artibus
et
historiae

an art anthology

CHECK OUT THE LATEST ISSUE
OF 'ARTIBUS ET HISTORIAE'
Artibus et Historiae no. 50 (XXV), 2004
252 x 232 mm
ISSN 0391-9064
90 EURO
Contents
COLIN EISLER - Wagner's Three Synagogues (pp. 9—15)
The article discusses the complex relationship between Wagner, Semper and Nietzsche and is centered upon Semper's design for the Dresden synagogue and the surprising impact that this, together with Nietzsche's Dürer interests, had on the composer's few positive concerns with the Old Testament and related subjects.
JACK M. GREENSTEIN - Leonardo, Mona Lisa and La Gioconda. Reviewing the Evidence (pp. 17—38)

Although the title La Gioconda appears on the Salai inventory and was later used at Fontainebleau, the case for accepting Vasari's claim that the painting is a portrait of Mona Lisa del Giocondo is not as strong as recent studies suggest. Critics who used the title before 1642 did not think that it referred to the surname of the sitter. A review of the evidence casts doubts on Vasari's credibility, but illuminates the unusual purpose of Leonardo's painting. 

DAVID R. MARSHALL - The Architectural Piece in 1700: The Paintings of Alberto Carlieri (1672 - c. 1720), Pupil of Andrea Pozzo (pp. 39—126)

This article presents a catalogue of 144 paintings by Alberto Carlieri (1672 - c.1720), a painter of architectural caprices whose paintings have frequently been misidentified as early works by Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765). Carlieri emerged from the workshop of Andrea Pozzo in the 1590s, and was apparently active in Rome until about 1720. Carlieri's sources in Pozzo are explored, and the architectural forms and compositions that form the primary subject of his pictures are subjected to a systematic 'transformational analysis' (to borrow a term from Hubert Damisch). 

BARBARA LARSON - The Franco-Prussian War and Cosmological Symbolism in Odilon Redon's Noirs (pp. 127—138)
The author examines the political and social dimensions of Redon's cosmological graphic work of the last three decades of the nineteenth century within the dual context of the emerging field of astrophysics and the revival of cosmological symbolism following the Franco-Prussian War. She looks at the growing importance of eclipse studies along with public awareness of an eclipse that took place at the end of the war as the sources of Redon's black sun. She also looks at the revival of apocalyptic imagery at the end of the century along with scientific information about comets in discussing Redon's lithographic album The Apocalypse of St. John (1899). Finally, the author speculates about the influence of the extraterrestrial life debate (initiated with the Martian Canal debates in 1877) on Redon's work. 
 
ALEXANDER B. HERMAN, JOHN T. PAOLETTI - Re-reading Jackson Pollock's She-Wolf (pp. 139—155)

Jackson Pollock painted his She-Wolf in 1943 on the eve of his first major exhibition in Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century gallery. Coming at a critical moment in his career, both in terms of his own stylistic development and in terms of his recognition, the painting was purchased very soon thereafter by the Museum of Modern Art. But, despite its familiarity, it has continued to elude satisfactory explanation of his meaning. This article serves as a further step to understanding the painting's content and Pollock's working process by revealing new figures within the picture, by associating drawings from the same time period with the painting, and by suggesting new sources for its imagery. 

ANITA F. MOSKOWITZ - The Case of Giovanni Bastianini: A Fair and Balanced View (pp. 157—185)

Giovanni Bastianini is best known for works that have been considered forgeries, skillful evocations as they are of Renaissance busts and reliefs. Yet the earliest notices regarding the sculptor are completely lacking in any allegation or even hint of fraud on the sculptor's part. Several decades later the word "forgery" is first attached to his name. This paper will examine the early sources and documentary information regarding a series of sculptures known to be by Bastianini, and to evaluate the more recent and almost uniformly accusatory scholarly allegations. It will become evident that the latter are based on spurious assertions, speculation, and misinterpretations of the sources. For, once it was suggested that he was a forger, the notion gathered momentum and, as in a game of "telephone", all sight was lost of the earliest evidence. 

MARIA GORDON-SMITH - Jean Pillement at the Imperial Court of Maria Theresa and Francis I in Vienna (1763 to 1765) (pp. 187—213)

Jean Pillement (1728-1808) after an extended stay in England during which he proved his creative talents as a young man in a variety of media, accepted in 1763 the invitation of the Austrian Court of Maria Theresa and Francis I to come to Vienna and work on a number of projects. In the short period of two years, he produced there a prodigious quantity of works including monochrome blue pastel decorative landscapes and seascapes for the Blue Palace of Laxenburg, chinoiserie frescoes for the Palace of Niederweiden, theatrical costumes, landscape drawings and important oils, altogether a typical Pillement mixture full of exuberance, charm, colour and originality. 

JÓZEF GRABSKI - The Lost Portrait of a Youth (attributed to Raphael) from the Collection of the Princes Czartoryski Family in Cracow. A Contribution to Studies on the Typology of Renaissance Portrait (pp. 215—239)
Lost since 1945, the Portrait of a Young Man has been known to modern scholars only from photographs. Without examining the original, it is difficult to conclusively confirm or refute the portrait's attribution to Raphael, which became traditional in the 19th century. Modern art history, unable to study the painting itself, has of necessity repeated the attribution made by earlier scholars who had the opportunity to see the original before the Second World War. Although the typology of the Portrait of a Young Man originated in Northern Italy, it also shows the influence of Northern European artists. This type of portrait recalls Bellini, Giorgione, and Titian's earlier work. Such Northern Italian portraiture was also influenced by early Dutch painters, Dürer and Leonardo. The portrait under discussion is not Umbrian or Florentine - the traditions in which Raphael was trained. It has a range of qualities characteristic of paintings from the 1520s and later, precursors of Mannerist portraiture (analogies in portraits by Sebastiano del Piombo, Moretto da Brescia, Lorenzo Lotto, Salviati, or Pontormo and Parmigianino). The Portrait of a Young Man aroused interest in the years following Raphael's death, and there are several known copies. Such interest suggests that this is Raphael's image, rather than that of an unknown youth painted by Raphael. The classical, idealized beauty of the sitter, presented an an uomo ideale, indicates that it may be a posthumous likeness of the 'godlike Raphael' xecuted in ommaggio of the dead artist. Thus, we would have here a "Portrait of Raphael" but not by Raphael (in Italian it is the same expression: "ritratto di Raffaello"). The question, who of Raphael's contemporaries could have immersed himself so deeply in his style, whether one of his students, immitators or artists inspired solely by his work, with regard to the Raphaelesque theme, or if this is indeed the work of Raphael himself, will for now remain unresolved. There is evidence that points at Giulio Romano or Sebastiano del Piombo. The latter was the Eternal City's most fashionable portraitist in the second and third decades of the 16th century. He knew Raphael well, and was Michelangelo's protégé. His portraits combined Northern influences (Dürer, Bellini, Giorgione) with those of Leonardo, Michaelanglo, and of course Raphael. Ultimately, only an examination of the original will be able to determine, once and for all, the authorship of this exquisite Renaissance portrait.