Raphaelrsquo;s Ostrich begins with a little-studied aspect of Raphaelrsquo;s paintingmdash;the ostrich; which appears as an attribute of Justice; painted in the Sala di Costantino in the Vatican. Una Roman Drsquo;Elia traces the cultural and artistic history of the ostrich from its appearances in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to the menageries and grotesque ornaments of sixteenth-century Italy. Following the complex history of shifting interpretations given to the ostrich in scientific; literary; religious; poetic; and satirical texts and images; Drsquo;Elia demonstrates the rich variety of ways in which people made sense of this living ldquo;monster;rdquo; which was depicted as the embodiment of heresy; stupidity; perseverance; justice; fortune; gluttony; and other virtues and vices. Because Raphael was revered as a god of art; artists imitated and competed with his ostrich; while religious and cultural critics complained about the potential for misinterpreting such obscure imagery. This book not only considers the history of the ostrich but also explores how Raphaelrsquo;s painting forced viewers to question how meaning is attributed to the natural world; a debate of central importance in early modern Europe at a time when the disciplines of modern art history and natural history were developing. The strangeness of Raphaelrsquo;s ostrich; situated at the crossroads of art; religion; myth; and natural history; both reveals lesser-known sides of Raphaelrsquo;s painting and illuminates major cultural shifts in attitudes toward nature and images in the Renaissance. More than simply an examination of a single artist or a single subject; Raphaelrsquo;s Ostrich offers an accessible; erudite; and charming alternative to Vasarirsquo;s pervasive model of the history of sixteenth-century Italian art.
2016-04-22 2016-04-22File Name: B01EV19PCC
Review
