1 / 10

The Rediscovery of Antiquity

The Rediscovery of Antiquity. Seminar 1 – Core Module. “ The Middle Ages are of crucial importance for scholars studying the interest in the antique of later centuries, because it was medieval attitudes to antiquities that governed what was available to the Renaissance” - Greenhalgh.

kimama
Download Presentation

The Rediscovery of Antiquity

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Rediscovery of Antiquity Seminar 1 – Core Module

  2. “The Middle Ages are of crucial importance for scholars studying the interest in the antique of later centuries, because it was medieval attitudes to antiquities that governed what was available to the Renaissance” - Greenhalgh

  3. Consciousness of history • Little conscious awareness of sense of separation from antiquity • Saw themselves as belonging to the same time, under the same empire • Art and material culture sought after for ornamental value, not as relics of another civilization

  4. Consciousness of history • Exceptions: • Ristorod’Arezzo (work completed 1282) • Sees Roman vases as products of another age • Nicola Pisano (c. 1220-1284) • New historical perspective in art • Cola diRienzo (c. 1313-1354) • Rediscovery of origins of power • Frederick II (1194-1250) • Encouraged revival of ancient art, but also tore down ruins • Protective legislation • Capital punishment to those who tried to diminish ruins, export forbidden without sanction of Senate

  5. “For what was once carefully set up and fixed in a conspicuous place by someone, you will soon see dug up and carelessly broken to bits, trampled and worn away under foot by someone else, without the smallest concern for antiquity… I have collected many inscriptions – whose marbles and bronze plaques are continually being broken, melted down and destroyed – in order that, under your auspices, they might become everlasting and be passed on to posterity” – Fra Giovanni Giocondo

  6. Christianity • Preservation often tied to church history • Re-use • Churchs • New tombs for saints • Early Christian sarcophagi • Earliest favoured for Popes and clergy etc. • Tomb of Guglielmo Cardinal Feischi d. 1256 • Itineraries • Ruins noted because conspicuous not ancient • Inscriptions • Collected to illustrate itineraries and describe sacred buildings • Literature

  7. Tomb of Beatrice, Countess of Tuscany, 11th century

  8. Magister Gregorius • 12th century • Interested in ancient not Christian Rome • Tone of contempt for pilgrim stories • Admires statue of Venus • Can’t understand legal inscription • Ruins indicated imminent end of the world

  9. Ghirlandaio – Adoration of the Magi (1482-5), using inscriptions invented by Fontius

More Related