Iconology

Sin dalla fine del secolo IV, la parte orientale dell’impero romano, in seguito divenuto impero bizantino, era stato afflitto da molteplici eresie, che rischiavano seriamente di minare e di compromettere la sua stessa unità. Le più importanti tra queste eresie, erano il nestorianesimo , il monofisismo  e il paulicianesimo . Quest’ultima eresia, era sorta in Armenia e in Siria nel secolo VII.
Secondo le fonti, il basileus Leone III, incominciò ad appoggiare gli iconoclasti per una serie di motivi: prima di tutto subì le pressioni dei vescovi iconoclasti dell’Asia Minore a favore dell’iconoclasmo; inoltre sembrerebbe che tutta una serie di disastri naturali, ultimo dei quali un devastante maremoto nel mar Egeo, convincesse l’imperatore bizantino, che tali disastri naturali, fossero dovuti all’ira divina contro la venerazione delle icone. Difficile ad ogni modo stabilire quanto di vero ci sia in questi resoconti, e sui reali motivi per cui fu introdotta l’iconoclastia. 
La riforma religiosa del basileus Leone III, andrebbe verosimilmente iscritta in una più ampia opera volta a rafforzare la stabilità e la solidità dell’Impero, ai fini della quale i pauliciani rappresentavano un pericolo. Fu anche per togliere loro il pretesto di una ribellione che probabilmente Leone III, decise di assecondare le loro richieste.

The present article deals with the Prince of Sansevero, Raimondo di Sangro, and legends, often linked to real happenings, which over time were superimposed on this personage and his reknowned family chapel. To a great extent his reputation was of his own making, exagerated by the imagination of the populace and amplified by newspaper articles, brief essays, and stories by Southern Italian intellectuals in the late 19th century. Capuana, Colonna di Stigliano, Di Giacomo, and Croce, who were the foremost voices of the time in the literature of the South of Italy, wrote about the Prince and his mysteries. Lured by suggestions from the place he built and dwelt in, they too contributed to a myth that still today fascinates tourists and curious visitors from all over the world.

RESUMO: A iconologia do anjo, analisada à luz das reflexões de Walter Benjamin e de Jean-François Lyotard, leva-nos a investigar os efeitos de presença e a presentificação da ausência que essa figura gera nos diversos meios da criação artística.

ABSTRACT: The angel's iconology, in the light of Walter Benjamin and Jean-François Lyotard's reflections on this theme, leads us to analyse both the effects of presence and a presentification of the absence that this figure enables in various media of artistic creation.

The article is devoted to the unique interior of the 1730s in St. Petersburg — the Senate Chamber in the building of the Twelve Collegia (now the Petrovsky Hall of St. Petersburg State University). On the base of archival materials the authors discuss the problems
of the painting history, attribution and the results of restoration (in 1960s) of the decoration, including of the painted plafon and
seven allegorical panels.

The depicted signs found on the Caucasus Dolmens are quite minimal but do give us some hints about the intent behind their construction. Other ancient constructs are used to provide some background on similar themes from other ancient cultures,

Problem Statement: Layla and Majnun is a classic story of love most notably expressed by the great poets. In addition, various scenes of this love story have been painted by Iranian painters. According to researches, the first painting of Layla and Majnun at school illustrated on Seljuk pottery and then repeated in different Iranian schools such as Herat and Shiraz. This paper investigates the structural and conceptual aspects of the scene of Layla and Majnun at school painted on Seljuk pottery. Since, Erwin Panofsky interprets the subject of artworks by studying the literary texts and the thought of a nation during a particular era, this article attempts to answer this question: What is the relationship between the dominant Iranian thought during Seljuk era and the painting of Layla and Majnun at school illustrated on Seljuk pottery?
Purpose: Ahmad Ghazali (d. 520 AH/ 1126 AD) is a prominent Iranian thinker whose view about love had profound effect on Iranian mystical thought in Seljuk era. So, the main purpose of this research is to find out the relationship between Ahmad Ghazali`s thought and the painting of Layla and Majnun at school illustrated on Seljuk pottery.
Research Methodology: The data have been obtained through a documental and librarian method. In this research, information collected through documentary and librarian, historical-analytical method is based on the iconology of Panofsky`s approach.
Result: Visual and conceptual patterns of Layla and Majnun painting illustrated on Seljuk pottery reflect Ahmad Ghazali’s thought about the essence of love, in addition to Nizami poems.

Sarayan is one of the cities of South Khorasan which due to being located on the communication route of the Great Khorasan Road and due to its development in various historical periods, it has included many religious and non-religious architectural works.
In the present research, the inscriptions of the Safavid monuments were studied from an iconological perspective. For this purpose, firstly, introducing and categorizing the Safavid inscriptions in Sarayan city, and then analyzing the contents of each of these inscriptions will be done. The main purpose of this research is to analyze and explore the unknown aspects of beliefs and worldviews that have shaped these inscriptions. Therefore, the main question of this research is as follows: What are the reasons for the creation of the inscriptions and social and intellectual contexts of the creators in their formation as artifacts left over from the Safavid era? In order to answer this question, six stone inscriptions identified from the Safavid period constitute the statistical population of the present study. Data were collected by field and library method. The process of analysis and interpretation of the works has been done by the iconology approach of Erwin Panofsky. The results show that the inscriptions, along with the historical aspects, also had a propaganda function and sometimes acted as religious propagandists, while encouraging observers to have hidden references to Shiite thought and beliefs. In other words, one of the most important underlying contexts of these inscriptions has been the conscious effort to present and promote Shiite beliefs to confront the aggressive Eastern neighbors.

During the past decades, the assassination attempt has been treated from different disciplines. Nevertheless, the mediatization of the assassination attempt or its treatment in images and audiovisual media has been widely neglected. Starting from a triptych applicable to 19th century tyrannicides and articulated by the assassination performance, the perpetrator’s arrest and, finally, his punishment, we aim at verifying to what extent this model fits into 20th-century assassination attempts. For this reason, three key assassinations will be considered. First, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, perpetrated by Serbian nationalists, and which would lead to WWI. Second, the failed attempt on 20 July 1944 against Adolf Hitler in the Wolfsschanze; a plot in which many high rank officers of the Wehrmacht were involved. As third example, we will focus on John F. Kennedy’s assassination in
Dallas, on 22 November 1963, reputed to Lee H. Oswald.

La croce di Santa Maria Maggiore, di pietra aurisina, restaurata e ricomposta nei suoi frammenti da Giovanni Giannelli, direttore tecnico del Laboratorio di Restauro
Ottorino Nonfarmale S.r.l., e collocata su una colonna di pietra gialla ramata di Vicenza, foggiata dal Laboratorio Morseletto, torna ad essere patrimonio archeologico
visibile della città di Bologna. Dopo essere rimasta a lungo nascosta, è stata rinvenuta durante i recenti lavori di consolidamento del portico della basilica di Via Galliera, dove è attesa per la definitiva collocazione all’interno della chiesa. (Mons. Rino Magnani)
Si tratta di un tassello archeologico importante che reca la data certa del 1143,
ma potrebbe anche trasformarsi in chiave determinante di interpretazione per
rileggere le maestranze di quegli anni.

2017 marks the centenary of an artwork judged to be the single most influential of the twentieth century: Marcel Duchamp’s famous “readymade” entitled Fountain. The final verdict on Fountain has been widely accepted, despite the fact that the circumstances surrounding “Mr. Richard Mutt” have never resembled an open-and-shut case. On the contrary, since Fountain’s appearance in 1917, when it was rejected as “a plain piece of plumbing” only to be subsequently celebrated as a work of conceptual art, numerous questions remain unanswered, several facts remain unexplained.
Now, one hundred years later, Robert Kilroy attempts to answer these questions by examining the evidence with fresh eyes. Central to the investigation is the primary witness – Duchamp himself – whose statements are forensically analyzed. The facts themselves are interrogated using the methodology of a detective: precisely speaking, an art historical approach with a critical edge sharpened by a new interpretation of psychoanalytic theory.
In weaving an alternative narrative, Kilroy shows us that, not only has Fountain been fundamentally misunderstood, this very misunderstanding is central to the work’s significance. The final verdict, he argues, was strategically stage-managed by Duchamp in order to expose the apparatus underpinning Fountain’s reception, what he terms “The Creative Act.” By suggesting that a specific aesthetic “crime” has gone unnoticed, Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain: One Hundred Years Later asks the reader to radically reassess his/her precise contribution to “the creation of art.” This urgent, if somewhat troubling question, could have far-reaching implications for the field of scholarship, the course of contemporary art and the discipline of Art history.

La riflessione sulla musica come fattore di forte coesione culturale e religiosa e di rete di scambi delle popolazioni greche d’Occidente attende ancora uno studio sistematico e complessivo che aiuterebbe a comprendere non solo la rielaborazione della funzione della musica e del far musica nelle singole poleis,  ma anche a porre la questione della musica come mezzo del dialogo interculturale fra le comunità greche e gli ambienti indigeni.  Se da un lato le pratiche musicali dei Greci d’Occidente erano legate al contesto geografico e ai particolari culti collettivi e alla religiosità domestica e funeraria ed espresse in mito, rito e immagine, dall’altro la musica era intrecciata in maniera complessa con la costruzione delle identità culturali delle varie comunità e intimamente legata alla loro struttura sociale.

The conversion of Russia is a story proudly retold by Eastern Orthodox Christians with apologetic fervor, as a testimony to the superiority of their faith over the heterodox denominations. While non-orthodox critics and even some scholars may dismiss the story as either mere propaganda or popular legend, a key observation is often overlooked: the hegemony of beauty within the Eastern Orthodox faith. It is neither logical proof, nor theological disputations, that impress the Prince and his envoys, but beauty. "We cannot forget such beauty" is the report brought back to Prince Vladamir after his envoys visit the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Beauty plays a central role within the life of the Orthodox Church, and icons are its spiritual heart.

Icons have apologetic and evangelical power, precisely because they invite their viewers to experience God, to experience their divine origin, and their holy end. Icons connect with viewers on a primordial level, activating archetypal memories of Adam, and the divine genesis of all humanity as beings made in the image of God, living icons of the Creator, and as a royal priesthood for all creation.

The paper aims at focusing on the iconography of Maria Amalia of Saxony as a young, daughter of the elector and king of Poland Augustus III, and Charles of Bourbon’s future wife. By observing paintings and portraits of her successively, compared and related to similar images produced in other European courts, we will try to identify some iconographic types linked to specific periods of the young woman’s life.
The iconography of the future queen of Naples and Sicily will provide an exemplary case study and a paradigmatic reference to understand wich could be considered as the iconography of royal princes, still too less explored.

"In his De visione Dei, Nicholas of Cusa addresses two aspects of divine vision: my desire to see God and God’s capacity to see
me. The latter aspect is distinguished by absolute power: God’s gaze is all-seeing. To explain this peculiar power Cusa
introduces what he calls the figure of an ‘omnivoyant’. This is a portrait with its eyes turned towards the spectator so that the
gaze of the depicted person appears to follow the spectator. This paper shows how this optical effect determined the choice
of the full-face view as the characteristic way to represent the divine in Renaissance painting, and how inscriptions on the
frames of a series of portraits of Christ attributed to Jan van Eyck reveal that the use of this effect was deliberate and in
accordance with theological doctrine."

Around the 1485 was born in Villaescusa de Haro Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal (c. 1485-1547), in a family which has dedicated all its best men in the progress of the Kingdom of Castilla. Sebastián Ramírez will life to see the transformation of this Kingdom in an Empire under the government of Carlos V, and to be one of the most trustworthy men of the emperor. After being the responsible of the civil an ecclesiastic government in Santo Domingo (1528-1531) and the president of the Real Audiencia de Nueva España in Tenochtitlán (1531-1535) before the existence of the Viceroyalty; he returned to Spain to be the president of the Real Audiencia de Granada (1536-1539), after of the one in Valladolid (1539-1542) and also the president of the commission responsible to create the laws of the spanish territories in America (1542); at last at the same time he was the bishop of Tuy (1537-1539), León (1539-1542) and Cuenca (1542-1547).
    In this city he decided in the end of 1544 to begin the construction of a new cloister in the cathedral which was almost in ruins, and -after the repeated refusal of the Cathedral Chapter- decided to support at least the building of its hallway. To design and to make it, he chose a singular french man who had been working with the best artists in the Iberian Peninsula since 1535 and for men as important as Francisco de los Cobos: Étienne Jamet (c. 1515-1546) known as Esteban Jamete. The union of these two special men made of the entrance to the cloister of the Cuenca cathedral an exceptional space where the art of Jamet –full of quality, diversity, elegance and pathos- was used to advertise the wishes of the Carlos’ V court to reach the universitas christiana, through a triumphal arc which memorializes the hoped catholic triumph; and inside, the hallway conceived as a meditation’s place for the Christian who is spur on to the virtue’s way of wisdom and fight against the vice to achieve the eternal life in Jesus Christ. Thereby they became the ruins of this space in a stair to God along the religious wars and the inner struggle of citizens, they made the Arco de Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal (1546-1550).

Edition: Paula Velasco Grijalbo.
Press: Diputación Provincial de Cuenca.
ISBN: 978-84-16161-40-9.

Pourquoi Cesare Ripa a-t-il choisi et sans cesse perfectionné la forme du dictionnaire pour sa célèbre Iconologia (Rome, 1593) ? Et pourquoi la déclaration d'intention que constitue la longue Préface (Proemio) de l'ouvrage est-elle essentielle à la compréhension des enjeux de son entreprise ?
L'article, accompagné de la traduction française du Proemio, est paru dans le collectif : Les Encyclopédies. Construction et circulation du savoir de l’Antiquité à Wikipedia, sous la direction de Martine Groult, L’Harmattan, 2011.

This chapter examines the different aspects that are involved in the notions of “aniconism” and “aniconicity”. Whereas the former signifies a visual program that distances itself from visual, especially anthropomorphic representations of divine beings, the latter merely communicates the fact of a representation or manifestation that has no visual likeness to its divine prototype. However, further distinctions are needed to reach a more precise vocabulary that adequately considers the great variation of such representations. The chapter suggests a number of such distinctions that together constitutes a spectrum or continuum of visual modes whose primary quality is the fluidity by which non-iconic, aniconic and iconic elements are associated with each other.

Fin dai tempi più remoti l’uomo ha tentato di effigiare idee immateriali in forme sensibili, ha cercato di raffigurare in forme tangibili concetti astratti; in àmbito giuridico, particolare attenzione merita, a mio avviso, il problema dell’iconologia della giustizia. Tale tematica assume, difatti, una precipua rilevanza nel più ampio contesto delle ricerche iconologiche sulle rappresentazioni del normativo , poiché la stessa idea di giustizia è – almeno nella tradizione filosofica occidentale – un concetto strutturalmente ambiguo e plurale, in cui convivono universale e particolare. In questo mio saggio Iconologia giapponese della giustizia mi propongo pertanto di analizzare l’immagine che nella tradizione giapponese simboleggia la giustizia, allo scopo di verificare eventuali analogie e differenze con l’iconografia occidentale della giustizia.

Dieses Buch wendet sich nicht nur, aber auch an Lesende, die im Bereich der Gestaltung tätig sind. Gegenwärtigen Erscheinungen in Kunst, Design, Medien und Architektur liegen oftmals Konzepte zugrunde, die aus der traditionellen philosophischen Ästhetik stammen. Man muss sie kennen, wenn man jene Erscheinungen angemessen begreifen möchte. Eines der Ziele dieses Buches ist daher, zu demonstrieren, dass bestimmte Begriffe und Kategorien des überlieferten Ästhetik-Diskurses nach wie vor geeignet sind, um aktuelle Phänomene zu  verstehen.

In order to complement the text by Aby Warburg on Manet (published in this issue of Engramma, German edition and Italian version by Maurizio Ghelardi), we present a series of fragments pinned in 11 unnumbered sheets, dating back to the last months of Warburg’s life [WIA 102.1 .2]. Fragments are published in German version and Italian translation by Maurizio Ghelardi. In the Commentary by Monica Centanni, the main themes of these adnotations are put in evidence: The ancient sarcophagi as energy catalysts;” Sphaera barbarica” and katasterismos; Liberation of the demons and emancipation (Olympic) of the chthonic gods; Images of the Nymph: the handmaid, the Victory, Hecate; Dinamogrammi;  Denkraum / Zwischenraum; Notes for the Bilderatlas Mnemosyne; Manet as a guide through the paths of Mnemosyne.

Peter Brown has described the position of holy bodies in the Early Christian period as a «place between Earth and Heaven.» The principal aim of this book is to deal with precisely this intersection between two worlds expressed by the Dead, and in particular by their images and their faces.

The first part of this book looks into the portrait and its function, and the reason for which Late Antiquity, following a custom it inherited from previous eras, covered itself with individual images of the deceased. As in previous eras, the portrait appears, above all, to be an attempt to express the individual in his or her entirety; the techniques and «instruments» perfected in the course of the the 3rd century, however, lead to divergent formal and conceptual results.

The second question, answered more briefly, deals with the perception and representation of the dead body as a whole, defined by David Le Breton as «la souche identitaire de l’homme.» The question asked is a fundamental one, since we are confronted with humanity itself after its passage to that which lies beyond: does the body become just a memory or does it preserve the real presence of the person who once existed?

Max Imdahl is situated on the border between the theory and practice of visual arts. His life is an experience of combining academic art history with cutting-edge art criticism. His ‘ikonik’ was intended as a continuation and completion of the methodological development of art history from iconography to iconology. Instead of the hermeneutics of the immanent meaning of an artwork, the semantics of an act of vision becomes the object of his interpretation, and criticism of cognitive capacities of language as a means of articulating artistic experience becomes his purpose. Imdahl juxtaposes his ‘ikonik’ as a theologised variant of receptive aesthetics with Hans Sedlmayr’s structural analysis. For Imdahl, Sedlmayr falls under suspicion for his all too static picture of the semantic element of an artwork, which, according to Sedlmayr, is divided into layers of meaning, unified by a single irrational (“endothymic”) basis. By contrast, ‘ikonik’ refers to the semantics emerging as simultaneous affects of the act of vision, which embraces dynamic oppositions of meaning, having a scenographic and choreographic character. Thus, the interaction with an artwork is equated to a performative act, which ensures the apophatic growth of meaning and the approach to the Revelation. The tropological decomposition of the structures of the contemplative mind (Sedlmayr) is continued by the eschatological deconstruction of the verbal discourse in the form of art history (Imdahl).

Макс Имдаль располагается на границе между теорией и практикой визуальных искусств. Его жизненный путь – это опыт совмещения академической истории искусства и актуальной художественной критики. Его иконика задумывалась как продолжение и завершение методологического развития искусствознания от иконографии к иконологии. Вместо герменевтики имманентного произведению смысла объектом толкования становится семантика акта зрения, а целью – критика когнитивных возможностей языка как средства артикуляции творческого опыта. Свою иконику как теологизированный (с помощью неотомизма) вариант рецептивной эстетики Имдаль противопоставляет структурному анализу Зедльмайра, подозревая последнего в слишком статичной картине семантического устройства художественного произведения, якобы разделённого на смысловые слои, объединённые единым иррациональным («эндотимическим») основанием. Иконике же подвластны смыслы, возникающие как симультанные аффекты акта зрения, охватывающего динамически взаимодействующие смысловые противоположности сценографически-хореографического свойства. Тем самым взаимодействие с произведением искусства приравнивается к перформативному акту, что обеспечивает апофатический прирост смысла и приближение к собственно Откровению. Тропологическая декомпозиция структур созерцающего сознания (Зедльмайр) продолжается эсхатологической де-конструкцией самого вербального дискурса, имеющего вид истории искусства (Имдаль).

Reseña crítica del texto " Image, Medium, Body: A New Approach to Iconology " de Hans Belting. El presente ensayo se enfoca tanto en los aspectos fundamentales del texto de Belting (imagen, medio y cuerpo) como la idea que Belting propone de cuerpo como principal medio para la transmisión de las imágenes. Además, con el presento ensayo se pretende analizar el episodio " The Entire History of You " , perteneciente a la serie televisiva Black Mirror del director inglés Charlie Brooker, para subrayar la idea de cuerpo humano como transmisor de imágenes.

Through the economic recession that hit many cities in the last two decades, people have experienced a real crisis at all levels; low wages, currency devaluation, general deterioration in the standard of living. Although some of these cities have historical architecture which supposed to generate high income, but unfortunately they became lost in limbo amid the winds of globalization. Very few decision-makers, who have long-term visions, decide to find a real solution to this crisis through establishing one iconic building project that is expected to make a change to this city from locality to internationality. With judicious eye, this paper, therefore, analyzes three different experiences that proved obvious development; Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, Petronas Twin Towers of Kuala Lumpur, and Library of Alexandria as valuable case-studies and how they changed their cities from locality to be attractive international points on the 'global map of cultural cities'. The paper will study the situation of these cities before and after building the three projects and how their design languages caused an architectural booming that made these cities regain their powerful position all over the world, from the cultural and civilized weight. Finally, the paper sets a group of conclusions. Most important of them is: Changing people's destiny and making them live happier is not so difficult matter, but it needs the right vision that may become true through one building project.