Research Catalog

Title

Discourse on sacred and profane images / Gabriele Paleotti ; introduction by Paolo Prodi ; translation by William McCuaig.

Author

Paleotti, Gabriele, 1524-1597

Publication

Los Angeles, CA : Getty Research Institute, [2012], ©2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• McCuaig, William, 1949-
• Prodi, Paolo

Description

xiii, 353 pages : illustrations; 26 cm

Summary

This is the first English translation of Gabriele Paleotti's 16th century treatise on the role of art in society. In the wake of the Counter-Reformation, Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, the archbishop of Bologna, wrote a remarkable treatise on art during a time when the Church feared rampant abuse in the arts. Translated into English for the first time, Paleotti's "Discourse on Sacred and Profane Images" argues that art should address a broad audience and explains the painter's responsibility to his spectators. "The Discourse" is introduced by historian Paolo Prodi, who explains how - even if the archbishop did not succeed in reforming the arts - Paleotti's treatise constituted one last synthesis of art as a reading of creation and salvation history, and "sacred" art as a vehicle of devotion.

Series Statement

Texts & documents

Uniform Title

• Discorso intorno alle imagini sacre e profane. English
• Texts & documents

Alternative Title

Discorso intorno alle imagini sacre e profane.

Subject

• 1500-talet
• Art and religion > Italy > Early works to 1800
• Christian art and symbolism > Italy > Early works to 1800
• Christianity and art > Catholic Church > Early works to 1800
• Painting, Italian > Themes, motives

Genre/Form

Early works

Note

• This volume translates Gabriele Paleotti, Discorso intorno alle imagini sacre e profane (printed in Bologna, 1582).

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• The main intention of the present treatise concerning the abuse of images -- What we mean by the word "image" -- Elements to be considered in every image -- On the origin of all images -- Whether the introduction of images preceded that of books, and the extent to which they go together -- Whether the art of forming images ranks with the noble or ignoble arts -- When exercised in a Christian way, the art of forming images is of the utmost nobility -- Examples of some painters, sculptors, and other formers of images who were numbered among saints and the blessed, or renowned for the exemplary goodness of their lives -- On painting and sculpture and other arts engaged in the making of images -- All images fall under two main headings : the sacred and the profane -- Which images are called profane -- On the reasons profane images were introduced -- The meaning of "idols," "simulacra," "graven image," "cast image," and "likeness" -- On the origin of idols and simulacra --^
• The occasion of the introduction of idols and simulacra into the world for the first time -- Which images are called sacred -- On the antiquity and origin of sacred images -- Why sacred images were introduced among the Christian people -- On the proper and particular end of Christian images -- Christian images relate to God, ourselves, and our neighbor -- On the similarity between the office and end of the Christian painter and those of the orator -- On the delight that Christian images bring -- Christian images are of great service for teaching the people to live rightly -- Other reasons proving the helpfulness of Christian images in instructing the people -- Christian images have great power to move the feelings of persons -- On the various remarkable effects produced by pious and devout images -- How much force the Demon has used to get rid of sacred images among the Christian people --^
• Authorities form holy scripture, the high pontiffs, and the councils that prove the use of sacred images -- Ancient examples cited by various Greek and Latin authors that prove the use of images -- What the true mode is of venerating sacred images in a Christian manner and the cult that is due them -- One th difference between Christians and pagans in adoring images -- Whether the same cult is owed to a sacred image as the cult suitable to its "imaged" prototype, and whether this is a single act, and how -- When Christians adore images today, the danger of their committing idolatry is utterly remote --
• Being unable to get rid of the use of images, the Demon tries to fill them with abuses -- On the things that can and cannot be depicted, and the order to be followed in the present book -- On sacred pictures that sin in matters of faith, and first on what are called rash pictures -- On scandalous pictures -- On erroneous pictures -- On suspect pictures -- On heretical pictures -- On superstitious pictures -- On apocryphal pictures -- On pictures of Jove, Apollo, Mercury, Juno, Ceres, and other false gods -- On pictures of male and female saints or other religious subjects -- Abuses in profane pictures and whether they are admissible from a Christian perspective -- Profane pictures are not suitable in churches -- On the images of pagan emperors, tyrants, and other persecutors of the Christian name -- Replies to various objections int he matter of possessing images of pagan emperors and others like them --^
• Among images of philosophers, orators, poets, captains, or other pagans, which should be allowed -- On the statues set up by Christian peoples in honor of their ruler -- On statues that Christian rulers erect to themselves -- On images from nature, which are called portraits -- On portraits of others -- Portraits of lovers : guidelines for painters in dealing with them -- On portraits of heretics -- In portraits of saints -- On profane pictures representing various things, such as battles, landscapes, edifices, animals trees, plants, and others -- Abuses common to sacred and profane pictures -- On nonverisimiliar pictures -- On disproportionate pictures -- On imperfect pictures -- On vain and otiose pictures -- On ridiculous pictures -- On pictures that bring novelty and are unusual -- On pictures that are obscure and difficult to understand -- On indifferent and uncertain pictures -- On fierce, horrendous pictures -- On monstrous and prodigious pictures --^
• On the paintings called grotesques and whether in antiquity they were used only in underground places or also in buildings above ground -- Various opinions on the origin of paintings of grotesques -- Other reasons for the origin of grotesques and why they were called that -- The reason why grotesques have been so embraced by both ancients and moderns and have kept their name -- Grotesques are hardly suitable elsewhere today, and not at all in churches -- Response to various objections commonly adduced in defense of grotesques -- On pictures of the virtues and vices and the great difficulty in representing these -- A few guidelines for representing images of the vices and virtues -- On pictures of symbols -- On pictures in imprese -- On pictures of family arms -- Family arms are unsuitable in churches -- Why spiritual books may bear the name of the author, but family arms are unsuited to sacred pictures --^
• On family arms set up in churches, relative to the intention of donors who affix them and relative to the opinion that may be formed by those who view them -- A few general warnings set down by authors to be observed in every picture so that it may satisfy everyone -- COnclusion on what we judge most necessary so that the things depicted will be commended by all.

ISBN

• 9781606061169 (pbk.)
• 160606116X (pbk.)

LCCN

^^2011051002

OCLC

• 768728939
• SCSB-12882893

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library