The arts of Renaissance Venice teem with sea monsters. Chief among
these are mermaids and mermen --graceful hybrid beings human from
the waist up, but with the lower body and tail of a fish, dolphin
or sea serpent. Other sea hybrids -- horses, bulls, panthers, even
an elephant--also swim through Venetian art in finned and
fish-tailed forms. Such creatures emerge from stone in the shadowy
churches and the sunlit courtyard of the Palazzo Ducale, crown the
wooden frame of a Giovanni Bellini altarpiece, and encircle the
bronze flagpole bases in Piazza San Marco. Their gilded sugar
apparitions graced banquet tables for illustrious visitors, and
their descendents still glide through the canals in the form of
brass seahorses set above the sides of gondolas. This book focuses
on the conceptions of artists who made marine hybrids some of the
most engaging inventions of the Renaissance in Venice and its
subject city Padua. The chapters deal with five functional
contexts: book decoration of the 1470s and 80s; tomb monuments of
the 1480s and 90s; church decoration of the same years,
particularly at Santa Maria dei Miracoli; centers of political
activity, including civic settings in Venice and the palaces of
powerful mainland employers of Venetian artists; and finally,
private homes, where owners could hold small bronze sea hybrids in
their hands, often as objects for use. A prologue introduces the
"heritage of monsters" from the ancient and medieval worlds, the
better to show how Venetian artists adapted these to new purposes.
Exploring the ways in which artists could interpret and
contemporary viewers might experience these wide-ranging
sea-creatures, the book brings their best images together as a
source of delight.
General
| Imprint: |
Harvey Miller Publishers
|
| Country of origin: |
Belgium |
| Release date: |
September 2010 |
| First published: |
August 2010 |
| Authors: |
Alison Luchs
|
| Dimensions: |
282 x 216 x 29mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth over boards / With dust jacket
|
| Pages: |
280 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-1-905375-45-5 |
| Categories: |
Books
|
| LSN: |
1-905375-45-X |
| Barcode: |
9781905375455 |
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