Mary Hamer
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859898263
- eISBN:
- 9781781380727
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859898263.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Cleopatra has been dead for twenty centuries, but her name still resonates in the west. Her story has the status of a foundation myth. As such, artists of all periods have drawn on it in order to ...
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Cleopatra has been dead for twenty centuries, but her name still resonates in the west. Her story has the status of a foundation myth. As such, artists of all periods have drawn on it in order to raise questions concerned with the world in which they found themselves living. This study chooses a number of key occasions from European history on which writers and painters re-imagined Cleopatra. In doing so it takes the reader on an intellectual treasure hunt through the ages. In addition, by restoring these works to their original context – political, philosophical and aesthetic – the author opens up unexpected new readings of images and texts that had previously appeared to be self-explanatory. The purpose of this book is to raise questions about how these images of a dead Egyptian queen were read. Through careful analysis it traces attempts to manipulate attitudes to women and power, women and sexuality, and to desire itself. In the case of Tiepolo's Cleopatra, for example, the Queen embodies the desire for knowledge; in post-Revolutionary France, she symbolises political freedom. In the new introductory essay we discover that Cleopatra's role as a focus for cultural debate continues, and that, as previously, much is at stake: it is now the question of her race that is highly contested.Less
Cleopatra has been dead for twenty centuries, but her name still resonates in the west. Her story has the status of a foundation myth. As such, artists of all periods have drawn on it in order to raise questions concerned with the world in which they found themselves living. This study chooses a number of key occasions from European history on which writers and painters re-imagined Cleopatra. In doing so it takes the reader on an intellectual treasure hunt through the ages. In addition, by restoring these works to their original context – political, philosophical and aesthetic – the author opens up unexpected new readings of images and texts that had previously appeared to be self-explanatory. The purpose of this book is to raise questions about how these images of a dead Egyptian queen were read. Through careful analysis it traces attempts to manipulate attitudes to women and power, women and sexuality, and to desire itself. In the case of Tiepolo's Cleopatra, for example, the Queen embodies the desire for knowledge; in post-Revolutionary France, she symbolises political freedom. In the new introductory essay we discover that Cleopatra's role as a focus for cultural debate continues, and that, as previously, much is at stake: it is now the question of her race that is highly contested.
James H. Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267718
- eISBN:
- 9780520948624
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267718.003.0021
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses the fall of the Republic in the nineteenth century and the disappearance of masks from Venice society. When the nineteenth century dawned in Venice, the masks which had served ...
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This chapter discusses the fall of the Republic in the nineteenth century and the disappearance of masks from Venice society. When the nineteenth century dawned in Venice, the masks which had served as the inscrutable public face of Venice for more than a century vanished as abruptly as the Republic itself. With the invasion of Napoleon, Venice underwent transformations; noble titles were abolished, the National Guard was established, and didactic civic festivals were staged. Carnivals were banned and masks were outlawed. Exceptions were finally made to the banning of masks but only for the highly decent and closely monitored masquerade balls. Carnivals were eventually resumed but with a degree of control and policed. In addition to discussing the changes in Venice and its carnivals after the capitulation, the chapter also discusses Giandomenico Tiepolo’s alternative eulogy for the mask. It discusses his Amusements for Children which depict the race of Pulcinellas living among the ordinary Venetians.Less
This chapter discusses the fall of the Republic in the nineteenth century and the disappearance of masks from Venice society. When the nineteenth century dawned in Venice, the masks which had served as the inscrutable public face of Venice for more than a century vanished as abruptly as the Republic itself. With the invasion of Napoleon, Venice underwent transformations; noble titles were abolished, the National Guard was established, and didactic civic festivals were staged. Carnivals were banned and masks were outlawed. Exceptions were finally made to the banning of masks but only for the highly decent and closely monitored masquerade balls. Carnivals were eventually resumed but with a degree of control and policed. In addition to discussing the changes in Venice and its carnivals after the capitulation, the chapter also discusses Giandomenico Tiepolo’s alternative eulogy for the mask. It discusses his Amusements for Children which depict the race of Pulcinellas living among the ordinary Venetians.
Paul Giles
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640492
- eISBN:
- 9780748652129
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640492.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines how the intertextual politics of cultural Catholicism manifested itself as aesthetic style in the work of Italian painter Domenico Tiepolo, American popular artist Madonna and ...
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This chapter examines how the intertextual politics of cultural Catholicism manifested itself as aesthetic style in the work of Italian painter Domenico Tiepolo, American popular artist Madonna and Italian American filmmaker Martin Scorsese. The findings reveal that the ethnic and religious differences manifested themselves most compellingly within the intertextual or parodic form, in which implicit dialogues become established between conventional or generic expectations and various forms of narrative deviance. The chapter argues that the attempt to describe religious ethnicity as embodying some kind of idealised or essentialist quality is no longer feasible for any number of theoretical reasons.Less
This chapter examines how the intertextual politics of cultural Catholicism manifested itself as aesthetic style in the work of Italian painter Domenico Tiepolo, American popular artist Madonna and Italian American filmmaker Martin Scorsese. The findings reveal that the ethnic and religious differences manifested themselves most compellingly within the intertextual or parodic form, in which implicit dialogues become established between conventional or generic expectations and various forms of narrative deviance. The chapter argues that the attempt to describe religious ethnicity as embodying some kind of idealised or essentialist quality is no longer feasible for any number of theoretical reasons.
Mary Hamer
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859898263
- eISBN:
- 9781781380727
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859898263.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter explores the frescoes entitled the Banquet and the Incontro by Giambattista Tiepolo as tribute to both Cleopatra and Isaac Newton's experimental method. The frescoes represent Newton's ...
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This chapter explores the frescoes entitled the Banquet and the Incontro by Giambattista Tiepolo as tribute to both Cleopatra and Isaac Newton's experimental method. The frescoes represent Newton's method as an attempt to associate the spectacle of Cleopatra with the demonstration of truth. The chapter suggests that Tiepolo's frescoes of Cleopatra, which represented her as both queen and whore, are attempts to create an enigmatic image of the Egyptian queen.Less
This chapter explores the frescoes entitled the Banquet and the Incontro by Giambattista Tiepolo as tribute to both Cleopatra and Isaac Newton's experimental method. The frescoes represent Newton's method as an attempt to associate the spectacle of Cleopatra with the demonstration of truth. The chapter suggests that Tiepolo's frescoes of Cleopatra, which represented her as both queen and whore, are attempts to create an enigmatic image of the Egyptian queen.
