History of Art

An essay that, after 40 years, continues to challenge the reader. Castelnuovo, and historian Carlo Ginzburg reread the history of Italian art by questioning one of the dogmas on which it had been based for centuries, namely that only in the great Italian centers was innovative artistic creation possible, while the 'periphery' registered delays and insignificance. The book recounts the relationship between the 'center' and the 'periphery' in a less hierarchical manner, but also less peaceful.

Beginning with the emergence of the notion of the Gothic style in architecture (opus francigenum), this book highlights, through the artistic production of the main driving centers, the exchanges that took place between Italian and transalpine art from the late 12th to the 14th century.

Ranging from Giotto to Boccioni, via Masaccio, Titian and Bernini, Enrico Castelnuovo tackles a central theme of art history, investigating the uses and functions of portraiture, its transformations according to the historical and social contexts in which it was employed, the way it was interpreted to respond to the demands of patrons and the expectations of the public, and the contribution made by the great masters to its evolution. Admirably associating rigor of analysis and didactic clarity, Castelnuovo explains how material, cut, and attributes contribute to constructing the image

The transparency of a figuration that plays with singular effectiveness as much with natural light made protagonist as with the unexpected possibilities of color has not failed to touch some of the most sensitive chords of our culture. Something that has to do, not even too veiledly, with the aesthetic inclinations of a modernity tending to privilege the formal aspects of the works of the past. An attitude that has certainly counted in the fortune that, from Proust onward, medieval stained glass has known.

On the occasion of Paolo Fabbri's 80th birthday, this book collects his reflections and analysis on contemporary arts and artists. Valerio Adami, Giovanni Anceschi, Antonin Artaud, Nanni Balestrini, Matthew Barney, Gianfranco Baruchello, Christian Boltanski, Enrico Castellani, Maurizio Cattelan, Giorgio De Chirico, Luciano Fabro, Federico Fellini, Luigi Ghirri, Alfredo Jaar, Paul Klee, Joseph Kosuth, Jannis Kounellis, Barbara Kruger, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Luigi Mattei, Eliseo Mattiacci, Fabio Mauri, Renato Meneghetti, Maurizio Mochetti, Ugo Mulas, Bruce Nauman, Nunzio, Claudio Parmiggian

One of the leading Italian art historians of the twentieth century, Enrico Castelnuovo, and historian Carlo Ginzburg reread the history of Italian art by questioning one of the dogmas on which it had been based for centuries, namely that only in the great Italian centers was innovative artistic creation possible, while the 'periphery' registered delays and insignificance.

We are surrounded by images, fairly drowning in them. From our cell phones to our computers, from our televisions at home to the screens that light up while we wait in the grocery store checkout line, images of all kinds are seducing us, commanding us to buy!, scaring us, dazzling us.