Cambridge University Press
0521821592 - The “Living” Image in Renaissance Art - by Fredrika H. Jacobs
Frontmatter/Prelims

The “LIVING” IMAGE in
RENAISSANCE ART

Since classical antiquity, artists have made images and objects so strikingly lifelike that they are celebrated as appearing to be alive. Within this long history, works produced during the Italian Renaissance are of special interest. During the sixteenth century, the critical language describing such works of art was codified. This same period witnessed the advent of early modern anatomical science and a rising interest in natural philosophy. As art critics and theorists discussed the vivid immediacy and illusionist potency of artworks in terms of aliveness, physicians and philosophers such as Andreas Vasalius and Ulisse Aldreovandi investigated aliveness as a physiological condition of being. Bringing together a wealth of research and ideas from the histories of art, medicine, and natural philosophy, this book demonstrates the significance of lifelikeness for contemporaries and also considers the implications of claims that artwork is “a living thing.”

Fredrika H. Jacobs is professor of art history at Virginia Commonwealth University. A scholar of Italian Renaissance art, she is the author of Defining the Renaissance “Virtuosa” Women Artists and the Language of Art History and Criticism.

The “LIVING” IMAGE in
RENAISSANCE ART

FREDRIKA H. JACOBS

Virginia Commonwealth University

PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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First published 2005

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Typeface Bembo 11/14 pt. System LATEX 2_e [TB]

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Jacobs, Fredrika Herman.
The “living” image in Renaissance art / Fredrika H. Jacobs.
p.  cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-521-82159-2 (hb)
1. Portraits, Renaissance – Italy. 2. Art, Italian – 16th century.
3. Life in art. 4. Soul in art. 5. Realism in art. I. Title.
N7606.J33   2004
704.9′42′09450903 – dc22       2004045115

With love for my mother,

Lucy S. Herman,

And in loving memory of my father,

Frederick Herman

(1924–2002),

forever a living likeness in my soul.

	List of Illustrations	page ix
	Acknowledgments	xiii
1	INTRODUCTION: THE TOPOS OF LIFELIKENESS	1
2	THE ANALOGICAL RELATIONSHIP OF ART AND LIFE: CONCEPTS AND LANGUAGE	16
3	(DIS)ASSEMBLING: MICHELANGELO AND MARSYAS	62
4	MONA LISA’S “BEATING PULSE”	105
5	NOSCE TE IPSUM: NARCISSUS, MIRRORS, AND MONSTERS	133
6	THE LIFELESS AND THE (RE)ANIMATION OF THE LIFELIKE	168
7	POSTSCRIPT	199
	Notes	205
	Selected Bibliography	249
	Index	293

ILLUSTRATIONS

Color Plates (appear between pages xvi and 1)

I	Gaudenzio Ferrari, Crucifixion, 1520s, Varallo Sesia, Sacro Monte
II	Raphael, La Fornarina, ca. 1518
III	Niccolò Ferrucci, Florentine Artists Studying the Works of Michelangelo, 1615–16
IV	Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, ca. 1501–4
V	Agostino Carracci, Triple Portrait (“Hairy Harry, Mad Peter, and Tiny Amon”), ca. 1598
VI	Agnolo Bronzino, Saint Bartholomew, fragment from Altarpiece of the Graces, 1556
VII	Domenico Ghirlandaio, Study of an Old Man, ca. 1490
VIII	Ron Mueck, Swaddled Baby, 2003

FIGURES
1	Gaudenzio Ferrari, Nativity, 1520s, Varallo Sesia, Sacro Monte	page 18
2	Gaudenzio Ferrari, Crucifixion, detail of the Good Thief	19
3	Raphael, The Saint Cecilia Altarpiece, ca. 1513–15	28
4	Raphael, Transfiguration, 1518–20	29
5	Marco Dente, Laocoön and His Sons, 1520–25	31
6	Gianantonio dei Nicolini da Sabbio, publisher, Flap Anatomy, Venice, 1539	32
7	Figure 6 with flap raised	33
8	Girolamo Mercuriale, De arte gymnastica, 1569	35
9	Donatello, Saint George, ca. 1415–17	37
10	Francesco Francia, Sacrificial Scene with Four Figures, 1500–5	39
11	Michelangelo, Night, 1521–34, Medici Chapel, San Lorenzo, Florence	44
12	Michelangelo, Aurora, ca. 1521–34, Medici Chapel, San Lorenzo, Florence	45
13	Boy Strangling a Goose, Roman copy of an original of disputed date, ca. 150 BCE	47
14	Roman copy after Hagesandros, Polydoros, and Alenodoros, Laocoön and His Sons	52
15	Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, God Creating Adam, 1640–45	53
16	Adam and Eve, from Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica librorum, epitome, 1543	56
17	Torso Belvedere	58
18	Viscera, from Andreas Vesalius, Humani corporis fabrica Libri septem, 1543	59
19	Zanobi Lastricati, Michelangelo’s Catafalque, Codex Resta, from 1564	64
20	Detail of Figure 19	65
21	Title page of Realdo Colombo, De re anatomica Libri ⅩⅤ, 1559	68
22	Title page of Guido Guidi, De anatome corporis humani, Libri septem, 1611	69
23	C. Randon, Marsia scorticato da Apollo, seventeenth century	74
24	Apollo and Marsyas, from Vita et Metamorphosei d’Ovidio: Figurato abbreviaro in forma d’epigrammi, 1559	75
25	Apollo, Marsyas, and Olympus, Florentine, fifteenth century, copy of the Seal of Nero	76
26	Detail of a Bound Marsyas, Andrea Sacchi, Allegorical Portrait of the Singer Marcantonio Pasqualini, ca. 1640	77
27	Cristofano Allori, Portrait of Michelangelo with a Hovering Muse	80
28	Giovanni Stradano, Academy of Art, 1573	88
29	Attributed to Alessandro Allori, Studies of Arms and Legs, ca. 1570	89
30	Title page, Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica, 1543	90
31	Bartolomeo Torri, Studies from a Suspended Cadaver, ca. 1550	92
32	Bartolomeo Passerotti, Michelangelo Conducting an Anatomy Lesson, ca. 1570	94
33	Pier Jacopo Alari-Buonacoli, called Antico, Small Bronze Demonstration Model, mid sixteenth century	97
34	Andrea Boscoli, Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, ca. 1590	99
35	Maarten Heemskerck, Saint Luke Painting the Virgin, ca. 1553	100
36	Detail of Figure 35	101
37	Giulio Sanuto, The Musical Contest between Apollo and Marsyas, 1562	103
38	Michelangelo, Rebellious Slave, 1513–16	107
39	Alessandro Albino, Illustration of Imagery on the Catafalque of Agostino Carracci, in Benedetto Morello, Il funerale d’Agostin Carraccio, Bologna, 1603	121
40	Parmigianino, Prometheus Animating Man, mid-1520s	124
41	Symbol CXXXVIII in Achille Bocchi, Symbolicae Questiones, Bologna, 1555	125
42	The Monster of Krakow from Pierre Boaistuau, Histoires prodigieuses, Lyon, 1598	135
43	“Puella pilosa annorum octo” from Ulisse Aldrovandi, Monstrorum Historia, Bologna, 1642	138
44	“Puella pilosa annorum duodecim” from Ulisse Aldrovandi, Monstrorum Historia, Bologna, 1642	139
45	Wild Man from Ulisse Aldrovandi, Monstrorum Historia, Bologna, 1642	141
46	Four-Eyed Ethiopian from Ulisse Aldrovandi, Monstrorum Historia, Bologna, 1642	142
47	Pedro and Arrigo Gonzalez from Ulisse Aldrovandi, Monstrorum Historia, Bologna, 1642	143
48	Lavinia Fontana, Tognina Gonzalez, ca. 1590s	145
49	Flap Anatomy, Monogrammist RS, Interiorum corporis humani partum viva delineato, 1562–63	154
50	Venus and Cupid from Speculum Romanae Magnifiecentiae, Rome, 1587	155
51	“Muscle Man” from Giovan Valverde di Humusco, Anatomia del corpo humano, Rome, 1560	156
52	Agnolo Bronzino, The Dwarf Morgante, verso of Double Portrait of the Dwarf Morgante, before 1553	157
53	A Hairy Maid and Ethiopian Infant, from Pierre Boaistuau, Histoires prodigieuses, Lyon, 1598	163
54	Michelangelo, Pietà, 1497–99	169
55	Frontispiece of Giorgio Vasari, Le Vite de’ più Eccellenti Pittori, Scultori ed Architettori, Florence, 1568	173
56	Portrait Bust after a Death Mask, Florence, late fifteen century	179
57	Domenico Ghirlandaio, Portrait of an Old Man and His Grandson, ca. 1490	181
58	An example of “stabile movement” from Bernardo Baldi, Di Herone Alessandrono, De gli automati, overo machine se moventi, 1601	191
59	Resurrection of the Dead, folio 51r, Bellicorum Instrumentorum Liber	193
60	Juanelo Turriano, attributed to, Mechanical Monk, ca. 1570s	194
61	Detail of Figure 60, Juanelo Turriano, attributed to, Mechanical Monk, ca. 1570s	195
62	Elizabeth King, Pupil: Pose 9, 1987–90	201

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ICANNOT SAY WITH any surety how I came to write this book. I can state without equivocation, however, that its final form owes a considerable debt to the informative and enlightening research of many learned and creative minds. The endnotes and bibliography will direct readers to the writings, both past and present, that prompted me to ponder the meanings of lifelikeness and aliveness and directed me down different paths of reasoning. In addition, there are others who advised me to consider alternative ways of thinking about the issues I discuss, suggested other sources to find and read, engaged me in provocative conversations, and read various chapters as the book progressed. These include Philip Sohm, Jessica Wolfe, Paul Barolsky, Michael Cole, Elizabeth King, Ingrid Rowland, Bette Talvacchia, Claire Farago, Colin Eisler, Leatrice Mendelsohn, Claire Farago, Bernard Herman, Touba Ghadessi, Francesca Fiorani, and Ryan Gregg. I am especially grateful to all of them. I am also indebted to Beatrice Rehl, who encouraged me whenever I wavered. It is a privilege to work with her.

During the research for this book I frequented countless libraries and collections. The staffs at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Biblioteca Angelica, Casanatense, the Bibliotheca Hertziana, The British Museum, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The University of Chicago, The Folger Shakespeare Library, and The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts were especially helpful. During this period I also benefited greatly from the support of The School of the Arts of Virginia Commonwealth University, The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and The American Academy in Rome. I am especially grateful to Dean Richard Toscan, School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, for believing in this project and helping to fund its production.

Finally but most crucially I thank my family: my loving and ever-patient and encouraging husband, Paul; my daughter and future colleague Jessica Roussanov; Nick Roussanov; Bernard and Rebecca Herman; Julian and Bette Jacobs; Martha and Rob Goodman; and my parents, to whom this book is dedicated.