Classical Myths in Italian Renaissance PaintingThis book retraces the development of classical imagery in the visual arts of the Italian Renaissance. Luba Freedman examines poems, letters, and treatises on art, which testify to the contemporary desire to depict classical myths in the style and spirit of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and to re-create the artistic patronage of the ancient Romans. This new development in art was driven by collaboration between humanists, artists, and their patrons. The extant artifacts of Roman antiquity, in addition to the study of Greek and Latin texts which brought to light descriptions of ancient paintings, were used as models for re-creating the visual culture of antiquity. Paintings of classical myths that were shaped all'antica, or in the manner of the ancients, reflected the desire of humanists to link the modern Rome with its ancient ancestry. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 The Fascination with Classical Myths | 23 |
2 The allantica Ambience | 36 |
3 The New Artistic Tradition | 54 |
4 Adaptations of Sculpted and Painted Mythologies from Antiquity | 89 |
5 The allantica Depiction of Classical Myths | 124 |
6 Wall Paintings on Classical Myths | 157 |
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Common terms and phrases
Alberti all’antica ancient paintings antique sculpture Apollo artists Bacchus and Ariadne Botticelli century Chapter Chigi cinquecento classical antiquity classical myths classical subjects commissioned contemporary created culture Danaë decoration depiction of classical depictions of mythological described paintings discussed Domus Aurea E. H. Gombrich episodes Europa example fabula familiar fifteenth figures Florence frescoed Galatea Giovanni Giulio gods Greco-Roman historical humanists illustrated images imagined imitation intaglios Italian Jove Leda Leonardo's letter literary loggia Lorenzo Marsyas Medici mentioned models motif murals mythological characters mythological narratives mythological paintings mythological scenes mythological subjects nude Ovid Ovidio painters paintings of classical paintings of mythological Palazzo Palazzo del Te panel patrons Phaëthon Philostratus Pliny poem poesia poetry poets Poliziano Polyphemus rape of Proserpina Raphael references Renaissance rendered representation of classical represented Rome sarcophagi sculpted reliefs secular art seen sixteenth sixteenth-century statues stories style tapestries texts Titian trans Vasari Venus viewers villa wall