'divine' artist ~ From Dante to Michelangelo

403 Pages·2007·2.9 MB·English

CREATING THE “DIVINE” ARTIST
CULTURES, BELIEFS
AND TRADITIONS
medieval and early modern peoples
Editorial Board:
williambrinner,University of California at Berkeley
florikeegmond,Leiden University
gustavhenningsen,Danish Folklore Archives
mayke de jong,University of Utrecht
mirirubin,Pembroke College, Oxford University
eliyassif,Tel Aviv University
VOLUME 19
CREATING
THE “DIVINE” ARTIST
From Dante to Michelangelo
BY
PATRICIA A. EMISON
BRILL
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2004
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Emison, Patricia A.
Creating the “divine” artist : from Dante to Michelangelo / by Patricia A. Emison.
p. cm. — (Cultures, beliefs, and traditions, ISSN 1382-5364 ; v. 19)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 90-04-13709-2
1. Art, Renaissance—Italy. 2. Artists—Italy—Social conditions—History—16th century. 3.
Art criticism—Italy—History—16th century. 4. Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.) I. Title. II.
Series.
N6915.E466 2004
700’.9’024—dc22
2004043500
ISSN 1382–5364
ISBN 90 04 13709 2
© Copyright 2004 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written
permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal
use is granted by Brill provided that
the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright
Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910
Danvers MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
toLinneaAllegraAstraeaAlcyone
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ................................................... ix
List ofIllustrations.................................................... xi
Introduction........................................................... 3
TheSpongeofProtogenes ........................................... 19
Not QuitetheLiberalArtist ......................................... 59
TheDivinePoet,Twinned........................................... 111
Idioti orAngels........................................................ 173
Listening fortheMusicoftheSpheres .............................. 215
TheArtist asHuomoFamosissimo...................................... 255
Epilogue:TheRomanticDeluge .................................... 303
Appendix:TheHistoriographyofIngegno ........................... 321
Appendix:Fornari’s GlossonAriosto’sCantoXXXIII ............ 349
Illustrations
Bibliography .......................................................... 355
Index .................................................................. 375
This page intentionally left blank
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First thanks goes to my family: to my daughters, Chloë and Linnea,
who put up with bad housekeeping and, much more grievous, the
recurrent order to go away—and who went away and made drawings
todelightme;andtoDavidV.Feldman, whoputupwithbadfoodand
my deferringlistening tomodernmusic,learning Sanskrit, andfiguring
outmatrices—not tomentioneven beginning tomasterUnix.
SecondthanksgoestotheInstituteforAdvancedStudy.Mysemester
in Princeton was like a walk into fresh air, made all the more pleasant
by raucous choruses of “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow” when I came
back from my office at night, thanks to the persons cited in the first
paragraph. This book is, for us, a memento of a spring in which life,
and library hours, were very good. I hope it will prove for others,
including perhaps some of those other jolly good Fellows in Spring
,worthy ofa lesssentimental interest.
My appreciation also to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for a
fellowship, awarded under the auspices of the Renaissance Society of
America, which helped me travel to Berlin during the preceding fall
semester ().
Forvarioushelpsandfriendlyacts,someonlyincidentallyconnected
with this project, I extend my thanks to the late Martha Emison Baur,
Melvin Bobick, Joan Esch, Rona Goffen, Jeffrey Hall, Marcia Hall,
IrvingLavin,AlexanderNagel,PeterParshall,MaryRasmussen,Ingrid
Rowland, Scott Schnepf, Christina Warner, and Christopher Wood.
Two anonymous readers helped me to make this book a considerably
less painful experience for the reader. Without Interlibrary Loan, a
service for which I am extremely thankful, I would have had to resort
towritingbadpoetryandorganizingmy slidecollection.Asitis,Ihave
enjoyed an unspoken dialogue with many art historians, both past and
present. I have learned both from those with whom I may ultimately
have differed, and from those in whose footsteps I have more nearly
stayed.
I apologize in advance for certain deficiencies in the illustrations.
These aremostly dueto issues of expense, some of time, or a combina-