Titian, Colonna and the Renaissance Science of Procreation: Equicola's Seasons of Desire

ISBN-13: 9781138274709 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016

Anthony Colantuono

Opis

Two major monuments of Italian Renaissance culture-Bellini's and Titian's famous series of mytho-poetical "bacchanal" paintings, and Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili -are here shown to have been conceived as mnemonic or pedagogical devices aimed at educating the reader/beholder in the medical science of reproductive physiology and the maintenance of sexual health. This study clarifies the historical relationship between the pictorial and literary works and explains their larger cultural significance.

Spis treści

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Part 1 Alfonso d'Este's Camerino, Mario Equicola and the Libidinal Seasons: Proemium: The libido in winter: Bellini's Feast of the Gods; The libido in spring: Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne; The libido in summer: Titian's Bacchanal of the Andrians; The libido in Autumn: Titian's Feast of Venus; Interpreting the camerino: the bacchanals as procreative pedagogy. Part 2 Colonna's Poliphilus - the Science and Season of Sexual Performance: Proemium: Duke Guidubaldo's dysfunction: Poliphilus and the diagnosis of love; Poliphilus's nightmare and erotic magic: an excursus on the bewitching of the male genitalia; Poliphilus's wet dream; A Venus in the bedroom; Coloring the roses: Colonna, Titan and the '3rd Venus'; A sacred/profane love: the Dodonian font and Poliphilus's wedding; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

O autorze

Anthony Colantuono is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Maryland - College Park, USA