Book by Steven J Cody
Brill: Brill's Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History, 2020
Over the course of his career, Andrea del Sarto (1486–1530) created altarpieces rich in theologic... more Over the course of his career, Andrea del Sarto (1486–1530) created altarpieces rich in theological complexity, elegant in formal execution, and dazzlingly brilliant in chromatic impact. This book investigates the spiritual dimensions of those works, focusing on six highly-significant panels. According to Steven J. Cody, the beauty and splendor of Andrea’s paintings speak to a profound engagement with Christian theories of spiritual renewal—an engagement that only intensified as Andrea matured into one of the most admired artists of his time. From this perspective, 'Andrea del Sarto: Splendor and Renewal in the Renaissance Altarpiece' not only shines new light on a painter who has long deserved more scholarly attention; it also offers up fresh insights regarding the Renaissance altarpiece itself.
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Papers by Steven J Cody
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2023
Aimé Mpane is an especially versatile Congolese artist based in Brussels and Kinshasa. This paper... more Aimé Mpane is an especially versatile Congolese artist based in Brussels and Kinshasa. This paper examines his 'Nude' (2006–2008), a life-sized sculpture of the idealized male form. Thinking carefully about Mpane’s treatment of the body, his selection of material, and his manipulation of the sculpture’s surface, I argue that 'Nude' operates on an ethical level. The work engages with social conceptions of Black bodies, the history of nudity in western art, and—most interestingly—Frantz Fanon’s theory of embodiment, as presented in 'Black Skin, White Masks' (1952). 'Nude' thus allows us to explore the relationship between a leading artist of the African diaspora and one of the most important critics of the colonial condition. The work also contributes to our increasingly nuanced understanding of art’s place within the wider spheres of post-colonial discourse.
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Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, 2018
This paper analyzes Andrea del Sarto’s 'Noli me tangere' (1510) in view of the learned exchanges ... more This paper analyzes Andrea del Sarto’s 'Noli me tangere' (1510) in view of the learned exchanges that occurred between the artist and his Augustinian collaborators. A central thesis of mine is that Andrea’s artistic decisions draw on several branches on knowledge simultaneously. His sophisticated handing of the human figure inflects Leonardo da Vinci’s chiaroscuro techniques in ways that invite the beholder to consider the mysteries of Christ’s body, as expressed in St. Augustine’s theological writings. Andrea’s incredibly novel facture, meanwhile, intersects with Augustine’s meditations on the senses and on spiritual reform. In this respect, I maintain that Andrea del Sarto’s significant yet often overlooked painting has much to tell us about the complex realities of producing religious art in the Italian Renaissance. It contributes to our increasingly nuanced understand of Augustine’s enduring relevance in this period, as well. The commission for the 'Noli me tangere' compelled Andrea to engage with some of the most ancient ideals of the Christian faith. And Andrea’s artistic decisions serve as indices of the religious knowledge he acquired as a result.
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Artibus et Historiae, 2017
This paper explores the intellectual and social circumstances that informed the production of And... more This paper explores the intellectual and social circumstances that informed the production of Andrea Mantegna’s 'Mars and Venus' (1497), the first painting executed for the studiolo of Isabella d’Este Gonzaga. Documentary evidence suggests that Mantegna collaborated on this project with an iconographic advisor, most likely the learned Paride da Ceresara. I argue, somewhat against the received wisdom, that both Paride and Mantegna are responsible for this painting’s invention. Indeed, I maintain that the collaborative nature of their enterprise invites us to rethink the nature of artistic “invention” itself. The term, which entered the lexicon of early modern art theory via the writings of Cicero and Quintilian, describes an intellectual process of discovery. Paride discovered his iconographic "invenzione" by using the techniques of humanist philology. Mantegna drew on his knowledge of classical sculpture, as well as a hitherto unacknowledged tradition of textual criticism that linked his handling of a brush to the tenets of ancient rhetorical theory and to the writings of Leon Battista Alberti. Discovering in these contexts a set of poetic, formal, and stylistic devices uniquely suited to the learned environment of Isabella's studiolo, Mantegna and Paride together invented a means of visibly addressing their patron's concerns. These concerns are ultimately tied to the Platonic philosophy of the soul.
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Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 2017
Andrea del Sarto’s 'Disputation on the Trinity' (1517) engages with powerful traditions of spirit... more Andrea del Sarto’s 'Disputation on the Trinity' (1517) engages with powerful traditions of spiritual learning that can be traced back to St. Augustine’s theological writings. This paper asks how and in what ways Andrea’s altarpiece might belong to such a rich intellectual history. The analysis connects Augustinian notions of desire and reform to the painting’s iconography and to the artist’s composition and treatment of color. This line of inquiry not only has exciting implications for the study of Renaissance altarpieces. It also lays the groundwork for a larger study of Andrea del Sarto and of his contributions to the period’s sense of spiritual reform, broadly conceived.
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Perspectives on Europe, 2016
The Virgin and Child figure prominently in Andrea del Sarto’s 'Madonna of the Harpies' (1517). St... more The Virgin and Child figure prominently in Andrea del Sarto’s 'Madonna of the Harpies' (1517). Standing atop a pedestal and before a sculptural niche, mother and son are bathed in dazzling light and color, even as they are visited by a dark cloud. This paper analyzes Andrea’s allusions to sculptural form, as well as his innovative handling of color and chiaroscuro, in view of the learned exchanges that occurred between the artist and his Franciscan patrons. Andrea’s pictorial decisions privilege sixteenth-century discussions of the paragone debate. They imitate theories of optical science, especially Leonardo da Vinici’s notions of lustro and splendore. And, at the same time, they resonate within traditions of theological commentary that include St. Bonaventure’s writings on the soul and on Christ’s Incarnation. In this regard, Andrea del Sarto’s significant yet often overlooked painting offers new possibilities for inquiring into the intellectual lives of artists in Renaissance Italy.
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Storia dell’arte, 2013
This paper seeks to reinsert Boccioni’s philosophical ambitions into the discourse surrounding th... more This paper seeks to reinsert Boccioni’s philosophical ambitions into the discourse surrounding the genesis of Futurist art in Italy, and to better position 'The City Rises' within the landscape of early modernist thought. I argue, somewhat against the received wisdom concerning this painter, that Boccioni’s 'The City Rises' not only stems from the theoretical exchanges that were so important to the formation of Futurist art in and around 1910; it also engages the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the most important critics of the modern condition. Boccioni’s stylistic decisions respond—deeply but not altogether systematically—to Nietzsche’s theory of will to power, to his violent interrogations of established ideals, as well as to the philosopher’s own aphoristic style of writing. My analysis, then, throws into sharper relief the intellectual forces motivating one of the early twentieth century’s most accomplished painters by investigating one of the more sophisticated, if neglected, intersections of modernist art and philosophy.
(Readers, please see my note at the end of the text.)
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Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, 2013
This paper focuses on a series of drawings that Peter Paul Rubens executed in Rome after the Belv... more This paper focuses on a series of drawings that Peter Paul Rubens executed in Rome after the Belvedere Torso, the Laocoön, and Michelangelo’s Sibyls and Prophets from the Sistine Ceiling. I argue that these drawings are fundamentally connected to Rubens’s theoretical essay on artistic imitation, 'De Imitatione Statuarum', which he wrote shortly after his time in Rome. Indeed, I argue that the drawings in question are theoretical in nature. They give pictorial form to Rubens’s assessments of ancient and early modern culture, to his activities as a humanist reader, and to his own sense of his place in history. In short, the drawings express the same ideas in graphic form that Rubens later expressed in the humanist Latin.
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Source: Notes in the History of Art, 2011
This paper examines the earliest commentary on Andrea Mantegna’s Mars and Venus. The author, Batt... more This paper examines the earliest commentary on Andrea Mantegna’s Mars and Venus. The author, Battista Fiera, was a friend to Mantegna and a member of the literary circle surrounding the painting’s patron, Isabella d’Este. Traditionally, art historians have viewed Fiera’s poem as a failed interpretation of Mantegna’s canvas. I argue, however, that Fiera established specific parameters within which the Renaissance viewer could read the Mars and Venus. These parameters served as a means of aligning Fiera with Isabella’s cultural policy and of setting the poet apart from the other humanists attached to the Gonzaga court. Seen in this light, Fiera’s poem frames our understanding of Mantegna’s Mars and Venus, its function in the studiolo of Isabella d’Este, and the political stakes of humanist art criticism at the court of Mantua.
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Conferences by Steven J Cody
Sixteenth Century Society and Conference 2019
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Book Reviews by Steven J Cody
caa.reviews, 2023
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Book by Steven J Cody
Papers by Steven J Cody
(Readers, please see my note at the end of the text.)
Conferences by Steven J Cody
Book Reviews by Steven J Cody
(Readers, please see my note at the end of the text.)