L'Annonciation italienne : Une histoire de perspective

by Daniel Arasse

Le thème de l' «Annonciation » représente un défi pour un peintre. Comment représenter en effet l'irreprésentable, l'invisible - le mystère de l' cette venue du Créateur dans la créature ? C'est sur cette question abordée par les artistes italiens entre le XIVè et le XVIè siècles que Daniel Arasse se penche en renouvelant notre perception de l'Annonciation italienne.L'invention progressive de la perspective à partir du XIVè siècle ouvre aux artistes de nouvelles formes de représentation par des moyens mathématiques perceptibles à l'oeil humain. Daniel Arasse montre comment certains d'entre eux utilisent paradoxalement la mesure géométrique de la perspective pour faire voir la venue de l'immensité divine dans le monde fini de l'humain, et l'acte par excellence mysté l'incarnation.Des Siennois, en passant par les Florentins du Quattrocento, cette histoire commune de la perspective et de l'Annonciation connaît de nombreux épisodes avant de produire à Venise, à la fin du XVIè siècle, un ultime les machines de Véronèse articulées hors de toute allusion théologique à des fins théâtrales.Une passionnante confrontation des aspirations du monde plastique et du monde religieux à la Renaissance qui débouche ici sur l'écriture d'un nouveau chapitre de l'histoire de l'art italien.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, France

364 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

L'historien de l’art français, spécialiste de la Renaissance et de l'art italien.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_A...

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Italian Annonciation: A History of Perspective is an intensely detailed study of this pervasive theme in Renaissance art. Arasse is known for more accessible books such as "On n'y voit rien" ("We can't see anything") and "Histoires des peintures" (Stories about Paintings), however, this book is quite academic and extremely well illustrated. Arasse starts with Masaccio (or Masolino? the debate continues apparently in distinguishing these two masters like that of Giorgione and Titian) who painted one of the first Florentine Annonciations using perspective in the 1430s (lost unfortunately) which had an enormous impact on generations of artists that followed them. In parallel, Luis Battista Alberti wrote a fundamental text of art theory De Pictura in 1435 setting the mathematical basis for all Renaissance painting. In essence, the passage from relatively flat representations of biblical and greek mythological stories to rendering more realistic images with a representation of pictural depth was truly revolutionary and characteristic of the major contributions of the Italian Renaissance (albeit heavily influenced by the Flemish Primitives.)

What does this have to do with the Annonciation? Well, this event, when the archangel Gabriel announces to the (sometimes surprised, sometimes abashed but usually reading) Mary that she will bear the Son of God and her simultaneous and miraculous impregnation (her body was never "broken" by either the insertion of foetus Jesus nor by his birth - hey, I did say this was mythology) is a challenging subject for artists because, well, it is a miracle so there is the idea of the infinite/God intervening in the affairs of man (in Mary's bedroom usually) and there is the question of how to explain the "virgin" birth as well. Over the Quattrocento (1400s) and the Cinquecento (1500s), many solutions were found and Arasse explores them in a profound and interesting way.

After discussing Florence, he goes back in time to the 13th century in Sienna where the Italians Primitives (Martini, Lorenzetti, etc) had started the transition from gilded paintings of the Middle Ages to the more realistic backgrounds that so dominated the art world after that. He then talks about the various symbols (vases (symbolizing Mary's capacity as a receptacle for foetus Jesus), the open window (centering the use of perspective and anchoring the works in the real world), trees (usually a dead on and a live one to symbolize Jesus and the Crucifixion), flowers (symbolizing the purity of Mary), etc). This carries on and evolves into Mannerism which reflects the violent conflicts in the church (Savonarola in Florence, Luther and the Reformation, the sack of Rome in 1530, the Anti-Reform and then Counter-Reform) and also changes some of the fundamental values. The critics brought by Luther about excesses of the Roman Church caused a disappearance of some of the more sumptuous aspects of the painting decor but reemphasized the literal storytelling of the paintings. The perspective is still used but the lines of perspective on the tiled floors for example tend to disappear and the characters take on more grandiose and fantastic appearances.

The book ends with a wonderful analysis of Venetian painting and the various Annonciations of Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. It is interesting to note the massive differences between Florentine and Venetian painting - the former being more focused on the drawing and mathematical accuracy of the representation and being primarily rendered on wood whereas the latter focuses almost obsessively on color and light and, due to the humid climate in the City on the Lagoon, primarily used canvas. Despite these differences, Arasse points out the influence of Florence on Venetian painting and the further evolution leading up to the sixteenth century which was yet another rupture in art history.

I found the book a bit heavy sometimes (and, if I am being honest, even soporific), but still excellent. It definitely gave me an antsy feeling to go back to the Uffizio in Florence, to revisit Sienna and Venice, and to seek out some of the local museums in Bologna, Ferrara, and elsewhere.

[Jacques le fataliste et son maître · Rating 5 out of 5]

«Si può a questo punto formulare il ‘problema artistico’ che ci interesserà: se l’Annunciazione, proprio in quanto porta con sé l’evento dell’Incarnazione, è il momento in cui l’Incommensurabile entra nella misura, in che modo ha potuto la prospettiva, ‘forma simbolica’ di un mondo commensurabile, render visibile questo ingresso (latente) dell’Irraffigurabile nella figura? Non sarebbe più logico pensare che essa avrebbe impedito ai pittori di raffigurare l’Incarnazione, invisibilmente presente al cuore dell’Annunciazione? O non dovremmo ammettere che i pittori avrebbero potuto, al massimo, farvi allusione per mezzo di motivi accessori e allusioni iconografiche secondarie? Certamente anche questo è accaduto. Ma la mia tesi si fonda esattamente sul fatto che alcuni pittori hanno utilizzato la costruzione geometrica della prospettiva per rendere visibile l’ingresso dell’incommensurabile nella misura proprio grazie a un infimo e irriducibile scarto interno al dispositivo stesso. Si tratta, in effetti, di un piccolo numero di pittori le cui opere rimangono eccezioni nell’insieme della Annunciazioni rinascimentali. Non per questo la loro esistenza è meno valida per indicare la pertinenza storica e teorica del ‘problema artistico’ cui le loro opere rispondono nel momento stesso in cui lo pongono.»