medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
An interesting observation, but I'm not convinced that it was
intentional. Lying on one's back in a field and interpreting images in
clouds is an age-old pastime. It is certainly not *necessarily*
demonic. If it were intentional, this would recall the interpretive
spectre of "disguised symbolism", an idea that Erwin Panofsky came up
with to explain all the seemingly hidden details in Jan van Eyck's
paintings. This is an idea that is no longer taken as seriously as it
used to be, and the fact that the "face" in the cloud was only spotted
for the first time (that we know of, anyway) by a trained art historian
800 years after the fact is pretty indicative of why: there's no point
to hiding such images because nobody notices them. The concept of
subliminal imagery may not be an entirely 20th-century construct, but I
don't think it very likely that the painter of the St Francis cycle at
Assisi would have had any reason to use it. I'm not as convinced as
loyal Italian art historians that the Assisi frescoes were painted by
Giotto, either.
Thanks, though, for pointing this out, George.
Cheers,
Jim
On 06/11/2011 7:01 PM, George FERZOCO wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Dear medieval-religion colleagues,
>
> I was intrigued to read in today's Repubblica (and to see the photos linked there) that in Giotto's painting in the Upper Basilica in Assisi of the ascending of Francis's soul into heaven, there appears to be a face -- it is presumed in the article to be a demonic one -- in a cloud; see
>
> http://tinyurl.com/faceinthecloud
>
> The article says that until this observation (made by Chiara Frugoni), the earliest known face that was painted in a cloud, was by Mantegna in 1460.
>
> Anyone seen images like this before? Is it necessarily a demonic figure?
>
> It is certainly interesting that it seems that Frugoni's observation of this image seems to be the first such one made in the c.800-year history of this much studied painting. One can never stare at a painting sufficiently, I guess.
>
> Best wishes, George
>
> --
> George FERZOCO
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