medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The lorenzettis used thumbing gestures a lot, and a few other trecento
artists used them occasionally. I devoted a longish discussion to them in
my thesis 'Gesture in the Art, Drama and Social Life of late medieval Italy'
(London, 1994) which I plug shamelessly at every opportunity. I argue that
they were part of a fairly short-lived experiment in incorporating
vernacular gestures into religious art, and that the Franciscans were
particularly keen to do so: St Francis himself is shown in a number of
images making the thumbing gesture, which seems to have become (briefly) a
kind of visual catchphrase. As to the gesture's meaning, this varied in art
as in life, according to the circumstances of its performance. It could be
a neutral indicative gesture, or an indicative gesture with overtones of
approbation, or (if behind the back of the object of the gesture) a sign of
deep scorn. The very mutability of its meaning contributed to the gesture's
downfall in art; in life its meaning could be made clear by (among other
things) the speed with which the gesture was performed but in art it was
always ambiguous and, for example, in Pietro Lorenzetti's 'Virgin of the
Sunsets' it could be misconstrued to read that the Virgin was being rude
about St. Francis.
Laura
----- Original Message -----
From: John B. Wickstrom <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 9:32 PM
Subject: [M-R] Thumbs up
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> This should probably go to the Medieval Art disc. group, but I thought
I'd
> try the members of this illustrious group first. It is an addition to the
> endless discussions about gestures. I was surfing around looking for a
Holy
> Week Windows Page and came across the following:
>
> http://sunsite.sut.ac.jp/cgfa/l/p-alorenzetti3.htm
>
> Now I have seen a lot of gestures in my time, but never a "thumbs up".
> Anyone ever seen this before or have any (evidence based :) ) ideas about
> interpretation?
> jw
>
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