This book is the first study of the portico and its decorative program as a cultural phenomenon in Renaissance Italy. Focusing on a largely neglected group of porticoes decorated with painted pergolas that appeared in Rome and environs in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, it tells the story of how an element of the garden—the pergola—became a pictorial topos in portico decoration, and evolved, hand in hand with its real cousin in the garden, into an object for cultural emulation among the educated patrons of early modern Rome. The liminality of both the portico and the pergola at the interface of architecture and garden is key to the interpretation of these architectural and painted forms, which rests on the intersecting frameworks of the classical tradition, natural history, and the cultural identity of the aristocracy. In the mediating space of the Renaissance portico, the illusionism pergola created an art gallery, a natural history museum, and a virtual garden where one could engage in leisurely strolls, learned conversations, appreciation of art, and scientific investigation, as well as extensive travel across time and space. The book proposes the interpretation that the illusionistic pergola was an artistic formula for the early modern perception of nature.
By:
Natsumi Nonaka
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 246mm,
Width: 174mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9780367334130
ISBN 10: 0367334135
Series: Visual Culture in Early Modernity
Pages: 226
Publication Date: 18 April 2019
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1 Mediating Spaces: Portico, Loggia, and Pergola Chapter 2 Classical Tradition and Vernacular Culture Chapter 3 Visual Encyclopedia and Trellised Walkways Chapter 4 Pictorial Fiction and Cultural Identity Chapter 5 Wunderkammer and Trompe-l’Œil Garden Chapter 6 Collecting Nature: Virtual Flora and Fauna Epilogue Appendix Bibliography
Natsumi Nonaka received her Ph.D. in Architectural History from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012. Her specialization is art and architecture in early modern Italy. She taught architectural history at the University of Texas at Austin and is currently teaching art history at Montana State University.
