Christopher D. Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801477423
- eISBN:
- 9780801464065
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801477423.003.0002
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
This chapter engages Ernst Gombrich's essay “Icones symbolicae” and Michael Baxandall's interpretation of Leon Battista Alberti's debts to the rhetorical tradition to examine the iconology of ...
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This chapter engages Ernst Gombrich's essay “Icones symbolicae” and Michael Baxandall's interpretation of Leon Battista Alberti's debts to the rhetorical tradition to examine the iconology of Warburg's early essays in the context of Italian humanism and Dominico Ghirlandaio's Adoration of the Shepherds. It returns to Warburg's concept of the “metaphoric distance” characterizing the manner in which the Adoration's rhetorical qualities, its copia (eloquent abundance) and varietas (variety), help to balance competing forces and themes. It then rehearses Warburg's cardinal notion of the Pathosformel (pathos formula) and finds analogies with E. R. Curtius's notion of literary topoi. The chapter also compares the aims and organization of Warburg's famous Library in Hamburg with those of the Bilderatlas.Less
This chapter engages Ernst Gombrich's essay “Icones symbolicae” and Michael Baxandall's interpretation of Leon Battista Alberti's debts to the rhetorical tradition to examine the iconology of Warburg's early essays in the context of Italian humanism and Dominico Ghirlandaio's Adoration of the Shepherds. It returns to Warburg's concept of the “metaphoric distance” characterizing the manner in which the Adoration's rhetorical qualities, its copia (eloquent abundance) and varietas (variety), help to balance competing forces and themes. It then rehearses Warburg's cardinal notion of the Pathosformel (pathos formula) and finds analogies with E. R. Curtius's notion of literary topoi. The chapter also compares the aims and organization of Warburg's famous Library in Hamburg with those of the Bilderatlas.
Marta Celati
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198863625
- eISBN:
- 9780191895999
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198863625.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
The first section is a general introduction to Italian Early Renaissance literature on the topic of conspiracies. It sets out the theoretical basis of this study, providing the definition of the ...
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The first section is a general introduction to Italian Early Renaissance literature on the topic of conspiracies. It sets out the theoretical basis of this study, providing the definition of the ‘thematic genre’ of texts on political plots and contextualizing it within the historical, cultural, and political background of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. This substantial corpus consists of texts produced in different political centres and through different literary forms, but with significant thematic and ideological traits in common. The expansion of this kind of literature, in an epoch that can be rightly defined an ‘age of conspiracies’, is connected with the concentration of political power in the hands of newly established leaders. In this scenario, the fruitful interaction between literature and politics is evident in the development of two intertwined genres: historical-literary works on plots and political treatises de principe, texts that are informed by similar political perspectives and contribute to the legitimization of new types of authorities. The crucial implications that the issue of conspiracy had in the literary debate on princely power will also emerge clearly in the following century in Machiavelli’s thought. This chapter additionally introduces the crucial role played by the classical tradition in this ‘thematic’ literature. Sallust is predictably the chief source, but all texts are based on the recovery of manifold classical models and display a complex process of imitation that affects structural, thematic, stylistic, and ideological aspects. The last section offers an overview of the main fifteenth-century texts on plots.Less
The first section is a general introduction to Italian Early Renaissance literature on the topic of conspiracies. It sets out the theoretical basis of this study, providing the definition of the ‘thematic genre’ of texts on political plots and contextualizing it within the historical, cultural, and political background of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. This substantial corpus consists of texts produced in different political centres and through different literary forms, but with significant thematic and ideological traits in common. The expansion of this kind of literature, in an epoch that can be rightly defined an ‘age of conspiracies’, is connected with the concentration of political power in the hands of newly established leaders. In this scenario, the fruitful interaction between literature and politics is evident in the development of two intertwined genres: historical-literary works on plots and political treatises de principe, texts that are informed by similar political perspectives and contribute to the legitimization of new types of authorities. The crucial implications that the issue of conspiracy had in the literary debate on princely power will also emerge clearly in the following century in Machiavelli’s thought. This chapter additionally introduces the crucial role played by the classical tradition in this ‘thematic’ literature. Sallust is predictably the chief source, but all texts are based on the recovery of manifold classical models and display a complex process of imitation that affects structural, thematic, stylistic, and ideological aspects. The last section offers an overview of the main fifteenth-century texts on plots.
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226501307
- eISBN:
- 9780226501291
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226501291.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter focuses on Giovan Francesco Pico della Mirandola's Strix sive de ludificatione daemonum. In this book, Pico describes the several differences between classical culture and Christian ...
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This chapter focuses on Giovan Francesco Pico della Mirandola's Strix sive de ludificatione daemonum. In this book, Pico describes the several differences between classical culture and Christian revelation as two opposite armies engaged in a ruthless war. Giovan Francesco stages these differences through a dramatic dialogue between two opposing intellectuals, Apistius (the “man without faith”) and Phronimus (the “prudent man”). Phronimus demonstrates to the skeptical Apistius that all of classical culture, the very foundation of Italian humanism, is based on Satan's intervention in the creation. Giovan Francesco Pico revisits the pillars of classical literature, philosophy, and historiography and “unveils” their inner diabolical nature and message. According to Pico, the Greek and Latin myths were nothing but metaphorical stories coming directly from Satan, and a half-human and half-bird called strix incarnates and reveals Satan's infectious presence in the creation.Less
This chapter focuses on Giovan Francesco Pico della Mirandola's Strix sive de ludificatione daemonum. In this book, Pico describes the several differences between classical culture and Christian revelation as two opposite armies engaged in a ruthless war. Giovan Francesco stages these differences through a dramatic dialogue between two opposing intellectuals, Apistius (the “man without faith”) and Phronimus (the “prudent man”). Phronimus demonstrates to the skeptical Apistius that all of classical culture, the very foundation of Italian humanism, is based on Satan's intervention in the creation. Giovan Francesco Pico revisits the pillars of classical literature, philosophy, and historiography and “unveils” their inner diabolical nature and message. According to Pico, the Greek and Latin myths were nothing but metaphorical stories coming directly from Satan, and a half-human and half-bird called strix incarnates and reveals Satan's infectious presence in the creation.
Marta Celati
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198863625
- eISBN:
- 9780191895999
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198863625.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
The present work represents the first full-length investigation of Italian Renaissance literature on the topic of conspiracy. This literary output consists of texts belonging to different genres that ...
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The present work represents the first full-length investigation of Italian Renaissance literature on the topic of conspiracy. This literary output consists of texts belonging to different genres that enjoyed widespread diffusion in the second half of the fifteenth century, when the development of these literary writings proves to be closely connected with the affirmation of a centralized political thought and princely ideology in Italian states. The centrality of the issue of conspiracies in the political and cultural context of the Italian Renaissance emerges clearly also in the sixteenth century in Machiavelli’s work, where the topic is closely interlaced with the problems of building political consensus and the management of power. This monograph focuses on the most significant Quattrocento texts examined as case studies (representative of different states, literary genres, and of both prominent authors—Alberti, Poliziano, Pontano—and minor but important literati) and on Machiavelli’s works where this political theme is particularly pivotal, marking a continuity, but also a turning point, with respect to the preceding authors. Through an interdisciplinary analysis across literature, history, philology and political philosophy, this study traces the evolution of literature on plots in early Renaissance Italy, pointing out the key function of the classical tradition in it, and the recurring narrative approaches, historiographical techniques, and ideological angles that characterize the literary transfiguration of the topic. This investigation also offers a reconsideration and re-definition of the complex facets of fifteenth-century political literature, which played a crucial role in the development of a new theory of statecraft.Less
The present work represents the first full-length investigation of Italian Renaissance literature on the topic of conspiracy. This literary output consists of texts belonging to different genres that enjoyed widespread diffusion in the second half of the fifteenth century, when the development of these literary writings proves to be closely connected with the affirmation of a centralized political thought and princely ideology in Italian states. The centrality of the issue of conspiracies in the political and cultural context of the Italian Renaissance emerges clearly also in the sixteenth century in Machiavelli’s work, where the topic is closely interlaced with the problems of building political consensus and the management of power. This monograph focuses on the most significant Quattrocento texts examined as case studies (representative of different states, literary genres, and of both prominent authors—Alberti, Poliziano, Pontano—and minor but important literati) and on Machiavelli’s works where this political theme is particularly pivotal, marking a continuity, but also a turning point, with respect to the preceding authors. Through an interdisciplinary analysis across literature, history, philology and political philosophy, this study traces the evolution of literature on plots in early Renaissance Italy, pointing out the key function of the classical tradition in it, and the recurring narrative approaches, historiographical techniques, and ideological angles that characterize the literary transfiguration of the topic. This investigation also offers a reconsideration and re-definition of the complex facets of fifteenth-century political literature, which played a crucial role in the development of a new theory of statecraft.
