Search

Copyright of Aufklärung is the property of Felix Meiner Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Hieronymus Cock's view of the Capitoline Hill, published in his 1562 series on Roman ruins, has long been considered a useful document by historians of art and architecture for the key historical and topographical information it contains on one of Rome's most celebrated sites during the Renaissance. Beyond its documentary nature, which, as will appear was essentially rhetorical, the view also offers much information as to how a mid-sixteenth-century Flemish artist might perceive Rome's illustrious topography and celebrated ancient statuary. In other words, Cock's engraving enables us to put into practice what may be called an "archaeology of the gaze." Through previously unnoticed details, Cock invents a comical—verging on the satirical—vision of the antique sculptures proudly displayed on the famous piazza. Such an ironical reversal of Italian classical dignity is typical of the attitude of some contemporary Flemish artists, such as Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who was then close to Cock, and exposes the ambivalent position of some Northern European artists towards the classical tradition and Italian art theory. Finally, the analysis of other engravings of ruins by Hieronymus Cock where two emblematic characters—the draftsman and the kakker (the one who defecates)—appear side by side, sheds light on the origin and possible significance of these comical and subversive details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers various information on Lapidary Museum in Avignon, France and its manifestation of the town's ancient history, architecture and quality of cultural life. It recounts the historical background of the museum, which was helmed by Esprit Calvet, and states that his collections of antiquities were unusually rich in Greek art. Likewise, it mentions the other individuals such as Esprit Requien who helped in founding Calvet's Museum, from which the modern Lapidary Museum was later formed. It highlights the reinstallation of the Greek collection to enhance and illustrate that theme that the art want to convey. It also mentions that the museum will provide visitors the opportunity to unfold ancient themes in many important European paintings, tapestries and sculptures.

Examines Viennese painter Gustav Klimt's interest in the art of Greek antiquity. Appropriation of Archaic motifs as opposed to the more restrained and highly mimetic works of the Classical tradition; Influence of Nietzsche's book `The Birth of Tragedy.'

The article discusses the discovery and significance of a Classical votive relief of Aphrodite on a ladder. In July 1981, excavations at Agora, Athens reveal the preserved head of a young woman carved in low relief. The woman's head is covered by a short veil and parts of a ladder can be seen above and behind the veil. The figure is identified as Aphrodite through a comparison with a series of vase paintings from the first half of the fourth century that depict Aphrodite on a ladder, and through the clue of the short veil that the goddess wears on a kylix painted by Makron in Berlin. Controversy surrounds the significance of the ladder. Some believe that the goddess' act of climbing is related to the Adonis festival, while others, to a women's cult.

The article examines the importance of the artwork "De Pictura Veterum," by Franciscus Junius in conveying the values of the art of classical antiquity. Junius' impact on others and on their thinking about classical art and about the principles for constructing art history and art criticism is described. "De Pictura Veterum" is unique in its conception and in the comprehensiveness of the literary sources it surveys. It reflects the glory and splendor of Arundel's court and the Earl's knightly purpose in collecting objects of virtù.

Archaeometric studies on mosaics often concentrate only on glass tesserae, while comprehensive studies including both stone and glass tesserae are scarce; however, both types of tesserae can sometimes bring relevant data to elaborate archaeological knowledge on a studied mosaic. In this paper, a representative set of tesserae from a large polychrome Roman mosaic retrieved in Barcelona (NE Spain) is investigated using various methods. Most of the techniques were directly applied on samples prepared as petrographic thin sections (including polarized-light, cathodoluminescence and electron microscopies, and synchrotron through-the-substrate μX-ray diffraction). The results indicate that, from the ten sampled stone tesserae, there are (i) seven limestones, one of them identified as Alveolina limestone (early Eocene) from the southern Pyrenees (ii) two sandstones from Barcelona's Montjuïc hill (Miocene) and, (iii) a Carrara white marble from the Apuan Alps (Italy). The profuse presence of tesserae of both local and imported materials with well-known uses in architecture, epigraphy, and sculpture could imply that tesserae were a by-product of their main use. Two different production technologies were identified for the three sampled glass tesserae. The concurrent use of antimony- and tin-based opacifiers is in agreement with the accepted archaeological chronology of the mosaic (4th century AD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explains the emergence of the history of aesthetics as an independent discipline of historiography based on the comparison between Koller's (1799) and Palacky's (1823) works. Overview of Koller's discourses on the history of aesthetics; Enumeration of the theories of fine sciences and arts; Palacky's approach to the history and literature of aesthetics; Aesthetics of classical antiquity; Aesthetics of modern age.