Monday, 28 November 2011

Further Antiquity

More classicist fall-out from the dissertation...

It looks like someone had a better go at copying the Triumphs of Caesar than I did (here, a few weeks ago).  Here are woodcuts by Jacopo da Strasbourg, from Martindale's book on the subject.



For a while after handing the essay in, a few weeks ago, I wanted to banish all thoughts of Renaissance Art.  Now I'm seeing the effects of the study entering my art work:  Roman historians; the muses; sights of the classical world...  I'm playing at being the kind of classical fantasist that Mantegna surpassed in his time, through diligent study of real sources, not inherited ideas.  I don't mind starting here:  it's a fun world to illustrate and to bring lively detail into.

Here is a rhyme, quoted in Baxandall's "Painting And Experience", that pinpoints the value of insight and research, and sums up a good portion of my dissertation, along with being dashed poetic.


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