Essays

• Giulia Farnese as the Virgin Mary in a painting by Pinturicchio commissioned by Pope Alexander VI Borgia. Bridal iconography in Italian 16th century painting
  Sergio Bertelli

  The essay deals with one of the more interesting and curious subjects of Italian Renaissance painting: that of young women portrayed sometimes facing a mirror, nearly naked or with their breasts discovered, or represented according to the typical iconography of "Flora", the Goddess of flowers and springtime. Exceeded by now the idea that such figures were courtesans, the author points out, with the aid of Renaissance works, that most of the times these pictures were wedding paintings. They were private and family works of art, placed in the recesses of the house and in particular in the area of the wedding bedroom. Whereas public and official pictures of the brides, portrayed with the attributes of a respectable woman - chaste dressing, a small bunch of roses, the virginal pearls to the neck or the ears, and often a faithful small dog - were proudly exhibited in the most frequented areas of the house, private pictures of the same women - often portrayed naked or showing an erotic posture - were reserved to the sight of her consort. Among many famous examples, like La Velata (Pitti Palace, Florence) and La Fornarina (National Gallery of Ancient Art, Rome) by Raffello, the essay focuses on a portrait of Giulia Farnese, loved by Pope Alexander VI Borgia and portrayed as Madonna by Pintoricchio in the patron's private rooms.

• Three portraits of John Palaiologos the 8th
  Fernando Algaba Calderòn

  The Concilium carried out in 1438 and 1439 in Ferrara and Florence between Greek and Latin Churches, is an historical event that for its cultural meaningfulness has been dealt with by all the branches of scholarship that approached from different viewpoints the civilization of first Renaissance. Vespasiano Bisticci emphasized how the arrival of the Greeks impressed the Florentine citizenship: with their silk clothes and their solemnity the Byzantine prelates were outstanding for their dignity. For many, like Ambrogio Traversari, the fascination consituted a new impulse for the knowledge of Eastern philosophy and literature, whose study had already been promoted by Manuel Crisolora at the beginning of the century with his lessons of Greek language. The essay points out the key-role of the figure of Emperor John Palaiologos the 8th in this historical context: his image acquired such a big reputation to become nearly an icon of the whole Eastern culture. Thanks to artists like Pisanello, Piero Della Francesca and Vivarini, in fact, his portrait became so popular to be used even in paintings of “cassoni”, where Eastern and mythological heroes like Ulysses or Neptune were depicted.
  
  

Gallery

The image of Emperor John Palaiologos the 8th: a new gallery of portraits
Alessandra Pedersoli

The gallery presents a new set of images of the penultimate Emperor of the East Roman Empire: John Palaiologos the 8th. This new iconographic material enriches the gallery of pictures already published in Engramma n. 16 (may-june 2002) and in Engramma n. 52 (november 2006). For further information on the figure of John Palaiologos the 8th and his portraits see Alessandra Pedersoli, Giovanni VIII Paleologo: un imperatore e il suo ritratto. Profili e suggestioni, potenza e fortuna di un’immagine in Engramma n. 9, june 2001.