Papers by Marilyn Aronberg Lavin
The description of a CAA annual meeting session, Philadelphia, 2002: “I’m not an art historian bu... more The description of a CAA annual meeting session, Philadelphia, 2002: “I’m not an art historian but…”, conceived and run by Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, is described by a participant, Gary Schwartz.
Self, 2023
In 2022 I made a formal gift in honor of my husband Irving Lavin of a black and white marble bust... more In 2022 I made a formal gift in honor of my husband Irving Lavin of a black and white marble bust inscribed with the name of Prospero Farinacci (1544-1619). For various reasons, the bust was first given to the non-profit organization LoveItaly to be held for three years and then conveyed to the Republic of Italy. Meanwhile bust resides in the Castel Sant’Angelo, its final destination. The Pamphlet reproduced here I wrote to accompany the gift which was recognized in a ceremony held in the Castello on March 20, 2023.
The Silence of Bernini's David, 2019
Bernini's Barcaccia in the Piazza di Spagna. An art-Political No Man's Land, 2021
There is no doubt that the history of the papacy is full of pontiffs who enjoyed a good joke. Non... more There is no doubt that the history of the papacy is full of pontiffs who enjoyed a good joke. None (at least to this author's knowledge) had ever made good humor and wit a matter of public policy before Urban VIII who commissioned Gianlorenzo Bernini to create the fountain known as 'la Barcaccia.' This article relates the resolution of a dangerous political situation involving France, Spain, and the Papacy in the late 1620s to the expression of joy--spiritual, intellectual, and civic--in the form of a public monument in the heart of Rome
Bellini's Frick Saint Francis and the Source of the Absent Side Wound, 2022
The question addressed here is the absence of a Side Wound in Giovanni Bellini’s
representation ... more The question addressed here is the absence of a Side Wound in Giovanni Bellini’s
representation of St. Francis in the Frick Collection. Some time after his Stigmatization (1224) and before his death (1226) it is said that St. Francis was told by God that all his sins had been absolved and that at death he would go, with no interference from the devil, directly to heaven. I present evidence that the Frick painting represents Bellini’s idea of Francis’s exaltation upon hearing this news. In a brief review of the history of Crucifixions I discovered a new, coherent facet of that iconography not previously recognized as a separate theme: Christ crucified with only the marks of the four nails and the post mortem stab wound of Longinus lacking. This configuration, I propose, represents Christ during the six-hour period he was alive on the Cross and during which he spoke his last words. This theme had it beginning perhaps as early as the 10th century, and culminated in the 13th century in the triumphant figure of the Volto Santo di Lucca. With knowledge of this theme and applying his inimitable painted poetry, Bellini created a unique, inter-provincial landscape (Tuscan/Veneto), placing St. Francis—the emulator of Christ—in the midst of his own many miraculous ‘deeds’ at the end of his mission. The beauty of the execution elevates Francis’s stance, gesture, and expression to his real-life period between wounding and death, when he was without fear, and full of joy.
The 'Palestrina Pietà.' Gatherings on the History of "a Statue Begun by Michelangelo", 2020
Many years after he discovered a letter from Maffeo Barberini (later Urban VIII) to his brother C... more Many years after he discovered a letter from Maffeo Barberini (later Urban VIII) to his brother Carlo, Irving (Lavin) decided that on the fraught subject of authorship of the Palestrina Pietà only one fact could be concluded: that the statue (the largest of the Pietas, made from an antique architectural fragment), was started by Michelangelo. The letter also says that in 1618, the statue was for sale by Michelangelo’s nephew, that Maffeo was interested in buying it, and that the young Bernini might be able to bring it completion. Whether the transaction took place, who, if anyone, ever re-touched the statue, and where it was until noted in an 18th century description of the Barberini-owned hill town of Palestrina, until now, has been completely unknown. From the drafts and notes Irving left, I (Marilyn Lavin) have edited this article, filling in gaps and adding ancillary material and solving the problem of when, precisely, Gianlorenzo Bernini officially became Maestro.
Giotto - Piero della Francesca - Cavallini: Conceptual Connections, 2021
From my ‘old age’ vantage point, and for having previously worked on all three artists involved, ... more From my ‘old age’ vantage point, and for having previously worked on all three artists involved, the clear view “from above, as it were’ allowed me to see relationships between Cavalini, Giotto, and Piero della Francesco in planning their most significant works of art. This article reminds the reader of my earlier observations about set patterns of arrangement in large, Italian narrative murals, and demonstrates how these great artists relate to this tradition and to each other.
The Record (Art Museum of Princeton University), 1985
Crevalcore: St. Francis as resurrected intercessor (Alter Christus)
The Art Bulletin, 1969
A reason why Federico da Montefeltro is wearing full battle armor in church.
Artibus et Historiae, 2016
Late 13th-century Stefaneschi commission to Cavallini, to combine a 'Life of the Virgin' with poe... more Late 13th-century Stefaneschi commission to Cavallini, to combine a 'Life of the Virgin' with poetry, and to integrate it with the pre-existing mid-12th-century apse mosaic.
Artibus et Historiae, 2018
The Carrara marble faun in The Metropolitan Museum of New York has been variously attributed to P... more The Carrara marble faun in The Metropolitan Museum of New York has been variously attributed to Pietro Bernini, to Pietro and Gianlorenzo together, to conceived by Pietro but carved by Gianlorenzo, to all by Gianlorenzo, and is probably a combination of all of these. Its date is surely c. 1616, a time when father and son were working closely together. We know the statue was beloved by Gianlorenzo because he kept it throughout his life always visible in his house on the Via della Mercede in Rome. The subject just as often has been debated: named il Fauno molestato dai Putti, interpreted as an image of Virgil’s dictum “Love Conquers All”, and seen as a confrontation to ancient art, in the manner of Michelangelo. My interpretation is less metaphorical, more physical: it depends on the observation that the obstreperous position of the faun’s raised left leg is part of a long tradition of representing extreme love making, which Bernini shared with the poet Gian Battista Marino. In fact, I purport that he, the faun, is locked in a position of eternal coitus with a beguiling female spirit in the tree. For this reason I call the group “A Faun in Love”.
Rodolfo Siviero’s L’arte e il Nazismo in translation by Charles Rufus Morey: a tale of Italo- American Cooperation after World War II, 1953
Charles Rufus Morey translated Rodlfo Siviero's account of the German looting of Italian painting... more Charles Rufus Morey translated Rodlfo Siviero's account of the German looting of Italian painting, sculpture, drawings, archives, libraries, and on and on, during World War II. Siviero's original text was published after his death; Morey's translation was never published. Morey's English manuscript, still in the Princeton University Library, is presented here in full.
Artibus et Historiae, 2018
After a fifty-year search, a bust inscribed with the name FARINACIO, made of white Carrara and bl... more After a fifty-year search, a bust inscribed with the name FARINACIO, made of white Carrara and black Belgian marble, is identified as A PORTRAIT OF the famous Roman advocate of Beatrice Cenci and attributed to the young Gianlorenzo Bernini. The bust is analyzed and its history traced from the time of its creation about 1619 in Rome to its transportation to the USA, first in Detroit, MI, then New York City, and finally in Princeton, NJ. The essay includes a chart of Gianlorenzo’s works up to 1620, and a critical review of documents and inventories demonstrating his authorship of several other sculptures that have been erroneously disputed." Artibus & Historiae, No. 77, 2018, pp. 256-290.
Precis: Barocci’s great painting of the Perdono di San Francesco, was made in response to the sta... more Precis: Barocci’s great painting of the Perdono di San Francesco, was made in response to the statues of the Council of Trenton vindicating indulgences as gifts from Christ, in this case, for prayers offered in Franciscan churches on the feast day of August 01/02. The image Barocci created in paint and engraving/etching was honored with the ability to emit the indulgence. This article follows the commission, creation, and dissemination of that image.
Italian readers take note: this translation was done ca. 2004. It has not been edited and the name of the translator has been lost. I will appreciate hearing from anyone who might know the name of the translator. For illustrations, please see the English version but forgive the color. Grazie, MAL
Keywords: Barocci, Urbino, Francescani, Porziuncola, miracolo, Assisi, Sta Maria degli Angeli, Ilario Zacchi, Montefalco, Indulgenze, scomunica, esorcismo
Italian Altarpiece (ca. 1300) with Assumption of the Virgin and 8 scenes of her life and death, m... more Italian Altarpiece (ca. 1300) with Assumption of the Virgin and 8 scenes of her life and death, made for a Benedictine convent in Spoleto. A great work by a little-known master.
A brief recapitulation of the observation of "counter-clockwise wraparound" narrative disposition... more A brief recapitulation of the observation of "counter-clockwise wraparound" narrative disposition in major Counter Reformation Church decoration.
Volume miscellaneo con scritti di:
Walter Angelelli, Enrico Anselmi, Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Mari... more Volume miscellaneo con scritti di:
Walter Angelelli, Enrico Anselmi, Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Maria Giulia Barberini, Liliana Barroero, Ginevra Bentivoglio, Livia Carloni, Anna Cavallaro, Angela Cipriani, Giancarlo Coccioli, Alfio Cortonesi, Valentina Cuozzo, Elisabetta Cristallini, Fabrizio D'Amico, Elisa Debenedetti, Marcello fagiolo, Lorenzo Fei, Lorenzo Finocchi Ghersi, Giorgia Fiorini, Davide Fodaro, Cristina Galassi, Francesco Gandolfo, Massimiliano Ghilardi, Irving Lavin, Anna Lo Bianco, Francesco federico Mancini, Patrizia Mania, Giorgio Marini, Paolo Marini, Mario Mazza, Raffaella Menna, Anna Modigliani, Tomaso Montanari, Fausto Nicolai, Alessandro Novelli, Cristiana Parretti, Irene Pecorelli, Claudia Pelosi, Stefano Petrocchi, Paola Pogliani, Paolo Procaccioli, Fiorella Proietti, Simonetta Prosperi Valenti, Saverio Ricci, Simona Rinaldi, Sebastiano Rooberto, Giuseppe Romagnoli, Claudio Strinati, Laura Teza, Patrizia Tosini, Adele Trani, Alberto White
An introduction to ideas and analysis, fully developed in book form not yet downloadable, of this... more An introduction to ideas and analysis, fully developed in book form not yet downloadable, of this extraordinary blockbook, reconstructing its original form, proposing its unique content, and, for the first time, placing it in its art historical context.
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Papers by Marilyn Aronberg Lavin
representation of St. Francis in the Frick Collection. Some time after his Stigmatization (1224) and before his death (1226) it is said that St. Francis was told by God that all his sins had been absolved and that at death he would go, with no interference from the devil, directly to heaven. I present evidence that the Frick painting represents Bellini’s idea of Francis’s exaltation upon hearing this news. In a brief review of the history of Crucifixions I discovered a new, coherent facet of that iconography not previously recognized as a separate theme: Christ crucified with only the marks of the four nails and the post mortem stab wound of Longinus lacking. This configuration, I propose, represents Christ during the six-hour period he was alive on the Cross and during which he spoke his last words. This theme had it beginning perhaps as early as the 10th century, and culminated in the 13th century in the triumphant figure of the Volto Santo di Lucca. With knowledge of this theme and applying his inimitable painted poetry, Bellini created a unique, inter-provincial landscape (Tuscan/Veneto), placing St. Francis—the emulator of Christ—in the midst of his own many miraculous ‘deeds’ at the end of his mission. The beauty of the execution elevates Francis’s stance, gesture, and expression to his real-life period between wounding and death, when he was without fear, and full of joy.
Italian readers take note: this translation was done ca. 2004. It has not been edited and the name of the translator has been lost. I will appreciate hearing from anyone who might know the name of the translator. For illustrations, please see the English version but forgive the color. Grazie, MAL
Keywords: Barocci, Urbino, Francescani, Porziuncola, miracolo, Assisi, Sta Maria degli Angeli, Ilario Zacchi, Montefalco, Indulgenze, scomunica, esorcismo
Walter Angelelli, Enrico Anselmi, Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Maria Giulia Barberini, Liliana Barroero, Ginevra Bentivoglio, Livia Carloni, Anna Cavallaro, Angela Cipriani, Giancarlo Coccioli, Alfio Cortonesi, Valentina Cuozzo, Elisabetta Cristallini, Fabrizio D'Amico, Elisa Debenedetti, Marcello fagiolo, Lorenzo Fei, Lorenzo Finocchi Ghersi, Giorgia Fiorini, Davide Fodaro, Cristina Galassi, Francesco Gandolfo, Massimiliano Ghilardi, Irving Lavin, Anna Lo Bianco, Francesco federico Mancini, Patrizia Mania, Giorgio Marini, Paolo Marini, Mario Mazza, Raffaella Menna, Anna Modigliani, Tomaso Montanari, Fausto Nicolai, Alessandro Novelli, Cristiana Parretti, Irene Pecorelli, Claudia Pelosi, Stefano Petrocchi, Paola Pogliani, Paolo Procaccioli, Fiorella Proietti, Simonetta Prosperi Valenti, Saverio Ricci, Simona Rinaldi, Sebastiano Rooberto, Giuseppe Romagnoli, Claudio Strinati, Laura Teza, Patrizia Tosini, Adele Trani, Alberto White
representation of St. Francis in the Frick Collection. Some time after his Stigmatization (1224) and before his death (1226) it is said that St. Francis was told by God that all his sins had been absolved and that at death he would go, with no interference from the devil, directly to heaven. I present evidence that the Frick painting represents Bellini’s idea of Francis’s exaltation upon hearing this news. In a brief review of the history of Crucifixions I discovered a new, coherent facet of that iconography not previously recognized as a separate theme: Christ crucified with only the marks of the four nails and the post mortem stab wound of Longinus lacking. This configuration, I propose, represents Christ during the six-hour period he was alive on the Cross and during which he spoke his last words. This theme had it beginning perhaps as early as the 10th century, and culminated in the 13th century in the triumphant figure of the Volto Santo di Lucca. With knowledge of this theme and applying his inimitable painted poetry, Bellini created a unique, inter-provincial landscape (Tuscan/Veneto), placing St. Francis—the emulator of Christ—in the midst of his own many miraculous ‘deeds’ at the end of his mission. The beauty of the execution elevates Francis’s stance, gesture, and expression to his real-life period between wounding and death, when he was without fear, and full of joy.
Italian readers take note: this translation was done ca. 2004. It has not been edited and the name of the translator has been lost. I will appreciate hearing from anyone who might know the name of the translator. For illustrations, please see the English version but forgive the color. Grazie, MAL
Keywords: Barocci, Urbino, Francescani, Porziuncola, miracolo, Assisi, Sta Maria degli Angeli, Ilario Zacchi, Montefalco, Indulgenze, scomunica, esorcismo
Walter Angelelli, Enrico Anselmi, Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Maria Giulia Barberini, Liliana Barroero, Ginevra Bentivoglio, Livia Carloni, Anna Cavallaro, Angela Cipriani, Giancarlo Coccioli, Alfio Cortonesi, Valentina Cuozzo, Elisabetta Cristallini, Fabrizio D'Amico, Elisa Debenedetti, Marcello fagiolo, Lorenzo Fei, Lorenzo Finocchi Ghersi, Giorgia Fiorini, Davide Fodaro, Cristina Galassi, Francesco Gandolfo, Massimiliano Ghilardi, Irving Lavin, Anna Lo Bianco, Francesco federico Mancini, Patrizia Mania, Giorgio Marini, Paolo Marini, Mario Mazza, Raffaella Menna, Anna Modigliani, Tomaso Montanari, Fausto Nicolai, Alessandro Novelli, Cristiana Parretti, Irene Pecorelli, Claudia Pelosi, Stefano Petrocchi, Paola Pogliani, Paolo Procaccioli, Fiorella Proietti, Simonetta Prosperi Valenti, Saverio Ricci, Simona Rinaldi, Sebastiano Rooberto, Giuseppe Romagnoli, Claudio Strinati, Laura Teza, Patrizia Tosini, Adele Trani, Alberto White
and the familiar rise in rank and social status during the Renaissance may be seen as outward manifestations of a new psychology that opened the way for professionals to make art for themselves, for pleasure, devotion, solace or even revenge.