Classical Myths in Italian Renaissance Painting
Classical Myths in Italian Renaissance Painting
£41.00
GBPThis 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, allowed humanists to link the modern Rome with its ancient ancestry.
- Discusses central works of Italian Renaissance painting, representing core episodes from classical myths in the classical style and showing how and why they were designed in a particular way
- Investigates the causes that brought about a birth of secular art with paintings on mythological subjects
- Interpretation of favole and poesie as the terms designating their pictorial content and describing the paintings themselves
Reviews & endorsements
'The subject of this book is of great importance to all scholars interested in Renaissance art … It takes an approach different from many others and one that opens new avenues for consideration.' Sixteenth Century Journal
'Enjoyable reading and an undoubtedly interesting topic.' Roma nel Rinascimento
'Luba Freedman's book offers us a fascinating trajectory into paintings of the Renaissance with classical mythological subjects, surveying some of the most impressive episodes in the painted media ever produced on Italian soil.' Renaissance and Reformation
Product details
April 2015Paperback
9781107512955
308 pages
248 × 170 × 15 mm
0.87kg
32 b/w illus. 14 colour illus.
Out of stock in print form with no current plan to reprint
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. The fascination with classical myths
- 2. The all'antica ambience
- 3. The new artistic tradition
- 4. Adaptations of sculpted and painted mythologies from antiquity
- 5. The all'antica depiction of classical myths
- 6. Wall paintings on classical myths
- 7. Poesie.
