Buchumschlag
Ancient Greek figures in Renaissance Germany via Italy: Cyriacus of Ancona’s drawings and their distorted perception
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Beteilige Person: Kutsogiannēs, Thodōrēs (VerfasserIn)
Format: Paper
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2020
Schlagwörter:
Dürer, Albrecht > 1471-1528
Cyriacus > Anconitanus > 1391-1452
Schedel, Hartmann > 1440-1514
Altertum
Antike
Rezeption
Griechenland
Abstract:Cyriacus of Ancona was a pioneer in the representation of Greek antiquities in the Renaissance. Even though the full corpus of his travel diaries - entitled Commentaria, in which he drew the antiquities he had seen in person - has not survived, a good number of entire iconographic themes and isolated motifs have been preserved in copies. They present various figures from Greek antiquities, some of which also passed into the original artistic production of Renaissance Italy, but sometimes in an erroneous form. The present paper is focused on specific motifs with ancient Greek figures that reached Germany through Italy, and were used in all’antica art and antiquarianism. Certain drawings of antiquities from the Cyclades and Athens that Cyriacus of Ancona had depicted between 1436 and 1445 have been preserved in the Codex Monacensis Latinus 716 by physician Hartmann Schedel, prime mover in the humanistic circle of Nuremberg. However, his copyist was not familiar with the ancient motifs that appeared in the originals, which is why they have been ‘transcribed’ erroneously. Thus when they were brought to Nuremberg, a number of distorted themes were presented as being authentic ancient Greek motifs, and were used as such by artists and antiquarians. Presented here specifically are the god Hermes, a dolphin rider from a known monument in Athens, and a grave stele from Cyclades. These figures were incorporated into drawings by Albrecht Durer and into woodcuts illustrating the collection of inscriptions by Petrus Apianus and Barotholomeus Amantius Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetustatis (Ingolstadt 1534). They, in turn, exerted a broader influence on the all’antica visual culture.
Umfang:Illustrationen
ISSN:1846-8551

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