Costanza Beltrami

PhD Candidate, The Courtauld Institute of Art

Portfolio

Articles for the Italian Art Society (http://italianartsociety.tumblr.com)

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Casa Buonarroti

On 26 May 1951 the Florentine Museum 'Casa Buonarroti' reopened its doors after a prolonged closure due to the Second World War and difficult post-war years. Art historian, museum administrator and heritage management activist Giovanni Poggi was instrumental to the re-opening and nominated as the Museum's Honorary Keeper.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Filippo Lippi

On 19 May 1455 Filippo Lippi, a leading Renaissance painter in fifteenth-century Florence, had a really bad day. So far, Filippo's life had been a mix of great misfortunes and well-deserved artistic success. Born to an extremely poor family, he was soon left orphan by the death of his father.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
A Postcard from the DIA

This week I was lucky enough to spend some time at the fantastic Detroit Institute of Arts. Here are my three favorite pieces of Italian art from the collection...Bronze Statuette of a Rider, Etruscan, late 5th century BCThe Etruscan culture originated during the Late Bronze Age (12th-11th century BCE) in central Italy, between the modern regions of Tuscany and Lazio.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Giovannino de' Grassi

Painter, architect and illuminator Giovannino de' Grassi is first documented on 5 May 1389, when the Duomo of Milan bought a paintbrush for him. The document reveals that Giovannino was already an established artist by this point, but unfortunately we know nothing of his previous works.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Let's start building! San Biagio, Montepulciano

Let's start building! On 13 April 1518 the Virgin Mary miraculously appeared on a verdant hill just outside the Tuscan town of Montepulciano. A few days later, on 28 April 1518, work officially started on the construction of a new church on the site.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Mario Mafai

Italian painter Mario Mafai died on 31 March 1965 in Rome. He was a central member of the scuola romana, a loose group of artists who painted lyrical and intimate subjects contrasting with the neoclassical monumentality of Novecento Italiano.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Francesco di Simone da Fiesole

Francesco di Simone da Fiesole died on 24 March 1493 in Florence. Little-known today, Francesco worked with some of the most important artists of the Renaissance and facilitated the spread of Tuscan designs to other Italian regions such as Romagna and the Marches.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Opening Today: Electronic Renaissance

Opening Today: Electronic Renaissance @ Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 10 March-23 JulyBorn in New York in 1951, Bill Viola is widely recognizes as one of the leading contemporary video artists. After his graduation from Syracuse University's Art School, he spent to years working at Art/Tapes/22, one of Italy's first video art production studios.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Jannis Kounellis

The Art Newspaper reports that Jannis (or Gianni) Kounellis, a Greek artist who moved to Rome at the age of 20, died yesterday (16 February 2016) at the age of eighty.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Telemaco Signorini

Painter Telemaco Signorini died on 10 February 1901 in Florence. He was the main theoretician of the Macchiaioli group, a movement which flourished in central Italy around the mid nineteenth century. The Macchiaioli focused on simple scenes of ordinary everyday life.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
News from the Uffizi Galleries

Following this morning's post on female artist Marianna Candidi Dionigi, IAS blog is delighted to report that the world-renown Uffizi Galleries in Florence plan to show more work by female artists. This is a small but significant step to readdress a century-old imbalance in how Western Art has been studied, appreciated and displayed in collections around the world.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Robert of Anjou and Giotto

On 20 January 1330 Robert of Anjou, the King of Naples, demonstrated his admiration and affection for the painter Giotto by nominating him a familiaris, namely a member of the king's household.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Stefano Parrocel

Painter Stefano Parrocel died on 13 January 1775 in Rome. Known by his surname 'Le Romain,' Parrocel was actually born in Avignon, France, as Étienne Parosel. Fascinated by antique sculpture and Seicento Italian art, Parrocel moved to Rome in 1717, where he developed a refined style inspired by the elegant classicism of Charles le Brun.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Ottaviano Jannella

Sculptor Ottaviano Jannella was born in Ascoli Piceno on 23 December 1635. As we know from the biography published in 1676 by his cousin Giovanni Battista Tuzj, Ottaviano studied the classics, humanities, and drawing at a local school.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Andrea di Firenze

On 30 December 1365 painter Andrea di Firenze signed a contract for the decoration of the chapter house (known as the Spanish Chapel) of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. According to the contract, he was to complete the chapel's frescoes in two years, or less.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Achille Castiglioni

Leading designer Achille Castiglioni died in Milan on 2 December 2002. In 1997-1998, the MOMA in New York organized an important retrospective of the artist's work, bringing together a large number of his objects and environments (room installations for trade fairs and museum). The exhibition can be visited virtually on the Museum's website.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Johann Joachim Winckelmann

Art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann was born in Stendal, Germany, on 9 December 1717. Although not an Italian, Winckelmann's birthday deserves to be celebrated on this blog as he published groundbreaking studies on Ancient Greek and Roman art, led a successful career as artistic advisor to Roman antiquarians and Grand Tour collectors, and ardently promoted Neo-Classicism as an artistic style.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Mario Giacomelli

Italian photographer Mario Giacomelli died in Senigallia, on Italy's Adriatic coast, on 25 November 2000. Born in the same town in 1925, Giacomelli started working as apprentice in a printing house when just twelve years old. He did not receive an formal artistic training, but encountered photography casually during a trip to Rome with his fiancée in 1950.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
3: The three churches at Tre Chiese, South Tyrol

3: The three churches at Tre Chiese, South Tyrol Tre Chiese, also known by its German name Dreikirchen, is a group of three small churches between the villages of Barbiano and Villandro, in the province of Bolzano at the extreme north of Italy.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
The 28th of October in Italian History

Thanks to a series of historical coincidences, the 28th of October is one of the most fateful days in Italian history, all the way from the Roman empire to the 1950s. On this day in 306 AD, Maxentius proclaimed himself emperor thanks to the support of his Pretorian Guard.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Nicolò Pacassi

Eighteenth-century architect Nicolò Pacassi died on 11 November 1790 in Vienna, Austria. He was also born in Austria, in Wiener Neustad, on 5 March 1716. However, his father Giovanni, also an architect, was an Italian of Greek descent, and Nicolò trained around Gorizia, a city then under Habsburg rule but now in Italy.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Gentile da Fabriano

Painter Gentile da Fabriano passed away before 14 October 1427, when a document refers to him as dead. Gentile's name derives from his hometown of Fabriano, located between Perugia and Ancona in central Italy, where he was born around 1385. The painter probably trained in this city before moving to Venice in 1408.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Favorite Art Fact File: Unione Militare building in Rome

Favorite Art Fact File Who? Luke, architecture student and IAS blog reader What is one of your favorite artworks? The recently-refurbished Unione Militare building in Rome ....and your favorite detail? I like the changing colors of the glass terrace on the building's roof.I ASBlog Costanza Beltrami explains... The refurbishment of the former headquarters of the Unione Militare (Military Association) was completed in 2013 by the studio of Massimiliano Fuksas.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Cristoforo and Antonio Mantegazza at the Certosa di Pavia

By Costanza BeltramiOn 7 October 1473, sculptors Cristoforo and Antonio Mantegazza were commissioned to work at the Chartreuse of Pavia on the facade of the monastic church. The birth and death dates of the two brothers are unknown, and no works signed with their names survive.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Alberto Magnelli

Born in Florence on July 1, 1888, Alberto Magnelli taught himself to paint by studying the great works of the Florentine Renaissance: Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno and Piero della Francesca.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
11/11/2016
Nicolò Pacassi

Eighteenth-century architect Nicolò Pacassi died on 11 November 1790 in Vienna, Austria. He was also born in Austria, in Wiener Neustad, on 5 March 1716. However, his father Giovanni, also an architect, was an Italian of Greek descent, and Nicolò trained around Gorizia, a city then under Habsburg rule but now in Italy.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Lorenzo Maitani

Contained in an official protocol signed in Orvieto on 16 September 1310, this is the second known documentary reference to Lorenzo Maitani, a master mason first recorded in Siena in a land registry declaration of 1290. The protocol concedes the citizenship of Orvieto and the role of “general head master” of the construction of Orvieto cathedral to Maitani, stipulating that he would also enjoy the right to carry arms within the city, and the freedom to employ as many of his apprentices and...

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Pompeo Mariani

Painter Pompeo Mariani was born on 9 September 1857 in Monza. His maternal grandfather and uncle Giosué and Mosé Bianchi were painters, yet he initially worked as a banker in Milan.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Valerio Adami at Palazzo Parasi, Cannobio (VB)

Last Chance to See: Valerio Adami at Palazzo Parasi, Cannobio (VB), Italy (closes Sunday, September 4, 2016). If your holidays have brought you to the North Italian lakes, don't miss Valerio Adami's solo show in Cannobio, a lovely lake-side town on Lake Maggiore.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Andrea del Sarto

After the sack of Rome of 1527, the Florentine overthrew to the ruling Medici family and established a short-lived Republic. As the Italian Wars continued, Florence was abandoned by its allies. Besieged by the army of Emperor Charles V, the city surrendered on 10 August 1530.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Leonardo da Vinci's pen-and-ink view of the Tuscan hills

Inscribed "day of Holy Mary of the Snows on the 5th August 1473" in the top right corner, Leonardo da Vinci's pen-and-ink view of the Tuscan hills is the first dated landscape in history. The drawing's elastic lines perfectly capture the succession of precipitous slopes around Vinci, and their contrast with the gentler plain in the background.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Feast of St Mary Magdalene

Today, 22 July, is the feast day of St Mary Magdalene, one of Christianity's most important saints. Mentioned in all the canonical Gospels as a close follower of Jesus, Mary is nevertheless a mysterious figure.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Enrico Baj

Italian painter and sculptor Enrico Baj died on 17 June 2003 in Vergiate. Born in Milan on 31 October 1924, Baj studied painting and law at the university in Milan. In 1951, he and Sergio Dangelo founded the movement 'arte nucleare' (nuclear art), which aimed to revise the avant-garde and communicate the fraught and precarious situation of the post-war years.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Benedetto Bonfigli

By Costanza Beltrami Painter Benedetto Bonfigli died on 8 July 1496 in Perugia. He probably trained in the same city between 1430 and 1440, where he absorbed the dominant Late Gothic style. Later on, he was also influenced by Fra Angelico, Domenico Veneziano, and Gentile da Fabriano.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Girolamo Pieri Ballati Nerli

According to one of two existing death certificates, painter Girolamo Pieri Ballati Nerli died on 24 June 1926 in Nervi, near Genoa.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Carlo Maciachini

Lombard architect Carlo Maciachini died on 10 June 1899 in Varese, close to the town where he was born 81 years earlier, on 2 April 1818. Maciachini's first training was as a carpenter and cabinetmaker, crafts he carried on even as he studied architecture at the Academia di Brera in Milan.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Benedetto da Maiano

Benedetto da Maiano died on 24 May 1497 in Florence, where he was born in 1442. Benedetto trained as a wood-carver, learning how to make elaborate intarsia for chests and mirror cases.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Andrea Malinconico

Painter Andrea Malinconico was born in Naples on 3 June 1635. He may have trained in the workshop of Massimo Stanzione, although his style was also influenced by Andrea Vaccaro, Anton Van Dyck, Francesco Guarino, Bernardo Cavallino and Charles Mellin.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Antonio Asprucci

Italian architect Antonio Asprucci was born on 20 May 1723 in Rome. After training with his father and with Nicola Salvi, he worked independently on the restoration of the monastery of S Francesca Romana and the construction of a monastic building for S Stefano in Cacco, both in Rome.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Carlo Maratta or Maratti

Carlo Maratta or Maratti was born on 13 or 15 May 1625 in Camerano. The artist soon moved to Rome and become an apprentice in the studio of Andrea Sacchi. According to his first biographer Giovanni Bellori he studied very hard, honing his skill by relentlessly copying works of Raphael and Carracci.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta

Venetian painter and draughtsman Giovanni Battista Piazzetta died on 29 April 1754. Son of sculptor Giacomo Piazzetta, Giovanni trained with the undistinguished painter Silvestro Manaigo before joining the studio of Antonio Molinari, who introduced him to tenebrism. Sombre compositions with intense chiaroscuro and an almost monochromatic palette would become the mainstay of Piazzetta's oeuvre.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Luigi Broggi

Architect and writer Luigi Broggi was born on 6 May 1851. He studied at the Accademia di Brera under Camillo Boito, an influential architectural theorist, art critic and writer. After opening an independent studio in 1879, he won design competitions for a new parliament building in Rome and a monument to the 'Cinque Giornate'.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Angelo Michele Colonna

Seventeenth-century painter Angelo Michele Colonna died on 11 March 1687 in Bologna. Born near Como in 1604, the artist worked both as a figure painter (figurista), and as a painter of illusionistic architectural views, or quadraturista. He collaborated widely with contemporaries such as Girolamo Curti and, especially, Agostino Mitelli.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Bartolomeo Pinelli

Bartolomeo Pinelli died in Rome on 1 April 1835. His friend Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli, author of satirical sonnets in the Romanesque dialect, commemorated the artist's death with a poem where remembered him as penniless and carefree, cheerfully drinking with friends at an Osteria in Trastevere, then a poor neighborhood on the west bank of the Tiber.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Alessandro Magnasco

Painter Alessandro Magnasco, known as Lissandrino, died on 12 March 1749 in Genoa, his hometown. Alessando had studied in Milan, in the workshop of Filippo Abbiati (1640-1715), and his early works are deeply influenced by the harsh chiaroscuro typical of seventeenth-century Lombard painting.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Sassetta's Madonna della Neve

On 25 March 1430 -on what was the first day of the Senese new year until 1750- the rich Senese widow Ludovica Bertini commissioned an altarpiece for a now-destroyed chapel in the Cathedral of Siena. The artwork was commissioned from the local painter Stefano di Giovanni di Consolo, known as Sassetta, who had already realized important work at the Cathedral.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Giuliano da Rimini

As we know from a document referring to his widowed wife Catalina, Italian painter Giuliano da Rimini was dead by 19 March 1346. In fact, the artist's activity is only documented from 1307, when he signed a reredos now in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, to 1323, when he paid for the lease of his house in Rimini.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Giovanni di Niccoló Mansueti

On 26 March 1527, painter Giovanni di Niccoló Mansueti was no longer a member of the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, a Venetian lay confraternity. This suggest that the artists died before this date, but after 6 September 1526, when he witnessed a notarial act.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Antonio Petrini

Baroque architect Antonio Petrini died on 8 April 1701 in Würzburg, Germany. Born in Calavino di Trento in the north of Italy in 1621, Petrini soon settled in Franconia, where he became well-known thanks to his work on the walls of the city of Würzburg.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Pesce d'Aprile!

Happy April fools' day! Have you played any pesce d'Aprile yet? This Italian expression, meaning "April fish," is used to describe the practical jokes typically played on this day. The origin of April Fool's day are debated.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Giovanni Branca

Architect-engineer Giovanni Branca was born on 22 April 1571 in Lizzola, near Pesaro. He studied mathematics and architecture in Rome before being nominated resident architect of the Holy House of Loreto, a sanctuary which is said to contain the very house where the Virgin Mary lived, miraculously translated from Nazareth at the end of the thirteenth century.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Carlo Maratta

Carlo Maratta or Maratti was born on 13 or 15 May 1625 in Camerano. The artist soon moved to Rome and become an apprentice in the studio of Andrea Sacchi. According to his first biographer Giovanni Bellori he studied very hard, honing his skill by relentlessly copying works of Raphael and Carracci.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Botticelli Reimagined at the V&A

By Costanza BeltramiUp and downs of a painter: from the Quattrocento to the present day, art historians have evaluated the works of Florentine Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) in dramatically differing ways. First came Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), who praised the indescribable beauty of Botticelli's faces, but criticized his frivolous lifestyle.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Giuseppe Cades

Painter Giuseppe Cades was born on 4 March 1750 in Rome, where he soon became a well-respected history painter, decorator, and engraver. He trained as a pupil of Domenico Corvi at the Accademia di San Luca. At sixteen, he had already won some of the Academy's drawing prizes with works such as Tobias Healing his Blind Father.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Andriolo de' Santi

Documents of 26 February 1351 reveal that the tomb of Giacomo II da Carrara, now in the Church of the Eremitani in Padua, was carved by Andriolo de' Santi, a sculptor-architect first documented on 7 November 1342 in Vicenza. Giacomo II was Lord of Padua from 1345 to 1350.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Masaccio: The Pisa Altarpiece

Renaissance painter Masaccio received the first payment for the so-called "Pisa Altarpiece" on 19 February 1426. The last payment to Antonio di Biagio, the Sienese wood-carver in charge of the painting's frame, is recorded on the same day: apparently, the wooden structure constructed by Antonio determined the composition designed by Masaccio.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Jacopo della Quercia's final project for the Fonte Gaia, Siena

22 January 1419 was a defining moment for the urban history of Siena: on this day, Renaissance sculptor Jacopo della Quercia was requested to draft and publicly display his final project for the Fonte Gaia, the monumental fountain in the city's landmark square, Piazza del Campo.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Berto Lardera

Sculptor Berto Lardera was born on 18 December 1911 in La Spezia, in the Italian region of Liguria, where his father worked as a naval engineer. Inspired by his father's technical drawings, Berto attended the free drawing school in Florence from 1926 to 1932, and later specialized in sculpture.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Favorite Art Fact File: Embriachi Casket

Favorite Art Fact File Who? Costanza Beltrami, IAS blog Staff Writer What is one of your favorite artworks? A Marriage Casket produced at the turn of the fifteenth-century by the Embriachi workshop, now at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London....and your favorite detail?

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Favorite Artwork Fact File: Costanza Beltrami

What is your favorite Italian artwork? Share your top painting, sculpture, or design by an Italian artist, or your favorite fresco, building, or monument located in Italy. Today, IASblog launches the Favorite Artwork Fact File (#FAFF).

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis

By Costanza Beltrami Painter and illuminator Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis is mentioned for the last time in a document of 23 October 1508, suggesting he died shortly after this date. Giovanni had begun...

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Antonio Curri

Architect and interior designer Antonio Curri was born on 9 October 1848 in Alberobello, a small southern towen famous for its trulli. Legend has it that Curri followed Giuseppe Garibaldi in the Expedition of the Thousand, a crucial event in the Wars of Italian Unification.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Well done Italian Museums!

Well done Italian Museums! Recently-published institutional data has revealed that 43 million visitors enjoyed Italy's art collections in 2015. As noted by the Italian culture minister Dario Franceschini, this is the country's best ever result, and an impressive feat for its cultural institutions, which have recorded a 6% growth over last year's figures.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Giovanni Pietro Bellori

Antiquarian, theorist and biographer Giovanni Pietro Bellori was born on 15 January 1613 in Rome. His family was neither wealthy nor educated: his parents were emigrant Lombard farmers. Bellori's intelligence impressed the antiquarian Francesco Angeloni (1559-1652), possibly an uncle, who adopted him.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Vittorio De Sica

Italian actor and director Vittorio De Sica died on 13 November 1974 in Paris. Born in 1902 in Sora, in the region of Lazio, De Sica was a prolific film director and actor who directed 35 films and directed 150.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Gae Aulenti

Architect and designer Gae Aulenti was born in Palazzolo dello Stella, near Udine, on 4 December 1927.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Futurism's first architectural manifesto

The first architectural manifesto of Futurism appeared in print on 29 January 1914, in the Roman newspaper Il piccolo giornale d'Italia, with the title "Futurist Architecture Too...and What is It?" ("Anche l'architettura futurista...e che è?"). The text was penned by Enrico Prampolini, an artist born in Modena in 1894.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Jacopo de' Barbaris View of Venice

On 30 October 1500, the Signoria of Venice granted the Nuremberg merchant Anton Kolb a printing privilege for Jacopo de' Barbaris View of Venice. A precursor of modern copyright, this privilege ensured that copies of the View printed by Kolb would be legally protected from counterfeits for a period of four years.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Tito Sarrocchi

Sculptor Tito Sarrocchi was born on 5 January 1824 in Siena. He had a traditional artistic training, starting out as apprentice in the workshop of a stone-cutter employed at the Cathedral. At the same time, he started attending the Art Academy, first in Siena and then in Florence.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Egisto Bracci

Egisto Bracci was born in Florence on New Year's Day, 1830. His career as an architect began very early: he was first apprenticed to a studio at sixteen, and soon after he joined the staff of Enrico Presenti, one of the city's leading architects.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
New Book: The Cambridge History of Painting in the Classical World

Are you a fan of the Etruscans and their painted eggs (like Staff Writer Costanza Beltrami)? Is Apelles' advice "Not a day without a line drawn" your motto? Do you want to impress your friends by telling your Quintus Pedius from your Gaius Fabius?

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Eugenio Gignous

Painter Eugenio Gignous died on 30 August 1906 in Stresa, on Lake Maggiore. Born in 1850, Gignous studied at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, where he specialized in landscape painting and befriended established artists such as Carlo Mancini and Antonio Fontanesi.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Charlemagne Imperator Romanorum

Charlemagne (2 April 742/747/748-28 January 814) was crowned Imperator Romanorum (Emperor of the Romans) by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800. The event followed the Pope's oath of spiritual cleansing in response to corruption charges, which Charlemagne was requested to investigate.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Augusto Benvenuti

Sculptor Augusto Benvenuti died in Venice on 7 February 1899. He was 60 years old. Despite being very poor, his family encouraged his artistic interests, and he was apprenticed to a woodcarver. As Benvenuti's talent emerged, he focused on bronze and stone sculpture.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Bartolomeo Pinelli

Bartolomeo Pinelli was born in Rome, on 20 November 1781. Although he briefly studied in Bologna, his life and artistic career were mostly played out in Rome, and in particular in Trastevere, then a poor neighborhood on the west bank of the Tiber.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Gilbert and George

Gilbert of famous art duo Gilbert and George was born Gilbert Proesch on 17 September 1943 in San Martin de Tor, a small village on the Dolomites in the Italian province of South Tyrol. At the time of Gilbert's birth, the village and the surrounding region were occupied by the Third Reich following Italy’s surrender to the Allies on 8 September 1943.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
New Exhibition: "Raffaello, Parmigianino, Barocci: Dialectic of the Gaze and Metaphors of Vision"

The exhibition "Raffaello, Parmigianino, Barocci: Dialectic of the Gaze and Metaphors of Vision" (2 October 2015-10 January 2016) opened today at the Capitoline Museums in Rome. The exhibition centers on drawings and prints by the late Renaissance artists Parmigianino (Parma, 11 January 1503-Casalmaggiore, 24 August 1540), and Federico Barocci (Urbino, 1526-1612).

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Adolfo Venturi

Pioneer art historian Adolfo Venturi was born in Modena on 4 September 1856. Initially trained as an accountant, Venturi became curator of the Estense Gallery in Modena in 1878, and General Inspector of Fine Arts at the Ministry of Public Instruction in Rome in 1888.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Benvenuto Cellini

"Al ladro, al ladro!" (Stop thief!): on 16 October 1538 famous Renaissance goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was arrested on the charge of having stolen jewels from the papal treasury during the tragic days of the Sack of Rome.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Bernardino Poccetti

Bernardo Barbatelli, known as Bernardino Poccetti, was possibly born on 27 August 1548 in San Marino di Valdelsa, near Florence. He spent most of his life in the latter city, where he was known as "Bernardino delle Facciate" (Bernardino of the Façades).

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian

The feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian has been celebrated on 26 September since 1970 though the traditional Roman calendar honors the saints on 27 September, the anniversary of their death in 287 CE. The Golden Legend, a popular compilation of saints' lives written in the 1260s by the Dominican friar Jacobus de Voragine, recounts their biographies.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Giovanni Maria Benzoni

The Neoclassical sculptor Giovanni Maria (or Giammaria) Benzoni was born on 28 August 1809 in Songavazzo, near Bergamo. His parents, farmers of modest means, intended him to learn carpentry in an uncle's workshop. Working as apprentice carpenter, Benzoni revealed his precocious artistic skill.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Ulisse Aldrovandi

Italian naturalist and antiquarian Ulisse Aldrovandi was born in Bologna on 11 September 1522. His family, prominent in Bolognese civic life since at least the 12th century, numbered great patrons of the arts. According to Vasari, Michelangelo was a guest of the family in 1494-5; later on, Filippo Aldrovandi commissioned several paintings from the baroque artist Guercino.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Filippo Rega

Gem-engraver and medalist Filippo Rega was born on 26 August 1761 in Chieti, a central-Italian town then in the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples. After working in Rome from 1776 to 1787, he moved to Naples, where he gained important commissions from the Bourbons.

The Italian Art Society's Blog
Pope Clement VII

Pope Clement VII, a key player in the historical and artistic events of the High Renaissance, died on 25 September 1534 in Rome. Clement VII was born Giulio de' Medici in Florence on 26 May 1478. The Medici were exiled from Florence when Giulio was in his twenties, giving him the opportunity to travel widely.

Other

Material Witness Blog
03/09/2016
Images in Glass: Seeing and Experiencing Holy Space

How visual is architecture? Can buildings ever work as 'images' or are they always spaces to be perceived sensorially through emotion and movement? Certainly, some buildings (or their parts) are quite literally icons, from the Windows' logo to the Tour Eiffel, the unchallenged symbol for Paris.

Articles for Views and Reviews (http://blog.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/)

Courtauld Critics
11/11/2014
From the Forest to the Sea: Emily Carr in British Columbia (Dulwich Picture Gallery)

From the Forest to the Sea brilliantly turns the disadvantages of Dulwich Picture Gallery's small exhibition space into an opportunity: the gallery's long vista - a corridor rather than an enfilade of rooms - and its changing wall colours firmly encourage visitors' progress from green to blue, from dark to light, from the forest to the sea.

Views and Reviews
02/11/2014
The Visual Brain and the Straight Line

The Visual Brain and the Straight Line Caroline Villers Research Fellowship Lecture: How our Visual Brains Interpret Painted Lines Tuesday, 4 February 2014, Dr Pia Gottschaller (Caroline Villers Research Fellow 2012-13) Reflecting the focus of the Caroline Villers research fellowship, Pia Gotschaller's work is mainly focused on technical art history.

Courtauld Critics
02/25/2014
Vladimir Baranov-Rossiné (1888-1944): From Cubism to Surrealism (St Petersburg Gallery, London)

Vladimir Baranov-Rossiné (1888-1944): From Cubism to Surrealism (St Petersburg Gallery, London) If every ground-floor window on Cork Street is alive with the lure of artworks, St Petersburg Gallery's is ablaze with a kaleidoscope of colours and styles. Dazzling variety is indeed one's first impression of Vladimir Baranov-Rossiné's work, an impression strengthened by the exhibition's title, From Cubism to Surrealism.

Views and Reviews
03/31/2014
The Quintessential Billie Holiday

The Quintessential Billie Holiday Professor Carol Tulloch's talk The Quintessential Billie Holiday explored the different 'style narratives' created by the famous jazz singer Billie Holiday (1915-59) during her career. As defined by Tulloch, a 'style narrative' is a form of 'self-telling' which uses specific beauty regimes and forms of dress to articulate the self within daily life.

Views and Reviews
03/28/2014
Exhibit ‘A.’ Russian Art: Collections, Exhibitions and Archives, 21-22 March 20

Exhibit 'A.' Russian Art: Collections, Exhibitions and Archives, 21-22 March 20 Organised by the Cambridge Courtauld Russian Art Centre (CCRAC) in collaboration with the Moscow Lomonosov State University, the two-day conference Exhibit 'A'. Russian Art: Collection, Exhibitions and Archives was remarkable for its inclusiveness.

Views and Reviews
03/25/2014
Flip, Linger, Glide: The Movements of Magazine Pictures and Their Publics c. 1915

Flip, Linger, Glide: The Movements of Magazine Pictures and Their Publics c. 1915 Jennifer Greenhill's talk focused on the illustrations of early 20 th -century female periodicals, especially the work of American illustrator Coles Phillips (1880-1927). As owner of an advertising agency and illustrator of mass-consumption magazines, Phillips is a fitting character to challenge the prevailing historiographical interpretations of magazine illustration.

Articles for The Culture Trip (http://theculturetrip.com/)

Theculturetrip
Francis Bacon and Henry Moore: Flesh and Bone

Francis Bacon and Henry Moore: Flesh and Bone brings together two giants of 20th century art at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, and charts the similarities and differences between these modern masters. Costanza Beltrami shares her impressions of the exhibition, which runs from 12 September 2013 to 19 January 2014.

Theculturetrip
The Russian Avant-Garde From Cubism to Surrealism

Dazzling variety is the defining characteristic of Vladimir Baranov-Rossiné's work. The Russian painter explored a variety of styles throughout his life, rendering his oeuvre into an avant-garde kaleidoscope of colours and perspectives. Costanza Beltrami takes a closer look at Baranov-Rossiné's paintings at From Cubism to Surrealism, an exhibition organised by the St Petersburg Gallery in London.

Theculturetrip
'Pearls' at London's V&A: A History of Luxury and Design

On display from the 21st of September 2013 to the 19th of January 2014, is an exhibition at London's Victoria Albert Museum that focuses on the history and design of pearls. Costanza Beltrami investigates this exhibition, revealing the fascinating story these sea-born treasures hold.

Theculturetrip
Outside the Venice Biennale: Perspectives on Glass Art

Glass is often undervalued as a medium in contemporary art, despite its deep roots in design and craft. Two exhibitions held on the periphery of the Venice Biennale 2013 put glass, and its potential as an art form, centre stage, as Costanza Beltrami reports.

Articles for Play Arts (London Student)

The Smoke - London Student
12/09/2013
Girl with a Pearl Necklace

Try typing "pearls are..." on Google, and you'll get suggestions such as: "a girl's best friend", "timeless" and "always appropriate," highlighting the value of pearls as aesthetic as well as historical objects. The V&A's current exhibition Pearls seemingly reinforces this stereotype, yet its collaboration with Central Saint Martins college also poses some challenges.

The Smoke - London Student
02/01/2014
A Postmodern Adventure

Architectural postmodernism was playful from its beginnings in the 1960s, when American architect Robert Venturi substituted Mies van der Rohe’s modernist slogan ‘less is more’ with its parody, ‘less is a bore.’

The Smoke - London Student
09/16/2013
Laura Knight: Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery

Outside the canvas, a standing male painter - inside, a voluptuous reclining nude. The artist and his model: a hallowed relationship of Western art. Against such an established tradition, even the smallest anomaly becomes conspicuous. Such an anomaly, Laura Knight's Self Portrait, captivates by the virtue of its unconventionality.

The Smoke - London Student
09/16/2013
Notes from the Biennale (with Liza Weber)

Every two years the contemporary art world congregates in Italy for the Venice Biennale, an international art exhibition established in 1895 to present the ‘most noble activities of the modern spirit…’