visual languages of the renaissance

8/18/2019 Visual Languages of the Renaissance

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Visual Languages of the Renaissance:Emblems, Dreams, Hieroglyphs.

Professor Nicola CipaniITAL-UA 760/MEDI-UA 760/

Spring 2015 - Thur 12:30PM-3:00PM Casa Italiana, Library (2nd floor).

Office and office hours: Casa Italiana, 4th floor, Tue 3:30-4:30 or by [email protected]

Making knowledge visible was one of the great Renaissance endeavors. Some of the period'smost characteristic products were born out of the conviction that concepts could be systematicallyturned into images — and that such images could be organized into a visual language, more

profound and universal than discursive logic. Egyptian hieroglyphs and dream visions, in theirmysterious graphic exuberance, were considered typical vehicles of this advanced mode ofcommunication. The desire to emulate their symbolic density is reflected both in literature and inart, often in ways that challenge common distinctions between visual and verbal communication.In this course you will be introduced to an assortment of works representative of such interplaybetween text and image: emblem books, dream books and dream-centered works, hieroglyphicinventions and studies, collections of proverbs, iconology manuals, etc. Among the booksexamined are some widely considered as the finest examples of design in the history of printing.

Early modern and recent theory of emblems will also be discussed. As a present-day counterpartof Renaissance emblems, the course will conclude with a survey of corporate logos and Russian

criminal tattoos.

Course materials- Required course readings are either posted on nyu classes in advance of due date or accessibleonline through nyu libraries (links are provided in the bibliography below).

Additional notes- Grade: response papers 20%, midterm exam 25%, final 8pp. paper 35%, class participation20%.- Attendance at every lecture and section is mandatory. More than two missed lectures will

result in a decreased participation grade.- Papers must include a bibliography and at least parenthetical citation to any author cited orused as a source of argument and/or information. Please review the university's policy onplagiarism, as it will be strictly enforced.- Students must submit their paper draft by Tuesday, April 22 and their final paper by Tuesday,May 6. Late submissions will negatively impact on the grade.


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Week 1 Introduction - Hieroglyphs and the rediscovery of Horapollo Horapollo, HieroglypicaBoas 1993 ( Hieroglyphics of Horapollo ) Weiss 1969 ( The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity ) Allen 1970 ( Mysteriously Meant )

Week 2 The Myth of Egypt in the Renaissance Andrea Mantegna, Triumphs of Caesar Albrecht Dürer, EhrenpforteLorenzo Lotto, Choir of S. Maria Maggiore in BergamoDempsey 2000 ( Renaissance Hieroglyphic Studies: an Overview )Iversen 1993 ( The myth of Egypt and its hieroglyphs in European tradition )

Week 3 Andrea Alciato's Book of Emblems Andrea Alciato, Emblematum LiberDaly 1989 ( Andrea Alciato and the Emblem Tradition )Russel 1986 ( Emblems and Hieroglyphics )

Tung 2012 ( Alciato's Practices of Imitation )

Week 4 XVIth Century Emblem BooksGeoffroy Tory, ChampfleuryGeoffrey Withney, Choice of EmblemsGirolamo Ruscelli, Le Imprese IllustriDaly 2000 ( Sixteenth-Century Emblems and Imprese as Indicators of Cultural Change )Calabritto 2007 ( Women's Imprese in Girolamo Ruscelli )

Week 5 Ancient and Early Modern Dream TheorySynesius of Cyrene, On Dreams Marsilio Ficino, Platonic Theology.

Schreier-Rupprecht 1993 ( A Renaissance Contribution to the History of Dream )Schmidt-Biggemann 2007 ( A Short History of Imagination )

Week 6 Dream Interpretation / Dream Representation Artemidorus, OneirocriticaLeo Hebraeus, Dialogues of LoveGerolamo Cardano, The Book of my LifeRuvoldt 2004 ( The Sleep of Reason )MacPhail 1995 ( Prophecy and Memory in Renaissance Dream Vision )

Week 7 A Venetian Dream-Hieroglyph: Colonna's Hypnerotomachia

Greenhalg 1974 ( The Monument in the Hypnerotomachia and the Pyramids of Egypt ) Curran 1998 ( The Hypnerotomachia Polophilii and Renaissance Egyptology )De Girolami Cheney 2007 ( Colonna's Hypnerotomachia: A Garden of Neoplatonic Love )Midterm Exam

Week 8 March 16 March 23 Spring Recess

Week 9 Hieroglyphic Erudition: Valeriano and KircherPierio Valeriano, Hieroglyphica Athanasius Kirchner, Oedipus Aegyptiacus


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Curran 2007 ( Hieroglyphic Studies in the High Renaissance )Stolzenberg 2013 ( Athanasius Kircher and the Secrets of Antiquity )

Week 10 XVIth Century ImpresePaolo Giovio, Dialogo delle ImpreseDaly 1998 ( Literature in the Light of the Emblem )

Maffei 2007 ( Giovio's Dialogo and the Museum )Caldwell 2007 ( The Sixteenth-Century Italian Impresa in Theory and Practice )

Week 11 Handbooks of AllegoriesCesare Ripa, Iconologia Achille Bocchi, Symbolicarum Quaestionum De Universo GenereSeznec 1995 (Chapter V: The Influence of the Manuals ) Watson 1996 ( Achille Bocchi and the Emblem Book As Symbolic Form )

Week 12 Devotional Emblem Books Jacob Bosch, Symbolographia

Hermann Hugo, Pia Desideria Jeremias Drexel, Aeternitatis ProdromusDimler 2007 ( Studies in the Jesuit Emblem )Daly 2014 ( Jesuit Emblems )Final paper draft due

Week 13 The Proverb as Hieroglyph: ErasmusDesiderius Erasmus, AdagiaCallahan 1995 ( Erasmus's Adages) Margolin 1995 ( Alciato, a Champion of Humanism in the Eyes of Erasmus )

Week 14 Literature in the Age of Emblems: Bruno and Marino

Bruno, Heroic Frenzies Marino, Adonis Yates 1982 ( The Emblematic Conceit in Bruno's De Gli Eroici Furori)Maggi 2007 ( 'L'uomo astratto'. Philosophy and Emblematic Rhetoric in the Furori)Caruso 2013 ( Marino's Adone: From Pastoral to Epic Poem )

Week 15 Logos and Tattoos as Emblems.Russian Criminal Tattoo EncyclopediaDaly 2008 ( The Nachleben of the Emblem in Some Modern Logos )Möderheim 2001 ( Emblematics and Modern Tattoos )Final paper due in class

Bibliography

Allen, Don Cameron. Mysteriously meant: the rediscovery of pagan symbolism and allegorical interpretationin the Renaissance . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1970.

Assmann, Jan. Moses the Egyptian. The Menory of Egypt in Western Monotheism . Harvard UniversityPress, 1998.


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Baldaev, Danzig, et al. Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia (3 volumes). London: FUEL , 2004-2010

Boas, George. Hieroglyphics of Horapollo. Princeton University Press, 1993.

Calabritto, Monica. "Women's Imprese in Girolamo Ruscelli's Le imprese illustri [1566]", TheItalian Emblem: A Collection of Essays . Mansueto, Donato, and Elena Laura Calogero,eds. Geneve: Librairie Droz, 2007. 157-184.

Caldwell, Dorigen Sophie. The Sixteenth-Century Italian Impresa In Theory And Practice . Vol. 17.New York: Ams Press, 2004.

Callahan, Virginia W. "Erasmus's Adages . A pervasive Element in the Emblems of Alciato." Emblematica , 9 (1995): 241-56.

Caruso, Carlo. Adonis: The Myth of the Dying God in the Italian Renaissance . London/ New York:

Bloomsbury, 2013.

Cox Miller, Patricia. Dreams in Late Antiquity: Studies in the Imagination of a Culture . Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1994

Curran, Brian A. "The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and Renaissance Egyptology." Word &Image 14.1-2 (1998): 156-185.

— — —. The Egyptian Renaissance: The Afterlife Of Ancient Egypt In Early Modern Italy . Universityof Chicago Press, 2007.

Daly, Peter M. Emblem Theory: Recent German Contributions to the Characterization of the Emblem- Genre. Nendeln (Liechtenstein), 1979

— — —. Andrea Alciato and the Emblem Tradition: Essays in Honor of Virginia Woods Callahan . Ed.Peter M. Daly. Vol. 4. AMS Press, 1989.

— — —. Literature in the Light of the Emblem . Toronto/ Buffalo/ London: University of Toronto Press, 1998.

— — —. Sixteenth-Century Emblems and Imprese as Indicators of Cultural Change. InInterpretation and allegory: antiquity to the modern period . Edited by Jon Whitman. Leiden: Brill, 2000.

365-382. https://getit.library.nyu.edu/go/6549622

— — —. Companion to emblem studies . No. 20. New York: Ams Press Inc, 2008.

— — —. The Emblem in Early Modern Europe: Contributions to the Theory of the Emblem . Aldershot,England / Burlington (VT): Ashgate, 2014.

Daly, Peter M., J. Manning, M. van Vaeck. Emblems from Alciato to the Tattoo. Selected Papers ofthe Leuven International Emblem Conference, 18-23 August, 1996. Brepols: Turnhout, 2001.


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De Girolami Cheney, Liana. "Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphilii : A Garden ofNeoplatonic Love", The Italian Emblem: A Collection of Essays . Mansueto, Donato, and ElenaLaura Calogero, eds. Geneve: Librairie Droz, 2007. 157-184.

Dempsey, Charles. Renaissance Hieroglyphic Studies: an Overview. Interpretation and allegory:antiquity to the modern period . Edited by Jon Whitman. Leiden: Brill, 2000. 365-382.

https://getit.library.nyu.edu/go/6549622

Dimler, G. Richard. Studies in the Jesuit Emblem . Vol. 18. New York: Ams Press, 2007.

Drysdal, Denis D. "Andrea Alciato, Pater et Princeps", Companion to emblem studies . No. 20.New York: Ams Press Inc, 2008.

Graham, David. "Emblema Multiplex: Towards a Typology of Emblematic Forms, Structuresand Functions." Emblem scholarship-directions and developments , ed. Daly, Peter Maurice. Turnhout:Brepols, 2005.

Greenhalg, Michael. "The Monument in the Hypnerotomachia and the Pyramids of Egypt".

Nouvelles de l'estampe 14 (1974): 13-16.

Iversen, Erik. Obelisks in exile. 1. The obelisks of Rome . Copenhagen: GAD Publishers, 1968.

— — —. The myth of Egypt and its hieroglyphs in European tradition. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1993.

MacPhail, Eric. 1995. Prophecy and Memory in Renaissance Dream Vision. In ICLA 91: TheForce of Vision, II: Visions of the Other. Edited by Gerald Gillespie, Margaret Higonnet, andSumie Jones. Tokyo: International Comparative Literature Association, 1995. 193-199.

Maffei, Sonia. "Giovio's Dialogo delle Imprese Militari e Amorose and the Museum". TheItalian Emblem: A Collection of Essays . Mansueto, Donato, and Elena Laura Calogero,eds. Geneve: Librairie Droz, 2007. 33-64.

Maggi, Armando. ‘L’uomo astratto’. Philosophy and emblematic rhetoric in the Eroici Furori.In: The Alchemy of Extremes. The laboratory of the Eroici Fuori of Giordano Bruno. Edited by E.Canone and I. Rowland. Pisa/Roma: Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali, 2007. 95-103.

Margolin, Jean Claude. "Alciato, a Champion of Humanism in the Eyes of Erasmus". Emblematica , 9 (1995): 369-89.

Möderheim, Sabine. "Skin Deep-Mind Deep. Emblematics and Modern Tattoos". Emblems from Alciato to the Tattoo. Selected Papers of the Leuven International Emblem Conference, 18-23 August, 1996. P. Daly, J. Manning, M. Van Vaeck (eds.). Brepols: Turnhout, 2001.

Praz, Mario. Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery . Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1974.

Russell, Daniel S. "Emblems and Hieroglyphics: Some Observations on the Beginnings andthe Nature of Emblematic Forms." Emblematica 1.2 (Fall 1986), 227-43.


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Ruvoldt, Maria. The Italian Renaissance Imagery of Inspiration: Metaphors of Sex, Sleep, and Dreams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Schmidt-Biggemann, Wilhelm. Philosophia perennis. Historical Outlines of Western Spirituality in Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Thought. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007.

Schreier Rupprecht, Carol. Divinity, Insanity, Creativity: A Renaissance Contribution to theHistory and Theory of Dream/Text(s). In: The Dream and the Text. Essays on Literature andLanguage. Edited by Carol Schreier Rupprecht, Albany: State University of New York Press,1993. 112-132.

Seznec, Jean. The Survival Of The Pagan Gods: The Mythological Tradition And Its Place In RenaissanceHumanism And Art . Princeton University Press, 1995.

Stolzenberg, Daniel. Egyptian Oedipus: Athanasius Kircher and the Secrets of Antiquity . University ofChicago Press, 2013.

Tung, Mason. "Alciato's practices of imitation: a new approach to studying hisemblems." Emblematica: an Interdisciplinary Journal for Emblem Studies 19 (2012): 153-258.

Watson, Elizabeth See. Achille Bocchi and the emblem book as symbolic form . Cambridge UniversityPress, 1993.

Weiss, Roberto. The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity , Oxford: Oxford University Press,1969.

Yates, Frances A. Lull and Bruno. Collected Essays. Vol.1. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982.

Web Resources / Digitization Projects

OpenEmblem initiative (University of Illinois): http://media.library.uiuc.edu/projects/oebp/

Memorial University of Newfoundland Alciato: http://www.mun.ca/alciato/

Glasgow University Emblem Website: http://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/

Glasgow Centre for Emblem digitisation: http://www.ces.arts.gla.ac.uk/html/AHRBProject.htm

Emblem Project Utrecht: http://www.let.uu.nl/emblems/html/index.html

Bavarian State Library Project: http://mdz1.bib-bvb.de/~emblem/

University of Bergamo, Biblioteca Emblematica: http://dinamico.unibg.it/cav/emblematica/login.htm

visual languages of the renaissance

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