artibus
et
historiae

an art anthology

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OF 'ARTIBUS ET HISTORIAE'
Artibus et Historiae no. 38 (XIX), 1998
252 x 232 mm
ISSN 0391-9064
90 EURO
Contents
ANDRZEJ ROTTERMUND - Bernardo Bellotto's Unknown View of Munich (pp. 9—19)
The discovery of an unknown replica of "A View of Munich from Gasteig Hill" in a private collection, enables us, thanks to the confrontation with the known versions from Munich (Residence) and Washington (National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Foundation), to trace more thoroughly the creative process of Bernardo Bellotto, called Canaletto.
 
After the research on the authorship and dating of the newly discovered painting, the author concludes that it is painted in Dresden in the years 1762—1767 by Bernardo Bellotto himself, from the drawing prepared in 1761 for the first view created for the Residence in Munich. Among dozens of the towns capes which are included in Bellotto's œuvre, the views of Munich and Warsaw are conspicuous for their exceptional treatment of the subject, which was remarkable not only for Bellotto's works but which is absolutely unique in the whole contemporary history of townscape painting.
 
CHRISTIANE L. JOOST-GAUGIER - The Iconography of Sacred Space: A Suggested Reading of the Meaning of the Roman Pantheon (pp. 21—42)
This reading of the Pantheon is based on Pythagorean literary and mathematical traditions available at the time of its construction, especially to one so captivated by Greek learning, mysteries, astrology and mathematics as Hadrian. By counting the essential parts of the building and relating those numbers to its shape and function, the structure clearly "reads" as the Marriage of the Sun and the Moon. Hadrian's horoscope, well known to scholars of classical astrology, sets forth the time of his birth as occurring at a moment of "coincidence" of the Sun and the Moon. His earliest biographers underline his special interest in the Sun and the Moon which corresponded with his Pythagorean interests. Other documents (one of which may have been authored by Hadrian himself) collaborate to persuasively suggest that the Pantheon was built by Hadrian not only to honor himself in language far more effective than that which a statue would have allowed, but to legitimize his reign which was in serious trouble at the time the Pantheon was designed. This paper does not purport to hold an "answer" to the meaning of the Pantheon. Rather it aims to work with hitherto unexplored materials that appear to hold promise as sources that may provide new avenues of investigation for study of this important building for which the cosmological significance of numbers - a time honored tradition in Greek learning - can widen our knowledge.
 
EDITH WYSS - A 'Triumph of Love' by Frans Francken the Younger; From the Allegory to Narrative (pp. 43—60)

The article investigates a little known painting by Frans Francken the Younger dating most likely from the 1620s. For many figures in the crowded panel the artist relied on prototypes provided by the cycles of illustrations to Ovid's Metamorphoses. However, the general theme of the painting as well as the central motif of Cupid's triumphal chariot do not originate in Ovid's writings but have their source in Petrarch's Trionfi. An examination of the traditional iconography of the Petrarchan "Triumph of Love" highlights Francken's originality. He replaced Petrarch's endless procession of desolate lovers by a plethora of narrative scenes of tragic love affairs as told by Ovid. Francken revitalized Petrarch's didactic allegorical lineup of exempla by calling on the narrative verve of Ovid and his illustrators.

SYLVIE WUHRMANN - Une étude en gris. Le 'Triptique de déluge' de Jérôme Bosch (pp. 61—136)
A Study in Grey: The "Triptych of the Deluge" by Hieronymus Bosch
 
Two panels by Hieronymus Bosch entered the collections of the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam in 1941. They were originally the wings of a triptych whose centre panel has been lost. The wings themselves are incomplete, and are painted recto-verso in an unusual form of grisaille. Apart from one scene, The Departure from the Ark, the iconography of the panels has never been fully resolved, especially that of the four medallions found on the reverse side. This article examines the earlier research and attempts to propose a new interpretation. Drawing on a wide range of comparative works, both from the Bosch corpus and from the artistic tradition within which he was working, the author examines the wings in the light of various biblical sources and their Christian exegesis. This allows for a new interpretation and reconstruction of the damaged triptych: it is a work whose iconography is dominated by the parallel Deluge/Last Judgement. On the two inner faces of the two wings of the triptych we see The Fall of the Angels during the first days of the Creation, and The Departure from the Ark after the destruction of early society. Thus the central panel would have shown the corruption of Mankind before the Deluge, a mankind unaware in its excesses of the punishment awaiting it. On the reverse, the medallions illustrate the trials and the recovery of Job, seen as a model of resistance in the face of evil and a prophet of the Resurrection. Thus is developed a coherent iconographical programme which, balanced between Fall and Salvation, should allow the Triptych of the Deluge to reclaim its rightful place beside the great eschatological Triptychs of Bosch.
 
JOSEPH GUTMANN - On Biblical Legends in Medieval Art (pp. 137—142)

Depictions of extra-biblical legends frequently appear in medieval Christian, Jewish and Islamic art. These depictions, although frequently rooted in ancient Jewish lore, are not based on lost ancient Jewish artistic traditions as some scholars have claimed. Rather, the legends were adapted and creatively transformed by Christians and Muslims to convey new theological concepts. This article explores three biblical legends in medieval art - Adam being worshiped by angels, Cain being shown by two ravens how to kill his brother Abel, and Pharaoh rescued by God at the Red Sea. These illustrations demonstrate that while the literary traditions have some relationship to each other, they bear little resemblance artistically and iconographically.

LINDA A. KOCH - The Portrayal of Female Sainthood in Renaissance San Gimigniano: Ghirlandaio's Frescoes of Santa Fina's Legend (pp. 143—170)
Domenico Ghirlandaio's two frescoes depicting the Legend of S. Fina in the Collegiata at San Gimignano (intended for the promotion of this local saint's official recognition by the Church) present an ideal image of female sainthood that focuses overwhelmingly on Fina's physical body. Ghirlandaio used Fina's recumbent position on a hard board to his advantage, providing settings that establish her likeness to the Virgin Mary, Christ Crucified, the early martyrs, and the Eucharist. The settings also imply her connection with the institution of the Church itself both through a visualization of the metaphorical equation of the spiritual and material "Church" and through reference to the Mass of St. Gregory. In a very brief depiction of a saint's legend unparalleled in the fifteenth century, Ghirlandaio endowed a little-known local female with universal Christian significance.
 
PERRI LEE ROBERTS - A Newly Recovered Painting by Masolino da Panicale (pp. 171—177)
The newly recovered painting is not recorded in any known documents or literary sources relating to Masolino, nor is its provenance known prior to its appearance in a private collection in Connecticut. The size, relative thinness, format and subject matter of the panel implies that it originally was part of a larger complex. It may have been inserted into the doors of a "custodia" enclosing a work of sculpture or painting, or those of an "armadio". However, the more likely context for this painting is the median tierof a multi-stored polyptych, above the larger main panels, and below the pinnacles; given the orientation of the figure and the view from below, it was clearly on the right-hand side of the altarpiece. Masolino's newly recovered panel cannot be securely associated with any surviving or documented lost works by the artist. Part of a herefore unknown polyptych painted by the artist early in his painting career, "St. John the Evangelist" represents a significant addition to the œuvre of this important, early Renaissance master.
 
JOANNA SZCZEPIŃSKA-TRAMER - Manet et 'Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe' (pp. 179—190)
Manet and "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe"
 
The article is a study of the manner in which Manet uses a fragment from Marcantonio Raimondi's drawing The Judgement of Paris. This manoeuvre has the hallmarks of a citation by means of which the painter stresses the fact that the work, which from the 16th c. served as an academic standard, in his own painting plays the part of an intruder; that it is only a drawing and not a real scene. The particular character of this relationship, until recently considered mainly in terms of dualism, i.e. tradition - modernité, confirms the latest opinion, frequently occurring in literature, that today Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe and La Pêche as a pair based on the relationship opposition - complementairité.
 
DORA VALLIER - 'Bateaux a voile' - le plus ancien tableau de Henri Rousseau le Douanier connu a ce jour. Une découverte réecente (pp. 191—195)
"Bateaux à voile" - the Oldest Known Painting by Henri Rousseau le Douanier. The Latest Discover
 
The recently discovered painting by Henri Rousseau, customs officer by profession and self-taught artist, is an excep­tional source of information about the early period of his artistic creation. The painting has survived intact, untouched by conservators, bearing no traces of excessive washes, still fixed on its original stretcher, and showing only obvious marks of its age. It was kept somewhere in the French provinces by the family of painter Marie Adolphe Edouard de Otemar who received it as a gift from the artist himself. The painting was created in 1880 and is one of the oldest works by this artist. It defined the artist's future for whom exhibition halls, art galleries and private collections were to open their doors wide. This very first canvas presaged the birth of a great painter.