The Word made Visible in the Painted Image

131 Pages·2016·1.938 MB·English

by  Stephen Miller

The Word
made Visible
in the Painted Image

The Word
made Visible
in the Painted Image
:
Perspective, Proportion,
Witness and Threshold

in Italian Renaissance Painting
By
Stephen Miller
The Word made Visible in the Painted Image:
Perspective, Proportion, Witness and Threshold in Italian Renaissance
Painting

By Stephen Miller

This book first published 2016

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2016 by Stephen Miller

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-8542-8
ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-8542-3
For Paula, Lucy and Eddie

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ..................................................................................... ix
Acknowledgements .................................................................................... xi
Introduction................................................................................................. 1
Chapter One ................................................................................................. 3
Setting the Scene
The Rise of Humanism and the Italian Renaissance
Changing Style and Attitudes of Patronage in a Devotional Context
The Emergence of the Altarpiece in Christian Worship
From Gothic to Renaissance, from Polyptych to Pala
Patronage
Study 1: Duccio, Maestà
Study 2: Fra Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child with St. Frediano
and St. Augustine (Pala Barbadori)
Study 3: Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini, Certosa Polyptych
Study 4: Jacopo Bellini, Gattamelata Altarpiece
Study 5: Giovanni Bellini, Pala di San Giobbe
Study 6: Titian, Assumption of the Virgin
Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 23
Perspective: Fixing the Eye
Perspective as Symbolic Form
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 39
Proportion: Divine Proportion–A Balancing Act
The Golden Section
Divine Proportion at work in Specific Paintings
viii Contents
Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 55
Witness to the Word made Flesh
Witness to the Word
Nativity and Circumcision
Baptism
Crucifixion
Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 73
Threshold: Crossing the Doorsill of the Beyond
Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 91
Conclusion: The Invisible made Visible, the Illusion made ‘Real’
The Ontology of Theology and Art
Glossary of Terms ..................................................................................... 99
Bibliography ............................................................................................ 107
Index ........................................................................................................ 113
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
SEECOLOURCENTREFOLD
Chapter One
Fig. 1-1 Duccio, Maestà, FRONT: (tempera on poplar), 1308-11, Museo
dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena
Fig. 1-2 Duccio, Maestà, BACK: 1308-11, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena
Fig. 1-3 Fra Filippo Lippi, Pala Barbadori, 1438, © Musée du Louvre (RMN-
Grand Palais, Musée du Louvre, Jean-Gilles Berizzi), Paris
Fig. 1-4 Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini, 1450, Certosa polyptych, Bologna
Fig. 1-5 Giovanni Bellini, c. 1487, Pala di San Giobbe, Gallerie dell’Accademia,
Venice
Fig. 1-6 Titian, Assumption of the Virgin, 1515-18, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari,
Venice
Chapter Two
Fig. 2-1 Leonardo da Vinci, Perspectival study of the Adoration of the Magi, c.
1481, © The Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Fig. 2-2 Masaccio, The Tribute Money, 1426-27, Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria
del Carmine, Florence
Fig. 2-3 Masaccio, Holy Trinity, c. 1426-28, Sta. Maria Novella, Florence
Fig. 2-4 Piero della Francesca, Flagellation of Christ, c. 1460, Galleria Nazionale
della Marche, Urbino
Fig. 2-5 Leonardo da Vinci, The Annunciation, c. 1472-76, © The Uffizi Gallery,
Florence
Fig. 2-6 Euan Uglow, Nude from Twelve Regular Vertical Positions from the Eye,
Victoria Gallery, University of Liverpool, 1967, © The estate of Euan Uglow
(image courtesy of Browse & Darby)
Fig. 2-7 Fra Andrea Pozzo, St. Ignatius being received into Heaven, 1691-94,
fresco ceiling of the Church of Sant’Ignazio, Rome
Chapter Three
Fig. 3-1 Fra Filippo Lippi, The Annunciation, c. mid-1450s, © The National
Gallery, London
Fig. 3-2 Euan Uglow, Root Five Nude, 1976, © The estate of Euan Uglow (image
courtesy of Browse & Darby)