Urban iconography

Last updated

Urban iconography is a branch of iconography, a term used both extensively, to mean a collection of illustrations of a specific subject and, within art history, the study of the subject matter of figurative representations. Iconology is more specifically concerned with the interpretation of the same subject matter. According to Erwin Panofsky iconography aims to identify the primary and secondary subject matter, and therefore "in doing so, iconography is an invaluable help for the establishment of dates, provenance and, occasionally, authenticity; and it furnishes the necessary basis for all further interpretation". Urban iconography is focused on the city, a complex and dynamic artifact, whose forms are a transparent medium of social ideas, individual and collective needs, like dwelling or gathering for religious, economic or political purposes, needs to which different societies gave different answers. To interpret town images correctly, it is necessary to understand the urban mechanisms of evolution, as well as urban culture. On the other hand, the image itself is part of the wider history of figurative handcrafts, and therefore. deciphering its representative code is essential to guarantee a proper interpretation and a proper use.

Contents

Urban iconography as a methodology for research

The study of urban iconography developed in the last thirty years indifferent contexts, but mainly inside studies in urban history, among which it appeared as one of the most innovative approaches. After the exploration and the surveys of the iconography of single towns, research shifted to methodology, language, techniques, instruments, the relationship between word and image and between material structure and representation. Promising research fields are opening up through the use of computer data processing, and the comparative study on the representation of urban space seems to be one of the next frontiers. Town representation is no longer studied as source material for the study of urban history, but become a research field in itself, one that has to find its proper place in the history of culture.

Foundations of Urban Iconography

Collections of images of single towns began to appear the beginning of the twentieth century, but more recently urban iconography has been recognized as a methodology of research. After the publication of the "Atlante" ( Storia d'Italia series, Einaudi, Turin, 1976) and the launching of the series "Le città nella storia d'Italia" (Bari, Laterza, 1980) aimed at investigating the relationship between towns developments and their iconography, research took new directions. The subject has been discussed in conferences and round tables, the proceedings of some of which are now available. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] Papers focused on urban iconography were presented in sessions of the biennial "International Conferences on the History of Cartography" (http://www.maphistory.info/ichcintro.html). Many medium-sized cities began to encourage catalogues of their own iconography, and museum exhibitions, that were sometimes extended to wider contexts and accompanied by rich catalogues [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] In the Eighties the subject has found its own space within studies in topographic cartography, but it’s only in the Nineties that it has been widely explored and the materials collected have been sufficiently abundant to allow the first synthesis to be outlined: Paul D.A. Harvey, The history of Topographical Maps: Symbols, Pictures and Surveys, Thames and Hudson, London 1980; Lucia Nuti, Ritratti di città.Visione e memoria tra Medioevo e Settecento, Marsilio, Venezia 1996; Cesare De Seta, Ritratti di città. Dal Rinascimento al secolo XVIII, Einaudi, Torino 2011; H. Ballon, D. Friedman, Portraying the City in Early Modern Europe: Measurement, Representation, and Planning, in Cartography in the European Renaissance, a cura di. D. Woodward, Chicago University press, Chicago-London 2007, pp. 680–704; Lucia Nuti, Cartografie senza carte. Lo spazio urbano descritto dal Medioevo al Rinascimento, Jaca Book, Milano 2008.

Online archives

At the moment many images of cities are available on line, at high and low resolution, but without any historical information. Two websites were created: one belonging to the Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca sull’Iconografia della Città Europea of Naples (http://www.iconografiaurbana.it) and the other, the« Atlante storico-iconografico delle città toscane » (http://asict.arte.unipi.it) hosted by the Università di Pisa.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forlivese school of art</span> Renaissance art movement

The Forlivese school of art was a group of Italian Renaissance painters and other artists. Most were born in Forlì or near it in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Some other artists went to Forlì to study.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Bove</span>

The House of Bove is an ancient noble patrician family of Ravello, Maritime Republic of Amalfi that held royal appointments in the Kingdom of Naples, and presided over feudal territories. After the dissolution of noble seats of the Kingdom of Naples in 1800 they were ascribed in the Libro d'Oro of Ravello. The Bove coat of arms is prominently displayed in the Duomo of Ravello.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Randa</span> Italian painter (1595–c. 1657)

Antonio Randa was an Italian painter of the classicist period, active in Ferrara, Modena, Rovigo, Florence, Comacchio and his native Bologna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alessandro Barbero</span> Italian historian and writer (born 1959)

Alessandro Barbero is an Italian historian, novelist and essayist.

Eugenio Garin was an Italian philosopher and Renaissance historian. He was recognised as an authority on the cultural history of the Renaissance. Born at Rieti, Garin studied philosophy at the University of Florence, graduating in 1929, and after a period as professor of philosophy at the liceo scientifico Stanislao Cannizzaro in Palermo and the University of Cagliari, Garin began teaching at his alma mater in 1949 until 1974, then moving to the Scuola Normale di Pisa until his retirement in 1984. The Graduate School of Historical Studies at San Marino was inaugurated with a public lecture by Eugenio Garin on 30 September 1989. Garin was an elected member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also was the editor of the journals Rinascimento and Giornale Critico della Filosofia Italiana.

The Acqui Award of History is an Italian prize. The prize was founded in 1968 for remembering the victims of the Acqui Military Division who died in Cefalonia fighting against the Nazis. The jury is composed of seven members: six full professors of history and a group of sixty (60) ordinary readers who have just one representative in the jury. The Acqui Award Prize is divided into three sections: history, popular history, and historical novels. A special prize entitled “Witness to the Times,” given to individual personalities known for their cultural contributions and who have distinguished themselves in describing historical events and contemporary society, may also be conferred. Beginning in 2003 special recognition for work in multimedia and iconography--”History through Images”—was instituted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santi Severino e Sossio</span> Church in Campania, Italy

The church of Santi Severino e Sossio and the annexed monastery are located on via Bartolommeo Capasso in Naples, Italy.

Luigi Firpo was an Italian historian and politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaetano Cozzi</span>

Gaetano Cozzi was an Italian historian, professor at Padua University, and researcher with the Giorgio Cini Foundation and Fondazione Benetton Studi e Ricerche. He was a specialist in Venetian history, with special attention to the institutions, the relationship between law and society and the cultural environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Croce alla Lungara</span> Church building in Rome, Italy

Santa Croce alla Lungara is a church in Rome (Italy), in the Rione Trastevere, facing on Via della Lungara. It is also called Santa Croce delle Scalette', due to the presence of a double flight of stairs giving access from the street; or Buon Pastore, since in the 19th century the church and the annexed cloister were entrusted to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd of Angers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italo Insolera</span> Italian architect, urban and land planner, and historian

Italo Insolera was an Italian architect, urban and land planner, and historian.

Studi sul Settecento Romano is an Italian yearly journal of art history, devoted in particular to the study of artistic and architectural culture in eighteenth-century Rome.

Claudio Zanier is an Italian historian specialising in the history of East Asia and South East Asia, and in the history of silk, in particular.

Lellia Cracco Ruggini was an Italian historian of Late Antiquity and professor emerita of the University of Turin. Her particular interests were in economic and social history, the history of ideas, and modern and ancient historiography. She specialized in the period from the second to seventh centuries AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gustavo Frizzoni</span> Italian art historian

Gustavo Frizzoni was an Italian art critic and art historian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chiara Frugoni</span> Italian historian (1940–2022)

Chiara Frugoni was an Italian historian and academic, specialising in the Middle Ages and church history. She was awarded the Viareggio Prize in 1994 for her essay, Francesco e l'invenzione delle stimmate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvatore Settis</span> Italian archaeologist and art historian (born 1941)

Salvatore Settis is an Italian archaeologist and art historian. From 1994 to 1999 he was director of the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in Los Angeles and from 1999 to 2010 of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa.

<i>Minerva between Geometry and Arithmetic</i> Painting by Paolo Veronese

Minerva between Geometry and Arithmetic is a 1550 fresco fragment, usually attributed to Paolo Veronese but by some art historians to Anselmo Canera or Giambattista Zelotti. It was painted for the Palazzo de Soranzi in Castelfranco Veneto but now in the Palazzo Balbi in Venice.

Gian Piero Brunetta is an Italian film critic, film historian, and academic.

The Tavola Strozzi is a painting made using tempera on wood and attributed to Francesco Rosselli, datable to 1472-1473 and kept in the National Museum of San Martino in Naples. It represents a view of Naples from the 15th century.

References

  1. ↑ L’immagine della città europea in età di antico regime,Napoli 1990
  2. ↑ Iconografia della Città Europee dal XV al XIX secolo,Napoli 1995
  3. ↑ The representation of lansdcape in the 17th century,Utrecht 1997
  4. ↑ L’iconografia delle città spagnole dal XV al XIX secolo,Napoli 1998
  5. ↑ Le paysage des cartes.Genèse d'une codification,Parigi 1999
  6. ↑ L'iconografia delle città europee dal XV al XIX secolo,Napoli 2000
  7. ↑ Imago urbis,Bologna 2001
  8. ↑ L'image peinte de la Ville.XVe-XVIIIe siècle Italie-Europe,Roma 2003
  9. ↑ L'iconografia delle città europee dal XV al XIX secolo, Napoli 2003
  10. ↑ Mapmaker's Vision,Beholder's Eyes:The Art of Maps, Arlington TX 2004
  11. ↑ L'iconografia delle città europee dal XV al XIX secolo, Napoli 2006
  12. ↑ Icone urbane, Macerata 2007
  13. ↑ L'iconografia delle città svizzere e tedesche nel contesto europeo: dai prototipi alla fotografia, Napoli 2009
  14. ↑ Piante di Roma del Rinascimento e della Controriforma(1551-1625), Roma 2009
  15. ↑ Le piante di Roma. La città dal Barocco ai Catasti. Architettura, arte e scienza, Roma 2010
  16. ↑ El poder de la imagen: retratos de la ciudad barroca, Siviglia 2010
  17. ↑ Firenze e la sua immagine. Cinque secoli di vedutismo, Firenze 1994
  18. ↑ L’immagine della città italiana dal XVI al XIX secolo, Napoli 1998
  19. ↑ A volo d'uccello. Jacopo de'Barbari e le rappresentazioni di città nell'Europa del Rinascimento,Venezia 1999
  20. ↑ Le peintre et l'arpenteur. Images de Bruxelles et de l'ancient duché de Brabant, Bruxelles 2000
  21. ↑ Segni e sogni della terra, Milano 2001
  22. ↑ Imago urbis Romae, Roma 2005
  23. ↑ Nolli Vasi Piranesi, Roma 2005
  24. ↑ Magnificent maps: power, propaganda and art, London 2010
  25. ↑ La Sala Bologna nei Palazzi Vaticani. Architettura, cartografia e potere nell’età di Gregorio XIII, a cura di F.Ceccarelli e N.Aksamija, , Venezia, Marsilio, 2011
  26. ↑ De Seta, C., ed. (2014). L'immagine della città europea dal Rinascimento al secolo dei Lumi. Venezia: Musei Civici Venezia/Skira.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.