Trecento and Quattrocento Italian Art

This ambitious book is about a way of building that for centuries dominated the making of monumental architecture – yet now not only is it lost as practice, knowledge of its very existence is consigned to oblivion. In pre-modern Europe, the architect built not just with imagination, brick and mortar, but with time, using vast quantities of duration to erect monumental buildings that otherwise would have been impossible. Not mere medieval muddling-through, this entailed a sophisticated set of norms and practices. Virtually all the great cathedrals of Europe were built under this regime. In particular, the major works of pre-modern Italy, from the Pisa cathedral group to the new St Peter’s – the apotheosis of the practice – are thus cast in an entirely new light.  Even as ‘Building-in-Time’ flourished, the fifteenth-century Italian architect Leon Battista Alberti proposed a new temporal regime whereby time would ideally be excluded from the making of architecture (‘Building-outside-Time’). Planning and building, which had formed one fluid, imbricated process, were to be sharply divided, and the change that always came with time excluded from architectural facture. Ironically, it was Brunelleschi, as creator of the cupola of Florence cathedral and one of the supreme practitioners of Building-in-Time, who was the lynchpin of Alberti’s turn to the arts in the mid-1430s. That he arrived in Florence just at the moment Brunelleschi’s dome was being completed was crucial to Alberti’s subsequent career in visual culture.  In telling this story, Trachtenberg rewrites the history of medieval and Renaissance architecture in Italy and recasts the turn to modernity in new terms. Recovering this lost element allows us also to see the present in a new way: temporality is not a neutral or secondary factor in modern architecture culture, but an epistemic condition that silently affects all production and experience of the built environment.

This essay examines and discusses a hitherto unpublished drawing reproducing a fresco in Siena, now lost but traditionally attributed to Simone Martini by sources ranging from Ghiberti to Della Valle. The drawing, from the collection of the art historian Jean-Baptiste Seroux d’Agincourt housed in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, prompts discussion regarding the painting’s iconography and style.

Die Domansicht, die Andrea Bonaiuti an der Ostwand des Kapitelsaals des Dominikanerklosters Santa Maria Novella in den Jahren 1366 bis 1367 malte, gehört zu den erstaunlichsten  Architekturdarstellungen des Mittelalters. Die Ähnlichkeiten zum Dom sind verblüffend und umso erstaunlicher, wenn man bedenkt, dass zur Zeit der Ausmalung des Kapitelsaals vom Florentiner Dom im Wesentlichen nur die ab 1296 unter Arnolfo di Cambio begonnene Fassade und die beiden ersten Joche standen, die gemäß dem neuen Plan von Francesco Talenti errichtet und bis Mai 1366 eingewölbt worden waren. In diesem Artikel untersuche ich den Zusammenhang zwischen der gemalten Vision und dem realen Bauprojekt. Dabei soll gezeigt werden, dass die Domdarstellung im Kapitelsaal als Ausdruck des Stolzes der Dominikaner für das Gelingen des damals größten Bauvorhabens der Stadt gewertet werden kann, für das sie sich in besonderer Weise verantwortlich fühlten.

Sgraffito as a decorative element of the exterior of 14th and 15th century Florentine buildings has long been known, although seldom granted much attention. The present dissertation, therefore, examines the phenomenon of sgraffito, a technique in which motifs are scratched into smoothened or whitewashed plaster. These decorations can be found as wall decorations on public and semi-public buildings, religious structures, and private dwellings. For the period in question 34 buildings with sgraffito decorations—preserved or otherwise accounted for—could be identified. They have been compiled into a catalogue of the objects under investigation in this study; their documentary value is assessed in a separate chapter. Since many of the sgraffito renderings have only been preserved fragmentarily, extensively restored, or reconstructed, the question of their testimonial value must be treated with caution. The chapter about the history of the technique explores its invention and further development. Scrutiny of the characteristics of the earliest known examples allows the origins of the sgraffito technique—unclear until today—to be traced back to stone work designs and masonry joints. Furthermore, the material suggests a dating of the adoption of grey coloring to the mid-quattrocento, connecting it with the design of the Palazzo Medici’s inner courtyard. The chapter on technology addresses how artists and artisans executed the decorations before and after the Palazzo Medici. Written sources and, most importantly, close study of the decorated objects are the foundation for a reconstruction of the technique in its different stages, taking materials, tools and the time taken to execute these steps into account. The fact that sgraffito decorations were used on both public and private buildings of importance suggests that they were intended to give the buildings a cachet of distinction. The chapter on the significance of sgraffito decorations examines which buildings were so decorated, and investigates who gave the work in commission and what their social standing was. The success of the inexpensive and uncomplicated wall decorations was owed above all to their inherent pictorial character, as the chapter Architektur/Bild argues on the basis of the first and simplest motif—the ashlar. The final chapter compiles examples of the technique’s dissemination from Florence. In particular Rome and Pienza, where many examples of sgraffito have survived, are key locations in this context.
Andreas Huth
Florentiner Sgraffito-Dekorationen des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts Erfindung, Technologie, Bedeutung
Abstract (Deutsch)
Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht mit den Florentiner Sgraffito-Dekorationen des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts eine in der Forschung seit langem bekannte, aber wenig erforschte Form der Außengestaltung von Bauwerken. Mit Sgraffito wird eine Technik bezeichnet, bei der in die geglättete oder geweißte Oberfläche eines Putzes Motive eingeritzt werden. Sgraffito-Dekorationen sind an öffentlichen/halb-öffentlichen Bauwerken, Gebäuden in religiösem Kontext und privaten Wohnbauten zu finden. Für die Arbeit wurden für den Untersuchungszeitraum insgesamt 34 Bauwerke ermittelt und in einem Katalog erfasst. Die erhaltenen und nachweisbaren Sgraffito-Dekorationen bilden das Untersuchungsmaterial, dessen dokumentarischer Wert im einleitenden Kapitel diskutiert wird, da viele der Wandgestaltungen nur fragmentarisch, stark restauriert oder als Rekonstruktionen überliefert sind. Ein Kapitel zur Geschichte nimmt die Erfindung und die weitere Entwicklung der Technik in den Focus. Mit Blick auf die Charakteristika der frühesten bekannten Dekorationen wird die bislang unbekannte Herkunft der Sgraffito-Technik aus Formen der Mauerwerks- und Fugengestaltung erklärt. Darüber hinaus kann der Zeitpunkt der Einführung der Grau-Färbung auf Mitte des Quattrocento eingegrenzt und mit dem Innenhof des Palazzo Medici verbunden werden. Wie Handwerker und Künstler Sgraffito-Dekorationen vor und nach den Palazzo Medici ausführten, behandelt ein Kapitel zur Technologie. Auf Basis von schriftlichen Quellen, vor allem aber Beobachtungen an den Objekten wird hier die Technik in ihren Einzelschritten und unter Berücksichtigung der verwendeten Materialien und Werkzeuge sowie der Ausführungszeit rekonstruiert. Der Einsatz von Sgraffito-Dekorationen für bedeutende öffentliche und private Gebäude erlaubt die Annahme, dass es sich bei ihnen um eine besondere Form der Aus- und Kennzeichnung der Bauwerke handelt. Ein Kapitel zur Bedeutung der Sgraffito-Dekorationen fragt, welche Gebäude verziert wurden, wer die AuftraggeberInnen waren und welchen gesellschaftlichen Status sie besaßen. Der Erfolg der kostengünstigen und technisch wenig aufwändigen Wanddekoration verdankt sich vor allem ihrem bildlichen Charakter, wie das Kapitel ‚Architektur/Bild‘ anhand der Quaderung als dem ersten und einfachsten Motiv zu zeigen versucht. Das letzte Kapitel versammelt Beispiele für die von Florenz ausgehende Verbreitung der Sgraffito-Dekorationen. Hierbei kommt vor allem Rom und Pienza eine Schlüsselstellung zu, wo sich zudem zahlreiche Bauwerke mit Sgraffito-Gestaltungen erhalten haben.

Giuliano de’ Medici (1453 – 78) is one of the most prominent yet understudied figures of the Quattrocento, his importance forgotten and legacy reduced to being the assassinated younger brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent. A series of posthumous portraits of the youth painted by Sandro Botticelli in the aftermath of the Pazzi Conspiracy, however, are some of the most celebrated panels of the Renaissance. Giuliano's likeness, as depicted by Botticelli, has been utilized to locate the young man in other works across the painter's oeuvre. Idealized giovani of his general physical "type" abound in sacred as well as secular compositions, indicating, to various scholars, that Giuliano is present in these scenes. This paper will reconsider these traditional identifications by looking more broadly at the "Giuliano type," thereby interrogating the appearance of idealized young men in Botticelli's oeuvre as well as their connection to broader conceptions of male beauty in Florence.   
(Session: Belli, Bravi e Giovani - Male Beauty and the Accoutrements Thereof in Renaissance Italy)

Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi “La Città Europea del Trecento. Trasformazioni, Monumenti, Ampliamenti urbani”, tenutosi a Cagliari nel dicembre 2005.

«...Tra le tante ricerche sviluppate in questi anni il convegno sul Trecento, nuova proposta
scientifica di Enrico Guidoni, ha avuto necessità di una lunga preparazione tesa
a definire tematiche nuove che avrebbero potuto aprire ulteriori filoni di studio
nel panorama della città europea e mediterranea; alla fine Guidoni ha scelto Cagliari
quale sede per il Trecento per valorizzare una fase culturale di convergenza mediterranea,
ancora più chiara nella riflessione di fasi urbanistiche comuni con città quali
Napoli, Palermo o Valencia.Ma al di là degli utili confronti tra le città europee meridionali,
per le quali si evidenziano importanti analogie nelle strategie di investimento
pubblico – particolarmente nelle aree centrali, portuali e mercantili – dai diciannove
contributi al Convegno è emersa una notevole affinità di obiettivi urbanistici e
architettonici leggibili in uno scenario geografico ben più ampio. Si rilevano opere
finalizzate a cambiare il volto delle città secondo nuovi ed ambiziosi programmi, dove
il protagonismo di sovrani e signori si esprime attraverso architetture e rinnovamenti
di porzioni urbane, sottolineati da forti significati monumentali e politici. I
progetti delle nuove architetture interpretano nell’enfasi dimensionale o nella spettacolare
centralità scenografica la volontà di cambiare, pur con azioni limitate a particolari
settori urbani, l’aspetto e l’immagine della città, legandola ad una particolare
fase politica ed adeguandola ai moderni parametri estetici...»

A heavily repainted wooden Crucifix in the parish church of Ussita (near Visso, Macerata) is here published and attributed to a 14th-century Umbrian sculptor, known as the Maestro della Madonna del Duomo di Spoleto (Master of the Spoleto Cathedral Madonna). The three figures painted on the wooden cross are assigned to a painter also from Spoleto, the Fossa Master.

È soltanto nell'ultimo decennio che si è cominciato a mettere a fuoco la specificità della produzione di cofani in gesso dorato propria della città di Perugia. La svolta decisiva è giunta con gli studi di Chiara Guerzi e Andrea De Marchi 1 , ai quali si deve una prima ricostruzione dell'attività del Maestro dell'Annunciazione Campana, forse identificabile con Giovanni di Tommasino Crivelli e assurto a protagonista di questa mostra. Tale avanzamento nella conoscenza dell'arte nuziale ha finalmente messo in discussione e superato la rigida polarità tra Toscana (Firenze e Siena) e nord Italia, riferimenti consueti per le classificazioni spesso generiche di fronti e casse disperse in musei e collezioni di mezzo mondo, lasciando emergere un quadro più complesso, all'interno del quale deve ancora essere recuperato il contributo dei centri minori 2 . Senza uscire dal territorio umbro, tutto da esplorare è l'apporto alla metà del Quattrocento delle botteghe fulignati nell'elaborazione di questi manufatti, preziosi oggetti d'uso familiare intrisi di nostalgie tardogotiche. Il punto di partenza per impostare questo frammentario racconto è senz'altro la fronte di cofano conservata nel Museo Stibbert a Firenze (inv. 8, sala 35; ill. 1) 3 , che purtroppo non è stato possibile avere in prestito per la mostra. La tavola illustra tre distinti momenti della storia di Tobiolo e dell'arcangelo Raffaele, inseriti entro una cornice in gesso rilevato e dorato, articolata in cinque arcate inflesse di ascendenza adriatica, sorrette da colonnine tortili. Un motivo composto da foglie di quercia, modellate a rilievo contro il fondo granito, arricchisce gli sguanci, mentre lungo il profilo interno delle arcatelle corre un decoro creato dalla giustapposizione di un piccolo punzone trilobato. La tavola non è integra e in origine era arricchita ai lati da una fascia con motivi a racemi sgraffiti sull'argento che sopravvive all'estremità destra, mentre è perduta a sinistra e lungo il margine superiore. Una seconda fascia in azzurrite e argento chiude in basso il campo figurato, simulando una frangia oppure un'iscrizione: in ambito perugino si riscontrano casi in cui l'epigrafe s'imposta direttamente sotto il fregio principale, separata da una semplice cornice, come nel cofano datato 1422 già a Parigi, collezione Spiridon (e poi Gualino fino al 1932), e ora d'ubicazione

This article explores the way Renaissance men and women sought protection against plague by investigating examples commissioned by one representative group of worshippers, confraternities. Scholars have often assumed that during epidemics, individualistic self-interest triumphed over collective civic identity, as wealthy citizens deserted in droves and ties of family and friendship dissolved in the face of the overwhelming need to save one's own skin. Examining these images, I ask, how does the confraternity position itself in relation to its own members and to the rest of society? What chains of intercession are mobilized, and for whose benefit? Three case studies provide a pan-Italian perspective: an altarpiece of the plague Virgin of Mercy by Barnaba da Modena from Genoa, a processional banner for a Perugian flagellant confraternity by Benedetto Bonfigli, and a painting of the new plague saint Roch by Bartolomeo della Gatta for the confraternity palace in Arezzo.

Amor is a prominent figure in early Italian poetry, where the antique image of the god of love was enriched with some new and modern elements. While Brunetto Latini’s Tesoretto introduced the idea of Cupid‘s blindness, very influential was a sequence of thirteen sonnets by Guittone d' Arezzo that describe and explain a painting of Amor. The god is conceived here as a very frightening hybrid creature with the claws of a hawk. From this poetic ekphrasis arose an exchange of poems and a long lasting debate on the character of love. Another frequent image is that of Amor sitting on a throne in his court, in the midst of a multitude of lovers. A prominent painted example is the frontispiece of the Canzoniere palatino, which reflects a profane and more or less positive notion of love inspired by courtly literature. On the other hand, a more frightening version of Amor shows him standing on the back of a galloping horse and attacking defenceless people. This image must have had a wide circulation but is today conserved only in a few miniatures and a fresco in the Castello di Sabbionara at Avio. Francesco da Barberino participated in this discourse with a specific picture commented by a long poem, which he recited in a public performance. He conceived a detailed theory of love for a communal audience, according to which bad as well as good things emerge from love.  Further examples show that images and poems are part of a discussion that continued during the entire fourteenth century. The article explores these varying ideas of the god of love and the mutual exchange on this theme between painting and poetry.

Le pareti della Camera d'Amore, che trova posto all'ultimo piano del mastio nel castello di Sabbionara d'Avio, vennero decorate nel Trecento con un ciclo di affreschi di tema profano. In gran parte danneggiati, nel corso del Novecento diversi studiosi hanno provato ad affrontarne le problematiche, quali la datazione, l'iconografia e l'attribuzione. Questo articolo tenta, attraverso una serie di nuovi confronti, di suggerire una nuova proposta di datazione e di confermare, in maniera ormai certa, l'orizzonte culturale da cui il Maestro del ciclo sarebbe provenuto.

The walls of the Camera d'Amore, which is located in the last floor of the keep in the castle of Sabbionara d'Avio, were decorated in the XIV century with a cycle of secular frescoes. Now mostly damaged, in the XX century several studies have tried to face issues like date, iconography and attribution. According to different comparisons, this paper tries to suggest a new dating solution and to confim, now beyond any doubt, the cultural horizon from which the Master of Avio should have come from.

Performance score of Francesco Landini's madrigal, " Musica Son - Già Furon - Ciascun Vuol" transcribed from the Squarcialupi Codex (121v-122r). For a video of the score with a performance see the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNcfZSBF9ow

Alberti's aims with De pictura/Della pittura are closely mirrored by the tripartite division of the text, as well as the compressed ideas within each section. He sought to elevate the status of painting that of a liberal art, which entailed addressing both painters and the circle to which Alberti himself belonged: the humanist scholar,  so as to establish painting as an intellectual activity worthy of academic discussion. The end result is a text whereby painters and scholars are addressed simultaneously and seamlessly, with the aims of elevating the painter to the rank of a liberal artist, and the profession of painting to a liberal art.

This paper examines ways in which identity in the later Middle Ages could have been displayed through the means that paradoxically seemed to dissolve the very idea of identity – the image of the decomposed body. In the following pages it is argued that the transi monuments were considered to represent the true portraits of deceased individuals, emphasizing that those buried beneath were experiencing purgatorial pains. Special attention is devoted to the mechanisms which were employed in order for the transis to be fashioned as individual portraits. Even though cadaver monuments were not part of the experience of Italian art of Trecento and Quattrocento, it is argued that, albeit all the differences from its northern counterparts, the tomb slab of Antonio Amati should be considered as a true transi tomb as well as the true portrait of the deceased.

Chapters:
1. Purifying decay
2. Of flesh and clothes
3. Sum quod eris vs. memento mori
4. Epilogue

This is a comparative manuscript edition of Gherardello da Firenze's (c. 1350) caccia "Tosto che l'alba". Herein you can see the difference between the piece's three available sources listed below. For a performable realization of this piece taken from these three sources, see the related title under "performance edition".

Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana [I-Fl], MS Mediceo Palatino 87 “Codex Squarcialupi”, no. 40 fol 25v-26r
Bibliothèque Nationale [F-PN], MS fonds italien 568 “Pit”, no. 40 fol. 25v-26r
British Library [GB-Lbl], Add. MS 29987, no 31 fol. 25r

For a recording and video of the score see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok4VOFvLE2Y

This essay investigates reactions to the recurring disaster of bubonic plague by analysing a series of miniatures in the chronicle of Lucchese apothecary Giovanni Sercambi. Completed in 1400, the richly illustrated manuscript (Lucca, Archivio di Stato, ms. 107) records seven epidemics, from the Black Death to the century’s end. Demons or angels are shown unleashing the disease on helpless humanity. Amongst the earliest visual evocations of the experience of plague, the drawings offer key insights into early modern responses to this most fearsome of disasters, articulating contemporary understandings of plague’s supernatural causes and terrestrial effects, and the emotional regimes elicited in response. Examined individually and as unfolding sequence, set against and interacting with the surrounding text, the miniatures fulfil a range of commemorative, hortatory and cathartic functions.

This is a performance edition of Gherardello da Firenze's (c. 1350) caccia, "Tosto che l'alba." This edition is a combination of the three available sources for this piece, selecting those options which are optimal when differences arise between the manuscripts. If one desires to see the other available options in each source, please refer to the related title under "comparative manuscript edition". The complete text of the piece is provided with a translation at the end of the score.

For a recording and video of the score see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok4VOFvLE2Y

Storia e lettura dei cicli pittorici affrescati nella volta e sulle pareti della Cappella di S. Agnese e San Gregorio Magno realizzata nella chiesa di San Giorgio Martire a Campobasso fra la fine del XIV e gli inizi del XV per il nobile campobassano Cola Ferraguto.
Vannozzi Stefano, La cappella Ferraguto nella chiesa di San Giorgio Martire a Campobasso. Dai nove cieli del sistema aristotelico-tolemaico al Volto Santo di Lucca. Prima e seconda parte, in «Il Bene Comune. Arte, cultura e civiltà per il terzo millennio», a. XVI, n. 7, Campobasso, luglio 2016, pp. 12-17; «Il Bene Comune. Arte, cultura e civiltà per il terzo millennio», a. XVI, n. 7, Campobasso, agosto-settembre 2016, pp. 12-19. Copia digitale migliorata e integrata da Valentina Marino, settembre 2016.

This article deals with the decoration of the Inferno and Purgatorio Riccardiano (Firenze, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 1005), attributed to the Illustratore by d’Arcais (1978). The Braidense Library in Milan holds the Paradiso (ms AG XII 2), whose decoration d’Arcais attributed to the B18 Master. The two volumes form one of the most ancient illustrated Commedia copies and they transmit the oldest surviving version of Iacomo della Lana’s commentary. Philological and paleographic studies on the Riccardiano-Braidense text pointed out that it was probably produced in the 1330s. The miniatures of the Florentine volume seem to confirm this chronology. As d’Arcais has already proposed, they appear to be among the Illustratore’s earliest works.
The Riccardiano-Braidense decoration is unique, as far as the structure and the subject choice are concerned. Two hundred ‘historiated’ initials adorned each canto and its commentary, illustrating the subject matter of the canto. Comparisons are drawn to the possible sources of this unusual structure.
Even more singular is the presence in the Riccardiano-Braidense decoration of iconographies related to single passages picked up from the poem and not to the narrative as a whole. This way of illustrating the poem reflects the interpretation of the Commedia as a treatise addressed to university students given by the commentary. The miniatures of the Riccardiano 1005 seem to form a sort of visual treatise ‘de vitiis et poenis’. It is pointed out how the Illustratore does not depict a series of allegories or abstract personifications, but lively and dramatic scenes. That could be put into connection with the peculiar teaching function of these miniatures, as in law books.
Nothing is known about the identity of the Riccardiano-Braidense patron. This topic is discussed with reference to the ‘historiated’ initial of Purg. XXXIII (c. 185r). The author wonders whether anyone may have ever wanted such an image to be painted in Bologna during the government of the papal legate Bertrand du Pouget, if the volume should be dated before 1334.

Urbanistic practice in trecento Florence, although it spawned no codified theory, was more conceptually developed than we usually imagine. Buildings wereforcefully presented and tautly interwoven with their sites by means of inventive, empirical procedures. Intricate webs of geometry structured architectural scenes of Giottesque three-dimensionality.  Order and meaning were bestowed on urbanistic scenes that might well have become disordered and unfocused through the slow
evolution and redesign of architectural projects. A pre-eminent case in point was the Piazza della Signoria. Documentary, archaeological, andhistorical evidence suggests that as the Palazzo Vecchio rose in 1299-1315, it underwent fundamental design changes largely inspired by the growing piazza around it and that the piazza itself; as it grew to its final form through the trecento, was guided with surprising precision by the visual demands of the palace, the medieval obsession with geometric
structure, and the urbanistic patterns of the city.

For an audio-video animation of the manuscript with the modern transcription see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO56v7qltNo

An edition of the anonymous labyrinthine ballade on three canons, "En la maison Dedalus" (In the House of Dedalus) from the Berkeley Manuscript.

This edition includes a modern transcription of the music, the original manuscript excerpted, poetic and literal translations of the text, reconstruction of the 11-tier labyrinth upon which the music is overlain, and pedagogical materials/explanations of the musical and poetic medieval Ballade forme-fixe.

Dominican friars were vowed to a life of religious poverty, and yet by the end of the fourteenth century their churches contained many visual riches. This books seeks to understand how and why the friars accumulated and then put to use such visual wealth.

Il chiostrino dei Morti è uno dei tre cimiteri di Santa Maria Novella, tornato accessibile nel 2012 dopo decenni di chiusura quasi ininterrotta. Il volume è incentrato sulle sue decorazioni murali, affreschi rimasti finora nell’oblio, trattati in margine – se non addirittura esclusi – dai fondamentali contributi sulla pittura iforentina del Trecento. Eppure su queste pareti, lacerate dall’umidità e dal tempo, si legge una testimonianza eccezionale di storia, civiltà e arte – tra la fine degli anni trenta e l’inizio degli anni sessanta del XIV secolo, in un momento cruciale per la storia e la cultura artistica fiorentina, il chiostro costitutiva un cantiere modernissimo, in cui operarono i principali protagonisti del tempo, come Andrea di Cione e il fratello Nardo, che avrebbero elaborato archetipi fondamentali per il linguaggio figurativo dei decenni successivi.

A più di ottant’anni dalle illuminanti intuizioni di Roberto Longhi e dopo gli studi capillari di Alessandro Conti e di Massimo Medica sulla miniatura bolognese di età gotica, è parso maturo il tempo di dedicare un volume a una delle personalità cardine per la cultura figurativa bolognese del Trecento, il geniale anonimo un tempo confuso con Nicolò di Giacomo e felicemente soprannominato “l’Illustratore” da Longhi stesso per sottolinearne la straordinaria capacità narrativa con cui, tra gli anni trenta e quaranta, «andava illustrando i libri di culto e di legge come se avesse a mano i più affascinanti romanzi popolari».
Il libro affronta il percorso artistico dell’Illustratore, dalla formazione nel momento eccezionalmente stimolante del governo del legato papale Bertrando del Poggetto alla decorazione di alcuni lussuosi manoscritti giuridici, in cui emerge la caratteristica vivacità espressiva dell’artista. Il volume propone una lettura del linguaggio dell’Illustratore in connessione con la visualizzazione narrativa dei contenuti del testo svolta dalla miniatura nei manoscritti universitari, tenendo conto inoltre del ruolo della committenza, laddove è possibile definirla. Conclude l’opera un catalogo ragionato.
Il libro costituisce la prima monografia dedicata a un miniatore bolognese e rappresenta un significativo contributo per approfondire la posizione originale di Bologna nel Trecento europeo.

Resumen: La hipótesis de trabajo del presente artículo plantea la posibilidad de que la doctrina mariológica de San Buenaventura haya ejercido notable influencia directa en varios de los más significativos temas iconográficos marianos en el arte italiano de la Baja Edad Media. Tras esbozar una breve síntesis biográfica para resaltar la elevada posición de dicho santo como maestro de la Escolástica, prestigioso escritor sacro, máxima autoridad de la Orden Franciscana y acreditado Doctor de la Iglesia, el autor del artículo expone las tesis desarrolladas por San Buenaventura en cada uno de sus múltiples “Discursos Mariológicos”, antes de analizar un conjunto de imágenes pictóricas representativas de diversos temas iconográficos marianos en las que se podría detectar esa probable influencia de la mariología bonaventuriana.

Abstract: The central hypothesis of this paper raises the possibility that the mariology of St. Bonaventure maybe could have exercised substantial, direct influence on several of the most significant Marian iconographic themes in Italian art of the late Middle Ages. After a brief biographical sketch to highlight the prominent position of the saint as a master of Scholastic, prestigious writer, the highest authority of the Franciscan Order and accredited Doctor of the Church, the author of this paper presents the thesis developed by St. Bonaventure in each one of his many “Mariological Discourses” before analyzing a set of pictorial images representing various Marian iconographic themes in which we could detect the probable influence of bonaventurian mariology.

For a video animation of this piece see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm6WqK3cr_8

This is a pedagogical edition of Senleches' famous piece of augenmusik, "La Harpe de Mellodie" from the 14th century. Find herein complete explanations of all parts of the piece (pictorial, poetical, musical, formal, etc.). Complete translations of all texts are provided along with an explanation of translations methodology and problems. Complete high-resolution graphics of the two sources are included with two different possible realizations of the riddle canon.

This paper aims to highlight the artistic and conceptual relevance acquired by the iconographic theme of The Coronation of the Virgin in Italy during the Late Middle Ages. To achieve this goal we analyzed twenty-seven Trecento and Quattrocento paintings, with the purpose of discovering in them the more or less innovative compositional formulas proposed by these artists, as well as the possible literary sources that inspired them. From the formal perspective we have discovered three different iconographic types, which complement themselves mutually, as progressively complex variations of a similar basic structure. From the conceptual perspective we could also specify that these three different iconographic types of The Coronation of the Virgin in Italy are inspired directly in specific comments by some Church Fathers and medieval theologians.

Edition of Lorenzo da Firenze's caccia, "A poste messe" with english lyrical text underlay. For a video-score of this edition with a recording see the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN1dFq0jK-U

Transcribed from the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana [I-Fl], MS Mediceo Palatino 87, “Codex Squarcialupi”, fol 25v-26r and the
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence (Firenze), Italy [I-Fn], MS Panciatichiano 26, "Panciatichi", fol. 76v-77r.

The form of this piece is canonic with monophonic (?) ritornello. As indicated in the codices, the first part of the piece is clearly a canon for ether two or three voices. The second part, however, gives no sign that it should be performed canonically. Furthermore, there seems to be no reasonable way to render the second half of this piece as a canon without numerous and egregious counterpoint errors. Thus, it is generally accepted that the Ritornello is not a canon like the first part.

The second part can be performed monophonically or by many voices in octaves. However, many recordings have taken the liberty to arrange polyphonic parts to fit with the given monophonic line. Most such arrangements borrow material from the monophonic line, parts of which work contrapuntally well together when isolated and extracted arbitrarily.

The study deals with the sculptural and pictorial analysis of the Lambertini-Passasepe tomb located in the crypt of Trani Cathedral. Research is divided into two complementary parts. By studying the style and heraldic coat of arms on the sarcophagus, it has been possible to go back not only to the clients but also to the bonds of power behind particular representation choices, establishing the chronological arch of realization of the funeral monument itself. The second part deals with the analysis of the fresco framed by the tomb, the possible author and the rare iconography of the Virgin of the Veil, commingling with that of sleeping Baby Jesus, whose ties range from the Balkan East to the Adriatic.

Lo studio affronta l'analisi scultorea e pittorica della tomba Lambertini-Passasepe collocata nella cripta della cattedrale di Trani. La ricerca è divisa in due parti complementari tra loro. Attraverso lo studio dello stile e degli stemmi araldici presenti sul sarcofago è stato possibile risalire non solo ai committenti ma anche ai legami di potere dietro particolari scelte di rappresentazione stabilendo il possibile arco cronologico di realizzazione del monumento funebre stesso. La seconda parte verte sull'analisi dell'affresco inquadrato dalla tomba, sul possibile autore e sulla rara iconografia della Madonna del velo, fusa con quella di Gesù Bambino addormentato, i cui legami spaziano tra l'Oriente balcanico e l'area adriatica.

Since Roberto Longhi (1934-1935, 1950) modern scholarship has got a critical grasp of the original change Bolognese painting and illumination showed as a result of the epochal turn of the new realism by Giotto in the first half of fourteenth century. Art historians have widely studied the direct expressive force of Bolognese Trecento and the role of Byzantinising and northern-european gothic influences.
My paper is intended to focus on one among the protagonists of this turning, working in the 1330s-1340s, the anonymous illuminator nicknamed l’Illustratore by Longhi himself, and suggest a new interpretation of his disruption of giottesque balance on the basis of the didactic function as mnemonic images that miniatures performed in the law manuscripts produced for Bologna University, the main European center for this kind of objects. This approach depends on the observations by Frances Yates (1969) and Jean-Philippe Antoine (1988) about the correspondence between the mental images used in religious meditation shaped as active images set in tridimensional places according to the rules of the classical and medieval artificial memory and the great change of Italian religious painting between the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries.
If one considers miniatures in legal manuscripts as a network of images supporting lawyers’ memory, it appears that the lively narrative and expressive energy of l’Illustratore properly answered the need of something striking and unusual mnemonic images should show to be memorable according to the first-century-BC Rhetorica ad Herennium.

La stratificazione culturale presente nelle odierne province di Frosinone e Latina rappresenta un campo di ricerca complesso e dalle molteplici sfaccettature. La mia indagine è votata alla scoperta di un linguaggio pittorico internazionale durante il regno angioino - aragonese del XV secolo.

İstanbul 2016 iii SANAT TARİHİNDE LORETO MERYEM'İ BETİMLERİNİN İKONOGRAFİSİ Tüles Üresin ÖZ Bu çalışmanın konusunu, İtalyan sanatına özgü bir tema olarak seçkinleşen Loreto Meryem'i betimleri ve bu betim tipinin ortaya çıkışı, dönemin dinsel ortamıyla ilişkisi, ele alınan sahne şemasının gelişimi ve özellikle Karşı-Reformasyon ilkeleri bağlamında Loreto Meryem'i betimlerinin ikonografisi oluşturmaktadır. Üç ana bölümde incelenen çalışmada ilk bölüm, özellikle efsanenin ortaya çıkışı ve Meryem kültünün yükseliş dönemi olması nedeniyle Geç Ortaçağ Meryem betimlerine ayrılmıştır. Bu yüzden bu başlık altında Geç Ortaçağ Meryem kültünün gelişimi ve yine aynı dönemde ortaya çıkan Meryem betimleri üzerinden yeni Meryem temaları incelenmiştir. Nitekim tez çalışmasının konusu olan Loreto Meryem'i de ilk örnekleri bu dönemde verilen, Loreto'nun Katolik Kilisesi'nin hac merkezlerine katılmasıyla İtalyan ikonografisine özgü bir temaya dönüşen ve etkisini Karşı-Reformasyon süreciyle artıran bir betim tipidir. Çalışmanın ikinci bölümünde, Loreto Meryem'i betimlerine kaynaklık eden 13. yüzyıla ait efsane, efsaneyle ilgili metinler ve tarihsel bilgiler ışığında incelenmiştir. Kutsal Ev'in ilk ikamet ettiği yer olan Nasıra'nın tarihi, Haçlı Seferleri sırasında Kutsal Topraklar ve Ev'in korunmasına ilişkin incelemenin ardından Nasıra'dan Loreto'ya taşınan Ev için inşa edilen Basilica della Santa Casa'nın (Kutsal Ev Bazilikası) mimarisine değinilmiştir. Bunun yanı sıra Karşı-Reformasyon döneminde Trento Konsili kararları gereğince Katolik inancının öne sürdüğü Meryem kültü ve bu kültün gelişiminde önemli rol üstlenen Fransisken ve Cizvit tarikatlarının yaklaşımları ele alınan konular arasındadır. Tezin ana bölümünü oluşturan üçüncü bölümde; en erken örneklerinden başlayarak İtalyan sanatındaki Loreto Meryem'i betimleri ele alınmış ve gösterim biçimi açısından sahne kalıpları saptanmıştır. Karşı-Reformasyon ilkeleri bağlamında Meryem kültünün yükselişi ve Loreto Meryem'i temasının etkili olduğu dönem üzerine odaklanılarak bu temaya ilişkin örnekler, tek tek ikonografik yöntemle iv çözümlenmiştir. Sonuç bölümünde ise, Loreto Meryem'i betimlerinin İtalyan sanatındaki ikonografik gelişimi ve Karşı-Reformasyon ilkeleri bağlamında temanın ele alınışı üzerine bir değerlendirme yapılmıştır. ABSTRACT The present thesis is an attempt to examine the depictions of Mary of Loreto, that are mainly found in Italian art, the emergence of this theme and its relation with the religious environment of the period; the development scheme of the scene and especially the iconography of depictions of Mary of Loreto in the context of the principles of the Counter-Reformation. The thesis comprises three main parts, first of which offers a brief outline of the period of the rising of the Marian cult in the Late-Medieval Age when the legend of "Santa Casa" and the depictions of Mary appeared in the same period. Therefore under this title, the development of the Marian cult and the new Marian themes in this period have been observed. In fact, Mary of Loreto which is the subject of the thesis, is a theme that presents the first examples and increases its effect in the period of the Counter-Reformation by introducing Loreto as a Catholic place of pilgrimage. The second part deals with the legend of "Santa Casa" in the 13th century which is the source of the depictions of Mary of Loreto and the texts about the legend in the light of historical information. First a research is done on the history of Nazareth where the Holy House (Santa Casa) existed before, the Holy Land and the protection of Santa Casa during the Crusades and then the architecture and the architectural decoration of Sanctuary of the Holy House (Basilica della Santa Casa) which moved from Nazareth to Loreto is studied. The Marian cult, postulated by the Catholic Church in accordance with decisions of the Council of Trent and the approach of the Jesuits and Franciscans, which play an important role in the development of the cult, are the subjects discussed here. The third part comprising the main body of the study, examines the early examples of Mary of Loreto, defines forms of the scene in terms of presentation by focusing on the development of the Marian cult in context of the principles of the Counter-Reformation, in a period when the theme was influential. In this final part, principal examples have been analyzed particularly by the iconographic method. vi The conclusion evaluates the iconographic development of the depictions of Mary of Loreto in Italian art in the context of the principles of the Counter-Reformation.