The Poetics of Portraiture in the Italian Renaissance
The Poetics of Portraiture in the Italian Renaissance
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This book considers the changing conception of portraiture in the sixteenth century. Focusing on paintings by Giorgione, Titian, Parmigianino, and Raphael, among others, Jodi Cranston explores the significance of the formal inventions that address the presence of the beholder, and how such a visual dialogue with the beholder encourages the viewer to perceive the portrait as open and responsive. Applying methods derived from literary theory and structural analysis, this study demonstrates how sixteenth-century portraits extend contemporary efforts to perceive and receive painting as a kind of poetry.
- Offers new interpretations of well-known Renaissance paintings
- Offers a methodology for considering the genre of portraiture as a whole, i.e. not time-specific
- Offers analysis of hitherto unstudied poetry
Reviews & endorsements
"Cranston's book is beautifully illustrated, provocative, and courageous in its methodology, and illuminating in its analysis." Sixteenth Century Journal
"An ambitious book...It constitutes a novel contribution to the history of Renaissance portraiture." CAA Reviews
"Thoughtful reading and intense engagement...The book is also valuable for its rich bibliography of the literature on Renaissance portraiture." Renaissance Quarterly
Product details
September 2000Hardback
9780521653244
272 pages
260 × 184 × 20 mm
0.84kg
69 b/w illus.
Unavailable - out of print December 2017
Table of Contents
- 1. Dialogue with the beholder
- 2. 'Familiar colloquium': the recollection and presence of portraits
- 3. Designing the self
- Titian's 'Nonautographic' self-portraits
- 4. 'L'effetto che fa lo specchio'
- 5. The speaking tomb.
