Luba Freedman

Neptune in classical and Renaissance visual art

Renaissance renderings of Neptune differ from the Greek and Roman models. As a rule, Renaissance artists followed classical conventions in depicting Olympian deities in the nude, and preserved the main attributes of the particular god. Yet in reviving the monumental image of Neptune, Renaissance artists did not have any definite classical model to imitate. While retaining the statuesque image of Neptune, they deliberately deprived him of the grandeur and majesty which normally characterizes an Olympian deity. This manifests itself in their giving Neptune an expressive face, making him perform the gesture of a mortal ruler, and likening him to Hercules.

Michelangelo's Reflections on Bacchus

This essay offers a new reading of Michelangelos Bacchus in the light of reconsidered documents, such as the artists biographies, descriptions of the statue as seen in Rome, and drawings, as well as visual and literary sources, both classical and Renaissance, that might have been available to the sculptor. Meant to substitute an antique statue, Michelangelos Bacchus provokes comparing images of the god of wine in ancient texts and works of art with the conceptions of this deity prevalent in the sculptors ambiance. The inclusion of a panisc points to the dormant bestial forces that since early Christianity had been taught to be repressed in humans. The statue appears simultaneously ancient and modern, with its pagan figures addressing themselves to a Christian beholder.

Cinquecento mythographic descriptions of neptune

Cinquecento mythographers were the first post-classical authors to pay attention to Neptunes external appearance. The literary portrait of Neptune is an invention of Renaissance mythographers. They combine elements of ancient literary descriptions of the god himself and of representations in art. Whatever ancient work of art was mentioned in classical literature, i.e., whether one actually executed or only imagined by an ancient author, it was selected by the Renaissance mythographers, notably by Giraldi and Cartari, mainly because it often had a striking character. They adopted the ancient division of Neptune types intotranquil andstormy in order not only to highlight the deitys action, but also to add certain new features in descriptions of his appearance.

El Greco's approach to nudity∗

To those of us familiar with the ascetic aura of the work of Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco, it may seem odd to focus on nude and seminude figures in his paintings. Scenes from the classical literature, whose representation usually abounds in nude figures of all types, are almost absent in his work, while few of the Christian subjects he depicted ever require their presence. Therefore, the relatively large number of such figures in his paintings warrants an inquiry into El Grecos approach to nudity and the reason why he introduced so many nude and seminude figures into representations of subjects, mainly Christian, that did not demand them.

A theory of Doric and ionic capitals in quattrocento portraiture

(1991). A theory of Doric and ionic capitals in quattrocento portraiture. Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History: Vol. 60, No. 3-4, pp. 149-159.