On the appropriate opportunities for painters to show their skills
Year mention: 1564
Subject:
Adoration of the Magi ; Ascension ; Baptism ; Circumcision ; Crucifixion ; Deposition ; Ecce Homo ; Entombment ; Flagellation ; Last Judgement ; Mysteries of the Nativity ; Resurrection ; Transfiguration
Conflict:
Blood
Capriccio
Decorum
Representation of bodies
Criticism:

Appropriate representation of Christ, according to the context

Agent:
Gilio, Giovanni Andrea
Frontispiece of: Gilio, Giovanni Andrea, Due dialogi (1564), Camerino : Antonio Giojoso
Frontispiece of: Gilio, Giovanni Andrea, Due dialogi (1564), Camerino : Antonio Giojoso
© ÖNB ABO Projekt/in Kooperation mit Google, Sig. 74.E.84 ALT PRUNK

Having previously criticised the graceful representation of the body of Christ in the Passion, the participants in the dialogue now offer the artist options in which he can demonstrate his skill, according to the iconography he is trying to represent.

“M. Troilo replied: ‘[…] If he (the painter) wants to show the delicacy of Christ’s body, its beauty, its grace, its muscles, as you said before, we have the mysteries of the Nativity, the Circumcision, the Adoration of the Magi to represent him as a sucking babe, beautiful and sweet. Then we have the Baptism in the Jordan as an opportunity to show him naked, where anatomy and all the secrets of the art can be displayed. There can be shown the perfection of intellect, the potency and power of beauty, the decorum of modesty, and the marvelousness of the holy. In the Flagellation, the Ecce Homo, the Crucifixion, the Deposition, and the Entombment there is the opportunity to show him bloody, ugly deformed, afflicted, emaciated, and dead. For showing him as glorious, divine, and in authority, we have the Transfiguration, the Resurrection, the Ascension and finally his coming to judge the living and the dead on the day of Judgement. These are the distinctions that the prudent painter must make’.”

“Replicò M. Troilo: ‘[…] Se vuol mostrare la delicatezza del corpo, la bellezza, la leggiadria et i muscoli, come dianzi diceste, abbiamo il mistero de la Natività, de la Circoncisione, de l’Adorazione de’ Magi, da farlo fanciulletto tettante bello e vago. Abbiamo poi, da farlo uomo nudo, il Battesimo del fiume Giordano, nel quale potrà mostrare la notomia e tutti i secreti dell’arte, la perfezzione de l’ingegno, la virtù e forza de la bellezza, il decoro de l’onestà e la maraviglia de la santità. Ne la Flagellazione, Demostrazione al popolo, Crocifissione, Deposizione de la croce e Sepultura, da mostrarlo sanguinoso, brutto, difformato, afflitto, consumato e morto. Per mostrarlo glorioso e divino e grande abbiamo la Transfigurazione, la Resurrezzione, le tante apparizioni che fece agli Apostoli, resuscitato che fu, l’Ascenzione et ultimamente il venire a giudicare i vivi et i morti il giorno del giudizio. Queste sono le distinzioni che far deve il prudente pittore’.”

Keywords
Adoration of the Magi, Ascension, Baptism, Circumcision, Crucifixion, decoro, Deposition, Ecce Homo, Entombment, Flagellation, Mysteries of the Nativity, Resurrection, Transfiguration

Terminology
decoro
Date mention
1564

Historical Location
Fabriano

Iconclass Number
73B13; 73B3; 73B; 73B5; 73C121; 73D35; 73D351; 73D361; 73D3; 73D; 73D7; 73D6; 73D5; 73D4; 73C713; 73E1; 73E42; 11U;

Source
Gilio, Dialogue on the errors and abuses of painters (2018), 134-135; Gilio, Dialogo. Nel quale si ragiona degli errori e degli abusi de’pittori circa l’istorie. In: Due dialogi di M. Giouanni Andrea Gilio da Fabriano (1564), 40
Literature

Gilio 2018, 134-135, n.150

Permanent Link
https://www.sacrima.eu/case/on-the-appropriate-opportunities-for-painters-to-show-their-skills/