Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana

Titelei

Die Redaktion — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Inhalt

Die Redaktion — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The Authors of this Volume

Die Redaktion — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The Cosmati Mosaics at Westminster. Art, Politics, and Exchanges with Rome in the Age of Gothic

Paul Binski, Claudia Bolgia — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This paper offers a radical reassessment of the thirteenth-century Cosmati mosaics in Westminster Abbey, commissioned during the reigns of Kings Henry III and Edward I. By offering the fullest yet account of the documentary sources, we seek to challenge the recent tendency to discount the international narrative of Roman and especially papal art in England and the omission of any account of the contemporary political situation which, we suggest, provided the context forthese mosaics. As Henry III recovered from the damaging civil war of the 1260s in England, he received significant papal support in restabilizing his regime. Contrary to the tradition that the initiative came from Westminster, we argue that the major agent was the brilliantly successful legate in England Ottobuono Fieschi, later Adrian V. Ottobuono shaped the post-civil war settlement with the support of Clement IV. We argue that the first of the mosaics to be completed, the sanctuary pavement, was in effect provided via channels opened up by Ottobuono, and was intended to be a coronation pavement modelled on a hitherto neglected coronation pavement in Old St Peter’s. Edward I was crowned on the Westminster pavement in 1274. The paper offers new in-depth readings of the various inscriptions on the Westminster mosaics which stress curial or Roman origin, in order to reassess the evidence they provide for date and patronage.A thorough re-examination of the archaeological and stylistic issues raised by the mosaics is put forward. This includes the signed and dated shrine base of St Edward the Confessor and the tomb of Henry III, which we maintain was commissioned from the circle of Arnolfo di Cambio with the support of Charles of Anjou. The paper also re-examines the identification of Odericus and Petrus Romanus civis, who signed the pavement and shrine respectively, in order to arrive at a reassessment of the impact of their movement not only from Rome to London, but also back to Viterbo and Rome. Only by taking a firmly internationalist position on the mosaics, seeing them in the wider context of European and especially Roman medieval art, can the increasingly localized debates about these monuments best be enlarged in such a way as to illuminate the situationin England and in Rome.

La tomba a due facce di Roberto d’Angiò e altri sepolcri opistoglittici

José-Luis Vega — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This article examines the role of the double-sided tomb in fourteenth-century sculpture, with particular reference to the mausoleum of the Angevin king Robert of Anjou (1309 –1343) in the basilica of Santa Chiara in Naples. The mausoleum contains a nun’s choir behind the sovereign’s tomb, which is in turn beyond a dividing wall, where a second side of the sepulcher most likely existed. The article argues that the choice of a double-sided tomb for the king was the result of not only the need for a visual reference for the nuns, but also of the development of an important artistic tradition of double sepulchers. The two components – divided by the wall but conceptually united – both contain elements that match the original uses of the two different sacred spaces. The only sculptural element that remains in the choir is a gisant, sculpted by the Bertini brothers like the tomb on the other side, that we can now study thanks to a photographic campaign by the Bibliotheca Hertziana. The paper presents other examples of double-sided tombs – from France to Tuscany and Catalonia – that confirm the importance of not only the Neopolitan tomb’s ability to bridge religious spaces of different functions, and to unite them both metaphorically and literally, but also of its place in the history of fourteenth-century sculpture more broadly.

Francisco de Hollanda’s Os Desenhos das Antigualhas (1538–ante 1571) and the Study of the Antique

Marco Brunetti — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This article focuses on Francisco de Hollanda’s (1517 –1585) Os Desenhos das Antiqualhas, an album of drawings preserved at the El Escorial Monastery Library in Madrid (inv. no. 28–I–20). Using high-definition images of the drawings, published for the first time in this volume, the article casts fresh light on the material, graphic, and historical details of Hollanda’s graphic production. Cross-referencing the evidence from the drawings with passages from Hollanda’s treatises (e. g., Da Pintura Antiga and Da Ciência do Desenho), the article offers new insights into the album’s original function and patronage. Hollanda worked on these drawings over a protracted period and, as the article demonstrates, likely viewed this album as his portfolio of drawings, as evidence of the artistic/antiquarian culture he had brought back to Portugal. The second part of the article focuses on Hollanda’s method of copying antique subjects (e. g., his decision to copy specific ancient models; the modifications he introduced in hiscopies; and the distinctness of his working practice when compared to the methods adopted by other contemporary artists). By highlighting the commonalities between Francisco de Hollanda and the Sangallo workshop, this article juxtaposes the rich and unusual repertoire of antique and modern subjects copied by Hollanda with the drawings of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, whose guidance may have impacted which subjects Hollanda considered worthy of study. Finally, the artistic representations of antique subjects in Hollanda’s drawings are discussed in dialogue with his ideas on the antique, as recorded in his treatises. More specifically, a careful analysis of Hollanda’s attempts to fill in the antique subject’s lost detail and damaged areas with his own interpretations shows that his notion of the antique as an ideal aesthetic model is reflected in his graphic production.

Sumptuary Legislation in Early Modern Rome. An Exceptional Case?

Camilla Annerfeldt — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This article examines social hierarchies of appearance in early modern Rome by focusing on sumptuary legislation. Since few actual pieces of clothing from the period are preserved, this type of legislation is an important source for studies on early modern clothing, and especially its function as a marker of social identity. Sumptuary laws were often an expression of the desire to draw a visible distinction between people of different status, and are therefore particularly valuable for studies that focus on groups from the lower echelons of society. The various restrictions on what the lower and middle classes could and could not wear resulted in a wide and varied documentation regarding the clothing of ordinary Italians. As this essay explores in greater depth, throughout the whole era of sumptuary legislation, Rome seems to have enacted relatively few laws, and those that were issued seem not to have been particularly strict. By highlighting some of the ways in which Rome differed from other Italian cities both politically and socially, this essay probes whether early modern Rome presents an exceptional case in the history of sumptuary legislation. It makes clear that, in contrast to other cities, sumptuary legislation in Rome seems to have been primarily a question of civic morality dictated by the notion of decorum, which was a central concept of the Tridentine period.

La nobiltà effimera di un cardinale. Il conte Guido Pepoli, la sua residenza romana nel Palazzo Orsini di piazza Nicosia e la sua raccolta di arazzi

Lothar Sickel — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

On the basis of new documents, this essay gives an account of the twenty years that Cardinal Guido Pepoli (1560 –1599) spent in Rome between 1579 and 1599. Coming from a noble family in Bologna, Pepoli continued to use the title of “conte” even after his promotion to cardinal in 1589. The ambitions of the still young prelate were made clear by his takeover and renovation of the Palazzo Orsini on the Piazza Nicosia, which served as his residence from May 1582. Pepoli’s rise and costly court life came to a dramatic end in 1595, though, when his fortune collapsed under the burden of excessive debt and he was forced to sell almost all of his property in Rome. At his early death in January 1599, however, Pepoli still owned a large collection of valuable tapestries; it was, in a way, a token of his former prestige. The final part of the essay is devoted to a thematic analysis of various tapestry cycles, most of which have disappeared.

«Per commodità e aiuto degli studenti». Domenico Fontana e il Collegio Montalto di Bologna

Maria Felicia Nicoletti — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

During the papacy of Sixtus V (1585 –1590), Bologna, the second city of the Papal States, received two important commissions: the vaults of the basilica of San Petronio and the Montalto college. Where the former was just another part of the long history of the city’s civic temple – destined ultimately to fail – the latter was, by contrast, intended as a clear sign of Sistine presence in Bologna, no less in one of its fields of excellence: education. Studies on the college have largely focused on the local context of the commission; they have firmly established the details of its construction, but have tended to neglect its wider context of artistic reference. The question of attribution, in particular, has not been addressed, and the possible involvement of Domenico Fontana, the general architect of Sixtus V, has never been investigated. Starting from the reorganisation and verification of known sources and the discovery of unpublished documents, this paper details the primary aspects of the Sistine foundation: its protagonists and the key dates and places. These give a sense of its priority in the papal programme. In addition to uncovering the unpublished intervention of the painter-decorator Giovan Battista Cremonini, analysis of building site documents has allowed the author to identify the craftsmen involved. That some of these craftsmen were members of the main families of the Bolognese building scene in those years is testament to the importance of the Sistine commission. The paper also challenges the conventional attribution to Pietro Fiorini, arguing that his role was instead in the planning of the college, which paved the way for Fontana’s intervention. In support of this claim the author references a hitherto unnoticed drawing of the original façade of the Sistine college, which is remarkable for its closeness to Fontana’s works.

Borromini, the Cavaliere d’Arpino, and Others at Santa Lucia in Selci

Fabio Barry — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This contribution details the history of the church of Santa Lucia in Selci from its sixteenth-century refoundation as a cloistered convent of first Benedictine (1534), then Augustinian (1568), nuns to its seventeenth-century reconstruction and redecoration by a series of artistic luminaries, adducing a wealth of unpublished archival sources. The role of Bartolomeo Bassi, not Carlo Maderno as previously thought, is shown in designing and building the original church and convent (1603 –1605). The patronage history of the church’s individual chapels is reconstructed and each is analysed cautiously to separate the design roles of Carlo Maderno, his studio, and others. Borromini’s work in the church has hitherto not received due recognition, neither for its important place in the earliest period of his independent activity as an architect nor for its relation to his contemporary output. First, the Cappella Landi (1638–39) is analysed, with particular attention to its rich and unexamined Trinitarian symbolism and the role of the Cavaliere d’Arpino. An iconographical program for the chapel’s stuccoes is also presented for the first time. Secondly, the cantoria (choir loft), built between 1630 and 1640, is analysed with a view to the pivotal role of choral music in the overall design of the church and the life of the convent. Finally, an attempt is made to meticulously reconstruct the appearance of Borromini’s lost High Altar (ca. 1636 –1643), which was destroyed in the mid-19th century. A sense of its appearance can be gleaned from autograph drawings and an engraving, though careful analysis is necessary to track the phases in its construction and filter out ephemeral elements from the permanent design. A coda to the main article details the origins and demise of the neighbouring and now largely demolished church and convent of the Poor Clares at Santa Maria della Purificazione, its artworks, and its design by the little-known Giovanni Paolo Maggi.

San Martino ai Monti as a Tridentine Theatre. Dughet’s Frescoes as a Visualization of a sacra rappresentazione

Arnold Witte — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The church of San Martino ai Monti in Rome contains a fresco cycle painted between 1647 and 1651 by Gaspard Dughet and Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi. Prior research on the cycle suggested it represented the Carmelite claim to the ‘Elianic Succession’, which traced the institutional history of the order back to 930 BC. The basis of this assumption was found in an erudite Latin treatise that evoked a theological discussion with the authors of the Acta Sanctorum. This essay probes two questions raised about the cycle by a manuscript with the text for a theatrical play entitled Rappresentazione di Sant’Elia, written for the Carmelite prior general Giovanni Antonio Filippini and dated 1647. Firstly, the manuscript shows that the cycle addressed both a vernacular public and the Carmelite community itself: to the former it offered instruction in general Christian virtues; and to the latter it demonstrated the validity of the three monastic vows. This sheds new light on the issue of how church decorations in Seicento Rome could be interpreted in various modes by different audiences, and in particular on the way in which sermons and other serious forms of instruction could be paired with more ‘entertaining’ forms of oral communication. Secondly, the relationship between the manuscript and frescoes in this particular case forces us to think beyond the standard repertoire of iconographers – the printed text – as the primary vehicle for the diffusion of religious and moral concepts, and consider the spoken word (and its residue, manuscripts) as part of a multimedia strategy to spread Counter-Reformation concepts of spiritual reform.

»[...] una gran Pianta icnografica dell’antica Roma, che fra poco darò alla luce«. Piranesis Pläne der Roma antica und die Nuova Pianta di Roma von Giovanni Battista Nolli

Marcel Baumgartner — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

In his Antichità Romane, published in 1756, Piranesi announced the imminent publication of a plan of ancient Rome. But the plan – which would have followed previous reconstructions by Pirro Ligorio (1561) and Etienne Dupérac (1574) – never appeared. His announcement has therefore generally been taken as a reference to the monumental Ichnographia Campi Martii Antiquae Urbis published in 1762. However, this ignores the fact that the Antichità Romane already contained three partial plans. These plans are significant: when superimposed, they produce a coherent whole; and they can also be directly connected to the Ichnographia Campi Martii. As this essay makes clear, the three plans demonstrate that work on a plan of ancient Rome had progressed considerably further than has previously been assumed. A central part of this assessment is that – along with five other detailed plans of thermal baths – these plans match the scale of Giovanni Battista Nolli’s Nuova Pianta di Roma of 1748 (the production of which Piranesi had been involved with during his first stay in Rome from 1740 to 1744), which was much praised for its esattezza. This means that Piranesi sought the same claim to scholarship and accuracy that had been attributed to Nolli’s plan for his own piante icnografiche dell’antica Roma. In comparing Piranesi directly to Nolli, the essay illuminates not only Piranesi’s ‘way of thinking’, but also how his plans and publications on the archaeology of the city of Rome as a whole ‘function’. Through detailed analyses of sites detailed on the maps such as the Porticus Octaviae, the relationship between scientific archaeological research and free ‘artistic’ invention can be determined more precisely than was previously the case. Only in understanding this relationship can a full understanding of Piranesi’s achievement as an archaeologist of the city of Rome be gained.

The Skyscraper as Site of Social Anxiety. Investigating the Cinematic Representation of Milanese Skyscrapers (1954–1965)

Alberto Lo Pinto — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

In the mid-1950s, the first skyscrapers emerged from the mass of low houses that sprawled over the metropolitan area of Milan. Iconic buildings such as Torre Velasca, Torre Pirelli, and Torre Galfa instantly defined a new phase of cultural, economic, and technological advancement. The image of the city was profoundly altered, transformed into a forward-looking icon of modernity. Italian cinema was quick to react to the change and immediately began to portray the new building type that was its center, depicting the social and cultural effects of its imposition on the fabric of the city. This paper investigates the ways in which Italian cinema represented the vertical city, arguing that skyscrapers brought about new values dictated by a capitalist and consumerist society that was burgeoning in Milan during the period. The study identifies three distinctive elements in the mise-en-scène of the high rises: lighting, air, and the elevator. Each depicts anxiety towards new architectural forms, and in doing so serves as a key to understanding contemporary social changes.