and Domenico Rosselli; Michelangelo; Bartolommeo Ammannati; Giovanni Battista Naldini; Alessandro Allori; and Giovanni Battista Caccini.