RU 
EN Vera Zakharova
European University at Saint Petersburg, Russia
The work is dedicated to the early stage in the mythologization of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Gioconda” associated with Théophile Gautier, Jules Michelet and Walter Pater who construct the very influential myth on the portrait of Mona Lisa in the middle of the 19th century.
One of the founders of the new approach to the portrait interpretation is T. Gautier who transforms the topos of “fidelity to Nature”, known from Vasari. He is no more interested in the “lifelikeness” per se. For Gautier, this concept is closely connected with the feeling of “vague anxiety” and the “intoxicating”, almost “hypnotic” effect of the portrait.
This transformation of the topos of “fidelity to Nature” in the work of Gautier should be linked with the interest in enigmatic, characteristic of Romanticism and with the widespread gothic romance in the 19th century literature, where the motif of “lifelikeness” is perceived as a sign of portrait’s potential ability to become “living”.
The perception of “Gioconda” as a “fatal portrait” was developed in the works of J. Michelet. Well known for his interest in the theme of evil, Michelet celebrates “magical”, “Faustian”, even “demonic” inspiration of Leonardo’s paintings. The suggestion of something sinister and hypnotic in Leonardo’s pictures is Michelet’s most significant contribution to the myth which was growing up around Leonardo in the 19th century.
Initiated by J. Michelet and by the French romantics, mythologization of “Gioconda” was finished in the W. Pater’s “Renaissance”. His interpretation of the portrait as a universal work of art, the embodiment of human experience refers to the ideas of rebirth, death and revival, which are key points in his conception of the “eternal Renaissance”. In the Pater’s text, “Gioconda” obtains status of a universal “icon” of Modern period, which exists regardless of time and space.
Folesani Giovanna Perini
University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Italy
Three as yet unpublished Latin epigrams by an unknown Italian poet of the early to mid-16th century named Giovan Francesco Fabri celebrate Michelangelo as a marble sculptor. In particular one of them praises his statue of a youth nicknamed Ligdamus. The only possible identification of this work in Michelangelo’s extant oeuvre is with his Hermitage statue, a view which has been taken up by Sergej Androsov (Ermitage Italia — Museo statale Ermitage, La scultura italiana dal XIV al XVI secolo. Catalogo della collezione, Milan, Skira, 2008, p. 66) on the basis of the information I passed on to him after the Roman conference (2002) where I delivered a paper on this subject (its proceedings have never been published). This finding would definitely fix the wavering attribution of the statue and remove the work from its alleged context in the funeral monument for Pope Julius II, hinting to a private destination instead, possibly in relation to the ambience of Pope Julius III when still a Cardinal. This would also help explain its diminutive size, obviously unfit for the decoration of the upper storey of a huge funeral monument.
Since 2002 I have gathered some new information on Fabri and his poetical work, and discovered a few facts about his biography. This sheds further light on the intellectual circle of Michelangelo’s admirers in Northern Italy in the late thirties to late fourties of the 16th century. It has got a lot to do with revived humanism, lay values and homosexual relations, disguised as alliances on religious issues. Giovan Francesco Fabri seems to be very much part of it all. His death as a young man, as well as his somewhat embarassing connections, may well explain the long puzzling silence on him and his oeuvre (including his poems on Michelangelo) in terms of damnatio memoriae.
Maksim Kostyria
Saint Petersburg State University, Russia
The Medici Chapel (or the New Sacristy) of the Florentine Church of San Lorenzo (1520–1534) is one of the greatest masterpieces of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) and of the Renaissance art as a whole. At the same time, it is one of the most enigmatic and polysemantic works of the Renaissance. The abundance of concepts of “decoding” of the New Sacristy’s imagery proposed by researchers does not exhaust the depth of its content, and leaves space for new interpretations.
The report focuses on the analysis of the semantic structure of the Medici Chapel. During the reconstruction of the completeness of Michelangelo’s design the author examines architectural, sculptural and pictorial elements, both implemented and not implemented, from which the ensemble of the Medici Chapel was drawn.
Michelangelo’s masterpiece is considered in connection with the views of Plato, Dante and Savonarola (with a focus on the last two names). The author proposes a new look at the range of ideas. According to him, the concept of the chapel is largely determined by the idea of the Last Judgment. In the new interpretation of the ensemble crucial role is played by the sculptures of four Hours of Day. Master reinterpreted the cyclical nature of these images, relating them to the Apocalypse and the idea of posthumous retribution.
Pavel Aleshin
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
Ferrara is known as one of the most important artistic centres of the Renaissance. Its history is close to the destiny of the House of Este, which ruled in the city during the whole period of Renaissance.
Duke Ercole II d’Este, like his predecessors, patronized arts, yet still there is no study focused on his patronage. By the way, the bright period of his rule (1534–1559) still remains practically unexplored compared to the other d’Este. The main reason for it is that the age of Ercole II d’Este is out of the so-called “Golden age” of Ferrara (the second half of the 15th — the first quarter of the 16th century), which attracts the bulk of scholars’ attention. The time from the year 1534 to 1598 is considered as the period of its gradual decline as an artistic center, and after the death of Ercole II’s son, Alfonso II d’Este, Ferrara came under the authority of Papacy.
The patronage of the last Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso II d’Este, is studied by historians of art as an autonome problem, still the patronage of Ercole II is only mentioned, but not analyzed just in general researches on Este family patronage.
In fact, the cultural life of Ferrara during the reign of Ercole II was very rich and intense. Although Ferrara ceased to be an independent center of the visual arts, it retained its status as one of the leading centers of literature, theatre, and music.
The report analyzes the patronage of Ercole II d’Este and gives a general description of the culture of Ferrara during his rule.
Viacheslav Tsivatyi
Diplomatic Academy of the Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ukraine
The era of transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance is rightly recognized as a period of innovative artistic solutions in French art and is characterized by an unprecedented intensification of political and diplomatic art relations. Diplomacy is a science and at the same time an art to settle the inter-state relations. At the turn of the Middle Ages and Early Modernity new institutional features and the typical trends in the theory and practice of the French Renaissance art were clearly identified. This period is recognized as transformational — the picturesque achievements of the previous period are subjected to reinterpretation, artistic processes are intensified and institutionalized in new establishments and schools of painting (A. Quarton, N. Froment, B. d’Eyck, J. Hey, J. Fouquet etc.).
The article also focuses on the following aspects: foreign institutional factor of French Renaissance art model; value and institutional art orientations of the French Renaissance period; new forms of political and diplomatic organization and art institutionalization during the French Renaissance period, the conceptual bases of institutionalization and the classification of the humanities; new forms and tools of the humanities in France; forms and methods of treatment of the historical experience studia humanitatis in scientific or educational establishments. Institutionalization and implementation of new models of relations between art, science and society as a constant of Early Modern Period occurs exactly during the Renaissance in France.
Thus, at the turn of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period the French art passes its institutional path and reveals new artistic and institutional forms with distinctive national characteristics under the influence of the multiplicity of stylistic trends and external influences (so-called institutional model of French Renaissance art). Renaissance trends firstly found their institutional consolidation in the garden art and architecture, while retaining special features, balanced dualism and fluctuation in painting and sculpture.
- The Renaissance Paintings from the Gotzkowsky’s Collection as the First Hermitage Collection. Review of Attribution and the Newly Discovered Masterpieces
- Gillis Claeissens (1536/37–1605), Unknown Master from Brugge: Difficulties in Attributing the Northern Renaissance Portraits
- Reconsidering the Renaissance in France: New Approaches to Figurative Arts in the Loire Valley
- “The Sky of Salamanca”. Spain and the Renaissance