- History of Art
5 Perrott Ave
University College Cork
Cork
Ireland
- Senior Lecturer & Discipline Head, History of Art, University College Cork, Irelandedit
Lippo di Dalmasio fu il più celebrato dei pittori bolognesi del tardo Medioevo e finì per incarnare, agli occhi di quanti scrissero d’arte durante la Controriforma, un passato religioso ideale. La sua fama fu dovuta sia alla qualità delle... more
Lippo di Dalmasio fu il più celebrato dei pittori bolognesi del tardo Medioevo e finì per incarnare, agli occhi di quanti scrissero d’arte durante la Controriforma, un passato religioso ideale. La sua fama fu dovuta sia alla qualità delle sue opere sia alla sistematicità con cui le aveva firmate, assicurandosi che il suo ricordo perdurasse e fosse tramandato alla posterità. Già nel Seicento, Lippo era stato trasformato in una figura leggendaria, un carmelitano la cui arte si era configurata come un atto di devozione personale. Nato in una famiglia di pittori – il padre, Dalmasio degli Scannabecchi, discendente di una «casa nobilissima », e lo zio, Simone dei Crocefissi, il più prolifico di tutti i maestri bolognesi del Trecento – Lippo svolse la sua attività artistica fra Pistoia e Bologna, città in cui ricoprì anche incarichi pubblici, fra cui quello di notaio e quello di giudice. Questa monografia, la prima dedicata all’artista e pubblicata inizialmente in lingua inglese, è stata ampliata, rivista e riccamente illustrata appositamente per l’edizione italiana. Il volume indaga le origini dell’arte di Lippo e la sua fortuna critica, e presenta un catalogo ragionato delle sue opere documentate e di quelle a lui attribuite. L’intento degli autori è stato quello di offrire un valido strumento agli storici dell’arte, oltre che ai musei e a quanti nel mercato antiquario richiedano fondamenti sicuri per l’attribuzione e la valutazione del sostanzioso corpus delle sue opere, disseminate fra numerose collezioni e in alcuni casi ancora in mano a privati. Con il vivo auspicio di restituire a Lippo il posto che merita tra i più importanti artisti europei.
Lippo di Dalmasio (c.1353-1410) was the most celebrated of Bolognese painters at the beginning of the Renaissance and came to represent an ideal devotional past for the writers on art of the Counter-Reformation. His fame was due both to the quality of his works and the regularity with which he signed them, ensuring that his memory lived on for posterity. By the 17th century he had been transformed into a legendary figure, a Carmelite whose art was an act of personal devotion. This monograph, the first to be dedicated to the master and initially published in English, has been expanded, revised and richly illustrated for an Italian edition funded by SEPS, a body linked to the Council of Europe. The volume explores the origins of Lippo’s art and his historical reputation, and it presents a critical catalogue of his documented works and those attributed to him.
Lippo di Dalmasio (c.1353-1410) was the most celebrated of Bolognese painters at the beginning of the Renaissance and came to represent an ideal devotional past for the writers on art of the Counter-Reformation. His fame was due both to the quality of his works and the regularity with which he signed them, ensuring that his memory lived on for posterity. By the 17th century he had been transformed into a legendary figure, a Carmelite whose art was an act of personal devotion. This monograph, the first to be dedicated to the master and initially published in English, has been expanded, revised and richly illustrated for an Italian edition funded by SEPS, a body linked to the Council of Europe. The volume explores the origins of Lippo’s art and his historical reputation, and it presents a critical catalogue of his documented works and those attributed to him.
Research Interests:
This book provides an historical and critical framework for the paintings of Lippo di Dalmasio, whose vividly emotive images, particularly of the Madonna of Humility, were highly valued during the Counter-Reformation. The catalogue... more
This book provides an historical and critical framework for the paintings of Lippo di Dalmasio, whose vividly emotive images, particularly of the Madonna of Humility, were highly valued during the Counter-Reformation. The catalogue presents 37 items in total, including many new attributions and some previously unpublished works. This is accompanied by all known documents on the artist. Lippo di Dalmasio was among the most important artists working both in Pistoia and Bologna during the later fourteenth century, and his work is familiar to most through the reproduction of the London Madonna on Christmas cards and stamps. This study is timed to coincide with the sixth centenary of his death in 1410. Lippo's work is set in the context of Bolognese painting before him, especially by his father Dalmasio Scannabecchi, and his uncle, the prolific Simone 'dei Crocefissi'. The attribution of his finest fresco in Pistoia is established within the context of Bolognese iconography of the tent as tabernacle and related to the numerous signed works produced in Bologna.These are datable in part by the changing orthography of the signatures themselves as well as a distinctive response both to local tradition and developments in Florentine painting. The volume includes a catalogue of his paintings and the many documents of his career.
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A book of drawings devoted to Italy in Cork’s university library is here assigned to Richard White (1800-1868), Viscount Berehaven and afterwards 2nd Earl of Bantry. A keen amateur draftsman with a sharp eye for scenic and architectural... more
A book of drawings devoted to Italy in Cork’s university library is here assigned to Richard White (1800-1868), Viscount Berehaven and afterwards 2nd Earl of Bantry. A keen amateur draftsman with a sharp eye for scenic and architectural detail, the nobleman was also an indefatigable traveller, who visited the Italian peninsula in 1829, the year the album was very likely compiled. Some fifty-eight images appear on its pages, including rapid pencil sketches and more detailed drawings reworked with either pen-and-ink outlines or brush and brown wash. Landscape dominates the subject matter, but gardens are present too, alongside architecture and copies after specific works of art. The drawings document his destinations: Spoleto, Narni and Civita Castellana on the Flaminian Way, as well as Rome. Several of Pope Benedict XIV’s building projects in the Eternal City feature in the book, pointing to the Viscount’s curiosity about the pontiff’s role as a patron of architecture. Evidently Raphael’s Parnassus in the Stanza della Segnatura at the Vatican Palace caught White’s attention as well, for the album contains studies of figures from the Renaissance master’s celebrated fresco. When viewed collectively, then, the sketches reveal the plural interests of a little-studied Irish aristocrat travelling through Italy at the twilight of the Grand Tour.
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Research Interests:
Lord Berehaven was an ambitious collector who developed wide-ranging artistic tastes in a series of tours across Europe. While these peregrinations are sparsely documented, a cache of the nobleman’s letters sheds light on an Italian... more
Lord Berehaven was an ambitious collector who developed wide-ranging artistic tastes in a series of tours across Europe. While these peregrinations are sparsely documented, a cache of the nobleman’s letters sheds light on an Italian journey in 1842-3. His correspondence becomes even more revealing when it is considered alongside the travel diary of his wife, Lady Mary. Taken together the records provide ample evidence for the couple’s fascination with the art, people and landscapes of Italy.
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Richard White, Viscount Berehaven, was an ambitious collector who developed wide-ranging artistic tastes in a series of Continental tours beginning in the 1820s and sustained until the 1840s. While these peregrinations in Europe are... more
Richard White, Viscount Berehaven, was an ambitious collector who developed wide-ranging artistic tastes in a series of Continental tours beginning in the 1820s and sustained until the 1840s. While these peregrinations in Europe are sparsely documented, a little-studied cache of the nobleman’s letters does help to throw light on his collecting activities in Italy through the winter of 1842–3. The correspondence provides rare information on objects he had recently acquired in Rome, Naples, Leghorn and Genoa, while also clarifying details of the items’ shipment to Ireland. But Berehaven’s letters become even more revealing when they are considered alongside the unpublished travel diary of his wife, Lady Mary, daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Thomond. Taken together, the records enable the identification of some of the ‘articles of taste’ still on display at Bantry House, County Cork, and detail the circumstances in which the objects were purchased in the first place.
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The essay examines the early career of the Bolognese painter Lippo di Dalmasio (ca. 1350s-1410), documented as a resident of the Tuscan city of Pistoia in the 1370s and 1380s, and seeks to cast light on his most ambitious work to survive... more
The essay examines the early career of the Bolognese painter Lippo di Dalmasio (ca. 1350s-1410), documented as a resident of the Tuscan city of Pistoia in the 1370s and 1380s, and seeks to cast light on his most ambitious work to survive in Pistoia, the Madonna of Humility between Sts. Dominic and Catherine and Two Donors (ca. 1380) in S. Domenico. Through close examination of the iconographical and stylistic sources of the S. Domenico Madonna, this study promotes a deeper understanding of Lippo’s practices and of the Pistoiese artistic milieu in which Emilian and Tuscan pictorial conventions met and coalesced. Such an episode also contributes to the wider discussion on the diffusion of the Virgin of Humility theme which was prominent in the devotional images of both Bologna and Pistoia after 1350. In addition, the essay raises questions about the use of regional stylistic labels and, in doing so, offers fresh material to the broader debates surrounding the rich network of artistic exchange within and between the urban centres of trecento Italy.
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Research Interests:
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The article discusses 1843 portrait busts by Rome-based Irish sculptor John Hogan of Richard White, Viscount Berehaven and Earl of Bantry, and Mary White, Lady Berehaven and Countess of Bantry. The author describes the 1842-1843 travel... more
The article discusses 1843 portrait busts by Rome-based Irish sculptor John Hogan of Richard White, Viscount Berehaven and Earl of Bantry, and Mary White, Lady Berehaven and Countess of Bantry. The author describes the 1842-1843 travel diary of Mary White offering details about the Whites' trip to Rome including their sittings for the busts and their visits to Hogan's studio. The author discusses Hogan's studio practices in relation to other 19th-century Roman workshops.
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Research Interests:
The Maestà on the ground floor of Pistoia’s Palazzo Comunale is here examined for the first time in relation to iconography, function, and audience. The article calls attention to archival discoveries that indicate a clear chronology for... more
The Maestà on the ground floor of Pistoia’s Palazzo Comunale is here examined for the first time in relation to iconography, function, and audience. The article calls attention to archival discoveries that indicate a clear chronology for the fresco and suggest the names of painters who may have been involved. The circumstances of Pistoiese civic commissions of the 1330s and 1340s are clarified against the backdrop of Florentine hegemony in the region. It is argued that in Pistoia images of the Virgin had an underlined political function and gave visual expression to the identity of the Commune, especially in civic spaces where government ceremonies were performed.