PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era by Livio Pestilli at Abbey's Bookshop,
Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era
— —
Livio Pestilli

Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era

Livio Pestilli

$305

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?
English
Routledge
27 July 2016
Art styles not defined by date; Human figures depicted in art; History of medicine
The presence of the orthopedically impaired body in art is so pervasive that, paradoxically, it has failed to attract the attention of most art historians. In Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era, Livio Pestilli investigates the changing meaning that images of individuals with limited mobility acquired through the centuries. This study evinces that in distinct opposition to the practice of classical artists, who manifested a lack of interest in the subject of lameness since it was considered 'a defect or a deformity' and deformity a 'want of measure, which is always unsightly,' their Early Christian counterparts depicted them profusely, because images of the miraculous healing of the lame became the reassuring sign of universal acceptance and the promise of a more equitable existence in this life or the next. In the Middle Ages, instead, when voluntary poverty came to be associated with the necessary condition of faithfulness to Christ, the indigent lame, along with others who were forced to beg for a living, became the image of the alter Christus. This view was to change in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, when, with the resurgence of classical and Pauline ideals that condemned the idle, representations of the orthopedically impaired became associated with swindlers, freeloaders and parasites. This fascinating story came basically to an end in the Eighteenth century when, with the revival of the Greek ideal of the Beautiful, the lame gradually left center stage to be relegated again to the margins of the visual arts.
By:  
Imprint:   Routledge
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 246mm,  Width: 174mm,  Spine: 18mm
Weight:   614g
ISBN:   9781472469786
ISBN 10:   147246978X
Pages:   182
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  College/higher education ,  Further / Higher Education ,  Primary
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Contents: List of plates List of figures Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Classical and Early Christian precedents 2 Imago Christi 3 Parasites 4 Papal Rome 5 Exit the lame Coda Bibliography Index

Livio Pestilli is Director and Professor of Art History at Trinity College-Rome Campus, Italy. He is the author of Paolo de Matteis: Neapolitan Painting and Cultural History in Baroque Europe (Ashgate, 2013).

Reviews for Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era

One of the achievements of this book is how it links changing portrayals of impairments and settings to the social attitudes of the times, thus emphasizing the social nature of disability. Early in the book, the author emphasizes this social nature by discussing the language of disability. He acknowledges the difficulties around adopting a neutral stance, settling on lame as a historical term, even if it is one that is not popular today. - H-Disability


See Also

Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era

Figure Drawing for Artists

Making Every Mark Count

Steve Huston

Paperback

$45 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era

Morpho

Simplified Forms: Anatomy for Artists...

Michel Lauricella

Paperback

$27.99 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era

Dibujante Nocturno

The Art of Francisco Garces

Dibujante Noctorno

Hardback

$64.99 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era

Anatomica

The Exquisite and Unsettling Art...

Joanna Ebenstein

Hardback

$55 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era

Billie Zangewa

Thread for a Web Begun

Dexter Wimberly

Hardback

$100 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +
Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era

Tracing Gestures

The Art and Archaeology of Bodily...

Dr Amy J. Maitland Gardner (University...

Hardback

$180 

Not in-store but you can order this

ADD +