Books by A. Victor Coonin
Donatello and the Dawn of Renaissance Art, 2019
Coming in July, 2019
The Italian sculptor known as Donatello helped to forge a new kind of art—o... more Coming in July, 2019
The Italian sculptor known as Donatello helped to forge a new kind of art—one that came to define the Renaissance. His work was progressive, challenging, and even controversial. Using a variety of novel sculptural techniques and innovative interpretations, Donatello uniquely depicted themes involving human sexuality, violence, spirituality, and beauty. But to really understand Donatello, one needs to understand his changing world, marked by the transition from Medieval to Renaissance style and to an art that was more personal and representative of the modern self. Donatello was not just a man of his times, he helped shape the spirit of the times he lived in and profoundly influenced those that came after.
In this beautifully illustrated book—the first thorough biography of Donatello in twenty-five years—A. Victor Coonin describes the full extent of Donatello’s revolutionary contributions, revealing how his work heralded the emergence of modern art.
Art and Science in the Early Modern Period: An Introduction to Vanishing Boundaries. Victor A... more Art and Science in the Early Modern Period: An Introduction to Vanishing Boundaries. Victor A. Coonin
Commo vera scientia: Piero della Francesca and the Problematic Science of Perspective. Barnaby Nygren
Artifice and Interiority: The Image of Grief in the Age of Reform. Heather Graham
Hebrew Manuscripts and Jewish Physicians in Early Modern Europe (1400-c. 1700). Lisa A. Festa
Inserts of Anatomy: The Merger of Medicine and Art in Charles Estienne's De dissectione. Jed Rivera Foland
Depicting Sexual Deformity in Early Modern Art: Scientific, Medical, and Socio-Cultural Considerations, Part I: Excess and Absence. Lilian H. Zirpolo
Artemisia Gentileschi's Aurora: Astronomy, Myth, and Mourning in Galileo's Florence. Susan Wegner
Depicting Sexual Deformity in Early Modern Art: Scientific, Medical, and Socio-Cultural Considerations, Part II: Female Hirsutism. Lilian H. Zirpolo
Science, Art, and the Sacred Heart in Eighteenth Century New Spain. Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank
Essays on the Collection IV, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, 2003
Papers by A. Victor Coonin
Sculpture Journal, Jun 1, 2009
Artibus et historiae: an art anthology, 2018
CAA.reviews, Jul 16, 2001
Artibus et historiae: an art anthology, 2009
Before his death in 1464, the Florentine sculptor Desiderio da Settignano allegedly carved a marb... more Before his death in 1464, the Florentine sculptor Desiderio da Settignano allegedly carved a marble portrait bust of Marietta Strozzi, considered the most beautiful woman in Renaissance Florence. Contemporary sources consistently praise this work as one of the most admired portrait sculptures of the age and its identification has vexed the modern scholar, eager to locate it among the various extant examples of the genre. Not surprisingly, almost every Tuscan portrait bust of a woman datable to the mid-fifteenth century has been attributed to Desiderio at one time or another, usually with the claim of being Marietta's lost image. Predictably, when authentic candidates have been unavailable, fakes have arisen to take their place. Part one of this paper investigates the sitter of this famous portrait bust, Marietta Strozzi, and freshly examines her extraordinary life and reputation in Florence. Part two begins with a contextual examination of the female portrait bust in the fifteenth century and concludes with an overview of the extant examples once purported to be Desiderio's sculpture of Marietta Strozzi. Former and current attributions of these female portrait busts include ascriptions to prominent sculptors such as Antonio Rossellino, Andrea del Verrocchio, Mino da Fiesole, Matteo Civitali, Pasquino da Montepulciano, Gregorio di Lorenzo and the infamous forger, Giovanni Bastianini. The whole chronicles a long-running quest of scholarship and connoisseurship attempting to rediscover the most elusive woman in Italian Renaissance Art.
Source-notes in The History of Art, Sep 1, 2016
The Portinari Altarpiece needs little introduction as one of the most famous and well-studied wor... more The Portinari Altarpiece needs little introduction as one of the most famous and well-studied works of the Renaissance. Painted by Hugo van der Goes (ca. 1440–82) on the commission of Tommaso di Folco d’Adoardo Portinari, it is of particular significance to scholars of both the North and the South, being the largest and arguably most significant work by a northern master to be imported to Italy in the fifteenth century. Its arrival in Florence in 1483 was greeted with great fanfare as it traversed the city to rest in the church of Sant’Egidio, part of the hospital complex of Santa Maria Nuova. It now resides in the Uffizi. The large triptych features a central Nativity scene with rich symbolism, side wings with donor family portraits and accompanying saints,
Source-notes in The History of Art, Mar 1, 2016
Michelangelo’s David is one of the world’s most famous works of art (fig. 1). Like Mona Lisa’s sm... more Michelangelo’s David is one of the world’s most famous works of art (fig. 1). Like Mona Lisa’s smile, the David’s pose is instantly recognizable, and almost anyone with even a brief familiarity with Renaissance art can strike the pose by memory, at least in basic form. It consists of a contrapposto stance involving one arm (the left) raised with hand to the shoulder and the other hand resting against the thigh. The David today represents a quintessential artistic pose identified with a specific and unmistakable work of art. As this article shows, however, this was not always the case. In 1740, the young Venetian artist Bernardo Bellotto (1722–80) traveled to Florence, where he painted several views of the city, including
Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1995
Artibus et Historiae, 2003
... and his followers, including the damaged Deposition fresco in the Servite church of Santa Mar... more ... and his followers, including the damaged Deposition fresco in the Servite church of Santa Maria della Stella at ... Mina Gregori, Antonio Paolucci, and Cristina Acidini Luchinat, Florence, 1992; and Renaissance Florence: The Art of the ... 77-102; and Rosaria Mencarelli, "The Role ...
Sculpture Journal, Jun 1, 2013
Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes The National Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 November... more Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes The National Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 November 2011-8 April, 2012 and the Frick Collection, New York, 1 May 2012-29 July, 2012 Eleonora Luciano (ed.), Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes, exh. cat., Paul Holberton Publishing, London, 2011, pp. 210, 157 colour and 6 b/w illustrations, £30. ISBN 978-1-907372-27-8If ever an artist carried an appropriate nickname it is the Italian Renaissance sculptor known as 'Antico'. Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi (c.1455-1528) worked in Mantua for various members of the Gonzaga family and made his main artistic contribution as a sculptor of remarkable reinterpretations of classical themes. Though he produced a variety of objects (including medals and busts), and must have created myriad others as court artist, his reputation rests on a group of small-scale bronzes, most of them with a striking dark patina often adorned with silver and gold highlights. These beautiful, expertly cast and finished works are among the earliest and best examples of art that fully encapsulates the Renaissance in style, spirit and by any other measure.Studies of Antico have come a long way in recent years,1 culminating in his first substantial modern exhibition, in Mantua, in 2008-09.2 That exhibition, in the inimitable setting of the Palazzo Ducale, admirably showed Antico's art in context, and was accompanied by a catalogue rich in documentation and scholarly analysis. Close on its heels, the Antico exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Frick Collection in New York offered something different. Curated by Eleonora Luciano in collaboration with Denise Allen and Claudia Kryza-Gersch, it included almost forty works by Antico (roughly three-quarters of his extant oeuvre), with complementary additions at each venue. In contrast to the Mantuan show, the Washington and New York exhibitions concentrated more on the artist himself and on understanding his works as objects. At its best it also pointed to new directions in scholarship, with attendant opportunities for investigation and discovery.Lurking throughout was a thoughtful attempt to amplify the traditional exhibition experience by changing the way we see, and thus understand, objects. Details of the displays were carefully considered in both venues (fig. 1).3 Where possible, lending institutions allowed the works to be removed from modern plinths, granting an extraordinarily rare chance to unobstructedly inspect the balance, scale and stance of each figure. At the Frick, cases were positioned for minimal visual interference, and most objects could be inspected from all sides. In this intimate setting the organizers enabled the viewer to look closely at each piece and for a brief moment become like one of the Gonzaga, marvelling at the work of their court artist. In another nice touch, the figure of Pan was displayed below eye level and the Spinario just above, reminding the viewer that none of these statuettes were intended for single, straight-on viewpoints. In Washington, Luciano took advantage of the National Gallery's holdings, and evoked the Mantuan artistic milieu by interspersing works by Mantegna. The Gonzaga Urn from Modena, though still enigmatic, thus spoke eloquently to related medals and Mantegna prints, demonstrating the crucial interplay among the arts, artists and ideals of the Mantuan court.Both venues offered meaningful pairings of related objects. Classical precedents were emphasized through juxtapositions such as the Getty Bust of a Young Man with a Roman marble from the Hispanic Society, or Antico's two statuettes of Hercules alongside a similar bronze from the Louvre thought to be Roman. The most alluring pairings showed early and later versions of similar themes; the Seated Nymph from the Smith collection and the socalled Bedford Nymph (private collection); Atropos from London and Vienna; Hercules from New York and Vienna - in each case the earlier works showing finer detail and refinement, but the later holding their own as different, but not inferior products. …
"By the Hand That Obeys the Intellect": Death and Remembrance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Sculpture, 2022
Art & Architecture, From Marble to Flesh. The Biography of Michelangelo's David, Jun 3, 2014
Artibus et historiae: an art anthology, 2018
Choice Reviews Online, 2015
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Books by A. Victor Coonin
The Italian sculptor known as Donatello helped to forge a new kind of art—one that came to define the Renaissance. His work was progressive, challenging, and even controversial. Using a variety of novel sculptural techniques and innovative interpretations, Donatello uniquely depicted themes involving human sexuality, violence, spirituality, and beauty. But to really understand Donatello, one needs to understand his changing world, marked by the transition from Medieval to Renaissance style and to an art that was more personal and representative of the modern self. Donatello was not just a man of his times, he helped shape the spirit of the times he lived in and profoundly influenced those that came after.
In this beautifully illustrated book—the first thorough biography of Donatello in twenty-five years—A. Victor Coonin describes the full extent of Donatello’s revolutionary contributions, revealing how his work heralded the emergence of modern art.
Commo vera scientia: Piero della Francesca and the Problematic Science of Perspective. Barnaby Nygren
Artifice and Interiority: The Image of Grief in the Age of Reform. Heather Graham
Hebrew Manuscripts and Jewish Physicians in Early Modern Europe (1400-c. 1700). Lisa A. Festa
Inserts of Anatomy: The Merger of Medicine and Art in Charles Estienne's De dissectione. Jed Rivera Foland
Depicting Sexual Deformity in Early Modern Art: Scientific, Medical, and Socio-Cultural Considerations, Part I: Excess and Absence. Lilian H. Zirpolo
Artemisia Gentileschi's Aurora: Astronomy, Myth, and Mourning in Galileo's Florence. Susan Wegner
Depicting Sexual Deformity in Early Modern Art: Scientific, Medical, and Socio-Cultural Considerations, Part II: Female Hirsutism. Lilian H. Zirpolo
Science, Art, and the Sacred Heart in Eighteenth Century New Spain. Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank
Papers by A. Victor Coonin
The Italian sculptor known as Donatello helped to forge a new kind of art—one that came to define the Renaissance. His work was progressive, challenging, and even controversial. Using a variety of novel sculptural techniques and innovative interpretations, Donatello uniquely depicted themes involving human sexuality, violence, spirituality, and beauty. But to really understand Donatello, one needs to understand his changing world, marked by the transition from Medieval to Renaissance style and to an art that was more personal and representative of the modern self. Donatello was not just a man of his times, he helped shape the spirit of the times he lived in and profoundly influenced those that came after.
In this beautifully illustrated book—the first thorough biography of Donatello in twenty-five years—A. Victor Coonin describes the full extent of Donatello’s revolutionary contributions, revealing how his work heralded the emergence of modern art.
Commo vera scientia: Piero della Francesca and the Problematic Science of Perspective. Barnaby Nygren
Artifice and Interiority: The Image of Grief in the Age of Reform. Heather Graham
Hebrew Manuscripts and Jewish Physicians in Early Modern Europe (1400-c. 1700). Lisa A. Festa
Inserts of Anatomy: The Merger of Medicine and Art in Charles Estienne's De dissectione. Jed Rivera Foland
Depicting Sexual Deformity in Early Modern Art: Scientific, Medical, and Socio-Cultural Considerations, Part I: Excess and Absence. Lilian H. Zirpolo
Artemisia Gentileschi's Aurora: Astronomy, Myth, and Mourning in Galileo's Florence. Susan Wegner
Depicting Sexual Deformity in Early Modern Art: Scientific, Medical, and Socio-Cultural Considerations, Part II: Female Hirsutism. Lilian H. Zirpolo
Science, Art, and the Sacred Heart in Eighteenth Century New Spain. Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank