Articles and essays by Guido Checchi
Intrecci d'arte, 2018
Iconoclasm in the German engravings in XVI century
The role of the religious images, mainly disc... more Iconoclasm in the German engravings in XVI century
The role of the religious images, mainly discussed, in the polemic between catholics and protestants, under the historic and theological point of view, has been reflected in some German engravings, representing iconoclasm scenes.
The iconoclastic riots were denounced in some woodcuts from 1522, in the catholic work Von dem grossen lutherischen narren by franciscan Thomas Murner, part of longer contentious with Luther.
The pamphlet, illustrated by Dürer’s pupil, Erhard Schön, shows the moderate position of the Luthern side, where the sacred images are seen as unarmed and subordinate to the man will.
Heinrich Vogtherr’s engravings, trained at the Augsburg school, belong to the most radical Zwingli iconoclasm. These prints recall the historic example of the Iconoclasm in the Old Testament and in that Byzantine in VIII century, led by authority.
Intrecci d'arte - Dossier, 2017
The 'Mystic flare' and the link between Art and Faith in Rome at Cardinal Alessandro Farnese sph... more The 'Mystic flare' and the link between Art and Faith in Rome at Cardinal Alessandro Farnese sphere
In the book Pittura e Controriforma: l’arte senza tempo di Scipione da Gaeta, published in 1957, Federico Zeri dealt, among the first ones in Italy, the issues of images of cult in the 16th century religious crisis caused by the Reformation. Above that formal simplification process of sacred images due to the Council of Trent decrees, there was also an uneasy and quivering mystic vein in some artists, expression of a more complex spirituality. Zeri pointed out that this tendency was born with Giovanni de 'Vecchi (1543-1615), El Greco (1541-1614) and the Dutch Anthonie Blocklandt van Montfoort (1533 ca-1583). Their probable meeting in 1572 in Rome at the court of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese would have ignited the "supreme flame of pictorial mysticism of the sixteenth century". The three painters’ works show stylistic assonances, despite the different backgrounds of the authors. The elder Blocklandt might have contributed to the visionary language developed by El Greco lately in Spain. This complex hypothesis has never been verified in depth even though, over the years, there have been numerous contributions to these three artists, however made separately from each other, where the question of the relationship among the three was only touched. The research has gone through the studies on the three different artists with the updates of the last sixty years, together with a deepening of the historical and religious context around 1572, and an analysis of the works around 1570-1575 of Blocklandt, El Greco and de 'Vecchi.
Intrecci d'arte, 2017
Anthonie Blocklandt and Italy
Among the several studies dedicated to the northern Europe artists... more Anthonie Blocklandt and Italy
Among the several studies dedicated to the northern Europe artists travelling in XVI century Italy, stands out the lack of detailed work about Anthonie Blocklandt van Montfoort, a noble origin painter from Utrecht, who was in Rome in 1572. If his late paintings and prints have been reassessed, specifically for their importance for the develop of late Dutch mannerism, the very first works made after the Italian journey of 1572 are still uncertain. Starting from his preference for the elegance of Parmigianino as compared the massive forms of Michelangelo, that, as Van Mander reported, Blocklandt didn’t like, the article tries to find which models Blocklandt can have turned his attention during the stay in Rome and who others artists he can have met.
Intrecci d'arte, 2014
The missionaries of the New World and the iconoclasm: the canvas of the Retirement S. Pellegrino
... more The missionaries of the New World and the iconoclasm: the canvas of the Retirement S. Pellegrino
The article focuses on the study of a painting conserved in the collection of Retirement of S. Pellegrino, depicting an iconoclasm scene occurred in American continent by missionaries, as the long inscription specifies. Some religious are seen to baptize and to convert likely Indians, dressed as Europeans of the 16th century, and to break down the idols. The article is composed of four paragraphs. The first one is focused on the few historical hints which have been able to find on the painting and the collection. The second paragraph continues with the transcription, the translation and the interpretation of the complicated Latin inscription, in gothic characters, which is on the low part of the canvas, in which stands out the figure of Benedictine Bernardo Buil, missionary in the New World. The third paragraph is just dedicated to him, who was an important Catalan monk and followed Columbus in the second travel in 1493. The fourth and final paragraph of the article deepens, as a result of have thrown light on the inscription and the historical data gathered, the iconography and makes some proposals about the style and the provenance of the interesting painting.
Psicoart, 2012
Iconoclasm Told by painters
The Reformation iconoclasm has been mainly studied by scholar of His... more Iconoclasm Told by painters
The Reformation iconoclasm has been mainly studied by scholar of History, regarding this particular phenomenon from historical, social, theological, economical, and anthropological point of view.
David Freedberg has been the first to examine the artistic field in the iconoclastic riots of 1566 in Low Countries during the revolt against Spain, focusing his attention of the consequences on the art and on artists before, during and after the fanatical attack of iconoclasts. If Martin Luther tolerated only some religious iconographies with limitations and distinctions, John Calvin refused at all the images of cult, desiring a totally aniconic churches, where paintings and statues were substituted by inscriptions taken by Holy Scriptures, so that the textual aspect could prevail on the visual one.
The iconoclasm has been told by some works, images representing the destruction of others images. The first example are ambiguous and contradictory paintings representing the sack of Lyon by Calvinists, rare example of iconoclastic image of the really case happened, or the unusual context as one of Douai, wherein three iconoclasts are going to attack an Adoration of Magi. Many reformers claimed for the legal removing of images operated by authority as represented in the allegorical portrait of Edward VI Tudor as enemy of papist idolatry. At the opposite the intellectualistic and idealized Cabinet d’Amateur are places where the images found metaphorically shelter, but they are still threatened by iconoclastic donkeys, in so far an allegory of ignorance of the protestants heretics which wants to hinder to reflect and to meditate on the images, since they are also instruments of knowledge. The sequence ends with representation in the 17th Dutch paintings of iconoclasm scenes in interior’s views of the churches.
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Articles and essays by Guido Checchi
The role of the religious images, mainly discussed, in the polemic between catholics and protestants, under the historic and theological point of view, has been reflected in some German engravings, representing iconoclasm scenes.
The iconoclastic riots were denounced in some woodcuts from 1522, in the catholic work Von dem grossen lutherischen narren by franciscan Thomas Murner, part of longer contentious with Luther.
The pamphlet, illustrated by Dürer’s pupil, Erhard Schön, shows the moderate position of the Luthern side, where the sacred images are seen as unarmed and subordinate to the man will.
Heinrich Vogtherr’s engravings, trained at the Augsburg school, belong to the most radical Zwingli iconoclasm. These prints recall the historic example of the Iconoclasm in the Old Testament and in that Byzantine in VIII century, led by authority.
In the book Pittura e Controriforma: l’arte senza tempo di Scipione da Gaeta, published in 1957, Federico Zeri dealt, among the first ones in Italy, the issues of images of cult in the 16th century religious crisis caused by the Reformation. Above that formal simplification process of sacred images due to the Council of Trent decrees, there was also an uneasy and quivering mystic vein in some artists, expression of a more complex spirituality. Zeri pointed out that this tendency was born with Giovanni de 'Vecchi (1543-1615), El Greco (1541-1614) and the Dutch Anthonie Blocklandt van Montfoort (1533 ca-1583). Their probable meeting in 1572 in Rome at the court of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese would have ignited the "supreme flame of pictorial mysticism of the sixteenth century". The three painters’ works show stylistic assonances, despite the different backgrounds of the authors. The elder Blocklandt might have contributed to the visionary language developed by El Greco lately in Spain. This complex hypothesis has never been verified in depth even though, over the years, there have been numerous contributions to these three artists, however made separately from each other, where the question of the relationship among the three was only touched. The research has gone through the studies on the three different artists with the updates of the last sixty years, together with a deepening of the historical and religious context around 1572, and an analysis of the works around 1570-1575 of Blocklandt, El Greco and de 'Vecchi.
Among the several studies dedicated to the northern Europe artists travelling in XVI century Italy, stands out the lack of detailed work about Anthonie Blocklandt van Montfoort, a noble origin painter from Utrecht, who was in Rome in 1572. If his late paintings and prints have been reassessed, specifically for their importance for the develop of late Dutch mannerism, the very first works made after the Italian journey of 1572 are still uncertain. Starting from his preference for the elegance of Parmigianino as compared the massive forms of Michelangelo, that, as Van Mander reported, Blocklandt didn’t like, the article tries to find which models Blocklandt can have turned his attention during the stay in Rome and who others artists he can have met.
The article focuses on the study of a painting conserved in the collection of Retirement of S. Pellegrino, depicting an iconoclasm scene occurred in American continent by missionaries, as the long inscription specifies. Some religious are seen to baptize and to convert likely Indians, dressed as Europeans of the 16th century, and to break down the idols. The article is composed of four paragraphs. The first one is focused on the few historical hints which have been able to find on the painting and the collection. The second paragraph continues with the transcription, the translation and the interpretation of the complicated Latin inscription, in gothic characters, which is on the low part of the canvas, in which stands out the figure of Benedictine Bernardo Buil, missionary in the New World. The third paragraph is just dedicated to him, who was an important Catalan monk and followed Columbus in the second travel in 1493. The fourth and final paragraph of the article deepens, as a result of have thrown light on the inscription and the historical data gathered, the iconography and makes some proposals about the style and the provenance of the interesting painting.
The Reformation iconoclasm has been mainly studied by scholar of History, regarding this particular phenomenon from historical, social, theological, economical, and anthropological point of view.
David Freedberg has been the first to examine the artistic field in the iconoclastic riots of 1566 in Low Countries during the revolt against Spain, focusing his attention of the consequences on the art and on artists before, during and after the fanatical attack of iconoclasts. If Martin Luther tolerated only some religious iconographies with limitations and distinctions, John Calvin refused at all the images of cult, desiring a totally aniconic churches, where paintings and statues were substituted by inscriptions taken by Holy Scriptures, so that the textual aspect could prevail on the visual one.
The iconoclasm has been told by some works, images representing the destruction of others images. The first example are ambiguous and contradictory paintings representing the sack of Lyon by Calvinists, rare example of iconoclastic image of the really case happened, or the unusual context as one of Douai, wherein three iconoclasts are going to attack an Adoration of Magi. Many reformers claimed for the legal removing of images operated by authority as represented in the allegorical portrait of Edward VI Tudor as enemy of papist idolatry. At the opposite the intellectualistic and idealized Cabinet d’Amateur are places where the images found metaphorically shelter, but they are still threatened by iconoclastic donkeys, in so far an allegory of ignorance of the protestants heretics which wants to hinder to reflect and to meditate on the images, since they are also instruments of knowledge. The sequence ends with representation in the 17th Dutch paintings of iconoclasm scenes in interior’s views of the churches.
The role of the religious images, mainly discussed, in the polemic between catholics and protestants, under the historic and theological point of view, has been reflected in some German engravings, representing iconoclasm scenes.
The iconoclastic riots were denounced in some woodcuts from 1522, in the catholic work Von dem grossen lutherischen narren by franciscan Thomas Murner, part of longer contentious with Luther.
The pamphlet, illustrated by Dürer’s pupil, Erhard Schön, shows the moderate position of the Luthern side, where the sacred images are seen as unarmed and subordinate to the man will.
Heinrich Vogtherr’s engravings, trained at the Augsburg school, belong to the most radical Zwingli iconoclasm. These prints recall the historic example of the Iconoclasm in the Old Testament and in that Byzantine in VIII century, led by authority.
In the book Pittura e Controriforma: l’arte senza tempo di Scipione da Gaeta, published in 1957, Federico Zeri dealt, among the first ones in Italy, the issues of images of cult in the 16th century religious crisis caused by the Reformation. Above that formal simplification process of sacred images due to the Council of Trent decrees, there was also an uneasy and quivering mystic vein in some artists, expression of a more complex spirituality. Zeri pointed out that this tendency was born with Giovanni de 'Vecchi (1543-1615), El Greco (1541-1614) and the Dutch Anthonie Blocklandt van Montfoort (1533 ca-1583). Their probable meeting in 1572 in Rome at the court of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese would have ignited the "supreme flame of pictorial mysticism of the sixteenth century". The three painters’ works show stylistic assonances, despite the different backgrounds of the authors. The elder Blocklandt might have contributed to the visionary language developed by El Greco lately in Spain. This complex hypothesis has never been verified in depth even though, over the years, there have been numerous contributions to these three artists, however made separately from each other, where the question of the relationship among the three was only touched. The research has gone through the studies on the three different artists with the updates of the last sixty years, together with a deepening of the historical and religious context around 1572, and an analysis of the works around 1570-1575 of Blocklandt, El Greco and de 'Vecchi.
Among the several studies dedicated to the northern Europe artists travelling in XVI century Italy, stands out the lack of detailed work about Anthonie Blocklandt van Montfoort, a noble origin painter from Utrecht, who was in Rome in 1572. If his late paintings and prints have been reassessed, specifically for their importance for the develop of late Dutch mannerism, the very first works made after the Italian journey of 1572 are still uncertain. Starting from his preference for the elegance of Parmigianino as compared the massive forms of Michelangelo, that, as Van Mander reported, Blocklandt didn’t like, the article tries to find which models Blocklandt can have turned his attention during the stay in Rome and who others artists he can have met.
The article focuses on the study of a painting conserved in the collection of Retirement of S. Pellegrino, depicting an iconoclasm scene occurred in American continent by missionaries, as the long inscription specifies. Some religious are seen to baptize and to convert likely Indians, dressed as Europeans of the 16th century, and to break down the idols. The article is composed of four paragraphs. The first one is focused on the few historical hints which have been able to find on the painting and the collection. The second paragraph continues with the transcription, the translation and the interpretation of the complicated Latin inscription, in gothic characters, which is on the low part of the canvas, in which stands out the figure of Benedictine Bernardo Buil, missionary in the New World. The third paragraph is just dedicated to him, who was an important Catalan monk and followed Columbus in the second travel in 1493. The fourth and final paragraph of the article deepens, as a result of have thrown light on the inscription and the historical data gathered, the iconography and makes some proposals about the style and the provenance of the interesting painting.
The Reformation iconoclasm has been mainly studied by scholar of History, regarding this particular phenomenon from historical, social, theological, economical, and anthropological point of view.
David Freedberg has been the first to examine the artistic field in the iconoclastic riots of 1566 in Low Countries during the revolt against Spain, focusing his attention of the consequences on the art and on artists before, during and after the fanatical attack of iconoclasts. If Martin Luther tolerated only some religious iconographies with limitations and distinctions, John Calvin refused at all the images of cult, desiring a totally aniconic churches, where paintings and statues were substituted by inscriptions taken by Holy Scriptures, so that the textual aspect could prevail on the visual one.
The iconoclasm has been told by some works, images representing the destruction of others images. The first example are ambiguous and contradictory paintings representing the sack of Lyon by Calvinists, rare example of iconoclastic image of the really case happened, or the unusual context as one of Douai, wherein three iconoclasts are going to attack an Adoration of Magi. Many reformers claimed for the legal removing of images operated by authority as represented in the allegorical portrait of Edward VI Tudor as enemy of papist idolatry. At the opposite the intellectualistic and idealized Cabinet d’Amateur are places where the images found metaphorically shelter, but they are still threatened by iconoclastic donkeys, in so far an allegory of ignorance of the protestants heretics which wants to hinder to reflect and to meditate on the images, since they are also instruments of knowledge. The sequence ends with representation in the 17th Dutch paintings of iconoclasm scenes in interior’s views of the churches.