ICONOGRAPHY OF HANDS IN RENAISSANCE PAINTING

El estilo de pintura renacentista refleja todo tipo de principios, enfoques y comprensión del diseño plástico como un carácter estándar de las características históricas, políticas, religiosas, culturales y económicas de esa época. Al deshacerse de un tipo de perspectiva estricta y puramente centrada en la iglesia, los artistas del Renacimiento prácticamente comienzan a mirar la naturaleza, la ciencia, la literatura, la filosofía y, obviamente, la anatomía humana en un conjunto de mentes diferente. Una descripción razonable, equilibrada, científica y lógica de la vida humana lleva a los pintores a centrarse más en las partes del cuerpo humano. Aparte de los rostros de las figuras, las manos se convierten en partes esenciales del cuerpo para sujetar un espejo al universo interior de las figuras. Se incluyeron dentro del programa iconográfico tal que reflejaban las emociones y contemplaciones de la figura, y la conexión entre figuras y objetos. En este estudio, un examen a través de varias pinturas renacentistas arrojará luz sobre cómo los pintores como Giotto, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Francesca y más utilizaron la representación de las manos como un aparato y como un lenguaje de sus propósitos creativos. Así, se manifestará una iconografía de manos en la pintura renacentista. Renaissance style of painting reflects all types of plastic design principles, approaches and understanding as a standard character of historical, political, religious, cultural, and economic features of that era. Disposing of unadulterated strict and church focused kind of perspective, Renaissance artists practically start to look on nature, science, literature, philosophy, and obviously human anatomy in a different set of minds. Reasonable, balanced, scientific and logical portrayal of human life leads painters to focus closer on pieces of the human body. Aside from the faces of the figures, hands become essential body parts to hold a mirror to the interior universe of the figures. They were included within the iconographic program such mirrored the emotions and contemplations of the figure, and the connection among figures and objects. In this study, an examination through various Renaissance paintings will shed light on how the painters like Giotto, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Francesca, and more utilized the portrayal of hands as an apparatus and as a language of their creative purposes. Thusly, an iconography of hands in Renaissance painting will be manifested.

Software “Pinxit”: Hail Magister Leonardo!

In the present report, we offer a novel way for studying (via optical and digital means) features in Renaissance and Leonardo’s (and of course any other painter who followed this canon) paintings, based on a software that separately recognizes white, red, green, blue colors and measures the intensity of single bright spots in canvasses. After mapping the distribution of individual colors, the software proposes a trajectory considering the different geometrical and topological aspects. What we propose here is not just a variant of known methods for discovering the color distribution in a painting; on the contrary, it represents a new way to find unknown parameters in any Renaissance painting. In addition, via multispectral and hyperspectral analyses and image processing, the developed software permitted us to monitor the decay of some pigments in these canvasses at macro- and microscopic levels.

Cosmopolitanism and Oscillation in Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red

<p><em>This research emphasizes on the challenges stemming from the attempts in inventing Turkey’s new ideal identity faced by the miniaturists in Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red. It focuses on the encounter and tension between the East and the West that is symbolized in the usage of the Italian Renaissance painting style by Turkish miniature painters. There are two issues discussed namely the East-West oscillation and the complex desire to imitate others. The miniaturists face the predicament in the development of Turkey’s new ideal identity, which is represented in the appropriation of the Italian Renaissance Painting. I employed library research which borrowed Said’s discourse on Orientalism and Bhabha’s Postcolonialism in order to dismantle the endless oscillation in My Name is Red. Through his work, Pamuk wants to emphasize his position for not taking sides. Additionally, he tries to raise his critic to Turkey’s abrupt modernization and suggests hybridity as the solution to the predicament of the East-West oscillation.</em></p>

«Unhistoried and unconsidered». Percorsi di riscoperta e tutela tra Lario e Valtellina sulle orme di Edith Wharton e Bernard Berenson 1897-1912

The article examines the relationships between the description of some Lombard localities contained in Edith Wharton’s Italian Backgrounds (1905). In particular, attention is focused on the parallel events of rediscovery and conservation of the artistic heritage on Lake Como and in the pre-Alpine valleys between the publication of The Decoration of Houses (1897), the exhibition of sacred art at the Volta exhibition in Como (1899) and the preservation activity of Francesco Malaguzzi Valeri and Corrado Ricci. In addition, the essay examines the discovery of Renaissance painting in Valtellina (from Gaudenzio Ferrari to Cipriano Valorsa) by Bernard Berenson, hypothesizing that the American connoisseur may have been pushed on this research paths also thanks to Edith Warthon’s books and frequentation.

Kuss eines Zyklopen. Die umgekehrte Perspektive Florenskis zwischen Kultbild und Kunstbild

With his Reverse Perspective (1919) the Armeno-Russian theologian and mathematician Pavel Florensky denounced the monocular, ‘cyclopean’ vision otherwise seen as the main principle in Renaissance painting. Florensky connected the medieval icon with an ‘organic idea’ involving 1) binocular vision, 2) the observer’s movement in pictorial space, and 3) tactile proximity between observer and image. This article explores how ideas of perception relate to Florensky’s cultural criticism. His reverse perspective emerges as a complex controversy, not only between two principles in painting – the icon and the linear perspective. Florensky also challenges himself as a westernized intellectual, who, rooted in Orientalism, fails to defend a Russian Orthodox worldview.

American Dionysus: Carl W. Hamilton (1886–1967), collector of Italian Renaissance art

For nearly a decade Carl W. Hamilton was in possession of one of the most important private collections of Italian Renaissance painting in America. A self-made millionaire from humble beginnings, the young Hamilton captivated the art dealer Joseph Duveen and Duveen’s foremost experts in Italian Renaissance painting, Bernard and Mary Berenson. By inspiring and instructing Hamilton, Duveen and the Berensons hoped to focus his wealth and ambition to create a great collection and thereby profit by both him and the glory of his achievement. Though Hamilton’s personal collection proved ephemeral, many of his most important works of art nevertheless found their way into American public collections. Furthermore, Hamilton’s formative collecting experience – which developed his prejudices and preferences, sharpened his keen negotiating skills and solidified his zeal for collecting – helped to shape two significant collections of Old Masters in the Carolinas: the Museum & Gallery at Bob Jones University and the North Carolina Museum of Art.