Processos de Subjetivação em torno da escrita da obra Ex Ludis Rerum Mathematicarum de Leon Battista Alberti

O artigo é um recorte de uma pesquisa de doutorado em andamento que investiga as relações entre a obra Ex Ludis Rerum Mathematicarum de Leon Battista Alberti e seu contexto sócio-histórico-cultural. A obra foi escrita em 1450 atendendo a um pedido do príncipe Meliaduse da corte dos Este de Ferrara na Itália. Neste recorte, as autoras se debruçam sobre a referida obra e seu contexto político e social. O eixo temporal se inicia com a amizade entre Alberti e Meliaduse, iniciada antes de 12 de outubro de 1437, e termina com a escrita da obra e sua dedicação ao príncipe em 1450. Recorrendo a Teoria da Objetivação, destacam-se alguns processos sociais que se manifestam em torno da escrita da obra, com ênfase nos processos de subjetivação. A fonte primária do estudo é a tradução brasileira da obra, intitulada Matemática Lúdica, publicada em 2006 pela editora Jorge Zahar Ed.

Beleza e ornamento na arte edificatória: a recepção dos preceitos albertianos num tratado espanhol de arquitetura.

A meados dos Quinhentos, entre 1545 e 1548, enquanto se encarregava da supervisão dos trabalhos do Comitê de Obras Reais estabelecido em Madri por seu pai, o rei Carlos V da Espanha, o jovem príncipe Filipe promove a redação de um tratado arquitetônico aplicável à prática nacional e baseado, em grande parte, no De re ædificatoria de Leon Battista Alberti. Este trabalho se dedica a analisar como o autor do manuscrito castelhano elege e assimila os preceitos albertianos, em particular aqueles concernentes às noções de «beleza» e «ornamento», tendo em vista as intenções reais de embelezar a ainda modesta Madri para transformá-la na capital dos reinos de Castela e Aragão, a partir de 1561.

A luz da beleza: a doutrina de Leon Battista Alberti por Andrea Loewen

A resenha versa sobre conceitos e reflexões fundamentais do pensamento e da obra de Leon Battista Alberti presentes no livro de Andrea Loewen: Lux pulchritudinis: sobre beleza e ornamento em Leon Battista Alberti.

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF SELF(IE)-PORTRAIT: BETWEEN THE SUBLIME AND THE BANAL

The analogy between the myth of Narcissus, referred to as the intrinsic symbol of painting by Leon Battista Alberti; the typological value of self-portrait as an ontological and statutory reference; its value while metamorphosis of reality; and the self-representative phenomenon that Selfi e translates – all this has to be established and requires due consideration. When dwelling on the contemporary Selfi e we need to consider also the salvifi c dimension of this kind of self-representation mechanisms that have always been there. The value of image while self-awareness mechanism compels us to question the fi eld of action where it is far more active – on social media. Its immanence is a true narcissistic affl iction. The intrinsic and immediate value of image thus overlaps sign and word. The mechanisms of self-contemplation thus produced translate into a clear ontological impoverishment of reality. The Selfi e does not prevent the subject’s Kafkian metamorphosis, but renders reality vulgar, making it acceptable through both similarity and integration. Self-portrait and Selfi e are thus the ancestral mechanisms of self-preservation. Its origin derives from narcissistic mechanisms that require a continuous desire to stand out socially. However, while the pictorial self-portrait translates into epistemic valuation of its author, Selfi e delights in the vulgarization of the repetitive and banal gesture.

Luca della Robbia (or the Della Robbia Family)

Florentine sculptor Luca della Robbia (b. 1399/1400–d. 1482) is best remembered as the inventor of a popular new form of glazed terracotta sculpture and as founder of the flourishing family workshop that produced it for roughly a century. He has long ranked among the greatest artists of the early Florentine Renaissance: tellingly, Leon Battista Alberti celebrated him as one of five exceptional modern artists in the dedication to his 1436 treatise On painting (Della pittura), alongside Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Masaccio. Luca was a consummate craftsman, praised by writers during and after his lifetime for his activity in marble, bronze, terracotta, and even goldsmithery. Modern scholarship on the artist is substantial and has consistently sounded two notes, celebrating his exemplary classicizing style and recognizing that the story of his artistic success is also, simultaneously, that of a new sculptural medium. While the exact details of its initial development (accomplished by the year 1441) remain unknown, Luca’s glazed terracotta art soon attracted eminent patrons, such as Piero de’ Medici, and was praised by contemporaries as an invention. In the tradition of artistic family dynasties, Luca passed the secrets of his new art to his nephew, Andrea della Robbia (b. 1435–d. 1525), who succeeded him as head of the workshop. Andrea conducted a brisk business in glazed sculpture and taught the family craft to five of his sons: Marco (Fra Mattia, b. 1468–d. 1534), Giovanni (b. 1469–d. 1529/1530), Luca “il giovane” (b. 1475–d. 1548), Francesco (Fra Ambrogio, b. 1477–d. 1527/1528), and Girolamo (b. 1488–d. 1566). Andrea and Giovanni are the best-studied among these artists, while the others long suffered from general neglect owing to their geographically disperse activity and a perception that production quality fell with the later generations. Similarly under-studied are two final artists who made glazed sculptures: the Florentine Benedetto Buglioni (b. 1459/1460–d. 1521), who likely trained under Andrea and opened his own shop around 1480, and his adopted ward, Santi Buglioni (b. 1494–d. 1576). Recent scholarship has illuminated the ongoing efforts of the later artists in both families to integrate workshop traditions forged under Luca with new contexts and artistic innovations, all while serving patrons ranging from Franciscan friars to King François I of France.

Geometry and the Making of Utopian Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

In his Della Pittura, Leon Battista Alberti initiated what I call a “utopian moment,” a philosophical and practical disposition fusing human ingenuity, geometry, and political harmony. This paper follows these notions as they evolved over the course of the sixteenth century and were embraced by the new science of Johannes Kepler and René Descartes, who reshaped these utopian dispositions with their new geometrical analyses of sight and light. In his Dioptrice, Kepler suggests a new science of refractions produced and manipulated artificially through lenses, their physical properties analyzed geometrically; in analyzing the rainbow, Descartes artificially reproduces it, initially through a glass flask filled with water, and then through a prism, thus giving a geometrical causal account of its colors. In both cases these analyses are entwined with subtle political metaphors, transforming the technical scientific issues into key features of a “utopian moment.”

«Se il savio uomo debba prender moglie». Boccaccio e la questione matrimoniale nel XIV e XV secolo

La contesa tra Venere celeste e Venere terrena, tra l’amore onesto e coniugale, che regola la comunità, e l’amore dilettevole e extraconiugale, che è fonte inesauribile di valore guerriero e di virtù cavalleresche nella società cortese, affascina il Boccaccio durante il soggiorno nella Napoli angioina. Se nel Filostrato celebra il trionfo dell’amore per diletto e nel Filocolo concilia il diletto con l’amore onesto, nel Teseida invece rappresenta le tensioni dell’eroina romanza sempre in bilico tra le due Veneri. Nel periodo napoletano Boccaccio trascrive due frammenti di polemica antimatrimoniale nello Zibaldone Laurenziano XXIX 8. Il primo è estratto dall’Adversus Jovinianum, nel quale Gerolamo cita un passo del De nuptiis di Teofrasto per affermare che il sapiente deve stare lontano dalle noie del matrimonio per dedicarsi totalmente agli studi. Il secondo, prelevato dalla Dissuasio di pseudo-Valerio, contiene rassegne di mogli pericolose e di mariti che soccombono alla loro malvagità, con l’obiettivo di rafforzare l’esortazione finale a non sposare Venere ma Pallade. All’archivio dello Zibaldone Boccaccio ritorna più volte, in particolare nelle opere postdecameroniane del periodo fiorentino (Corbaccio, Trattatello in laude di Dante, Esposizioni sopra la Comedia), quando sulle orme di Dante e sotto il magistero di Petrarca si congeda definitivamente dalla letteratura amorosa mezzana per dedicarsi alla letteratura elevata e agli studi teologici e filosofici. Lungo il Trecento e il Quattrocento, nel frequente riaccendersi in Europa del dibattito sul matrimonio, Geoffrey Chaucer, Leonardo Bruni, Leon Battista Alberti, Francesco e Ermolao Barbaro rimettono in gioco Teofrasto e pseudo-Valerio con la mediazione del Boccaccio.

Poggio and Alberti Revisited

The careers of the Curial secretaries Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459) and Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) reveal many parallels. In 1437-1438 the Este court of Ferrara, where Eugenius IV convoked a church council, provided a focal point for their friendship. It was to the Ferrarese canon Francesco Marescalchi that Poggio dedicated Book 1 of his Latin epistles (1436), and Alberti his Hundred Apologues (1437). Both men were inspired to critiques of contemporary society by the Greek satirist Lucian, and both indulged in composing brief witticisms that expose human vice: Poggio in his Facetiae (Jests) and Alberti in his Apologi (Fables) and Vita (Autobiography). From Lucian, they also learned to dramatize human foibles on the imagined stage of the theatrum mundi, or theater of the world: Poggio in his dialogues, and Alberti in both the Intercenales and Momus. Despite such literary affinities, their approach to ethical questions differed, especially concerning the validity of allegory, which Poggio rejected but Alberti embraced. As a tribute to his colleague, Alberti dedicated Book 4 of his Intercenales to Poggio; he prefaced the work with an ironic Aesopic fable that asserts the superiority of recondite scientific research over commonplace humanistic studies. Eventually, Alberti’s status as an outsider in Florence was reflected in the deterioration in his relations with Poggio. The rift was widened in 1441, when Alberti organized the Italian poetic competition called the Certame Coronario that was held in the Florence cathedral on October 22. Poggio was a member of the jury that, to Alberti’s chagrin, refused to declare a winner.