Nazarova, Olga A. Augustinian Hermits as the Commissioners and the Audience of Painted Altarpiece in Renaissance Italy

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa2212-02-11
Title Augustinian Hermits as the Commissioners and the Audience of Painted Altarpiece in Renaissance Italy
Author email olgalnazarova@gmail.com
About author Nazarova, Olga A. — Ph. D., associate professor. National Research University Higher School of Economics. Myasnitskaya ul., 20, 101000, Moscow, Russian Federation. ORCID: 0000-0003-1143-0463
In the section Western European Medieval Art DOI10.18688/aa2212-02-11
Year 2022 Volume 12 Pages 181–190
Type of article RAR Index UDK 7.034 Index BBK 85.147
Abstract

The paper is aimed to outline the specificity of the Italian Augustinian hermits in conceiving and projecting their altarpieces during the Renaissance period. Examination and confrontation of the painted polyptychs, created for the friars’ churches from the earliest known examples of Trecento to those of the 16th century, revealed the recurrence of approaches through the centuries. Like other mendicant congregations, the Austin friars used their altarpiece to represent the key aspects of their order’s identity by visualizing its mission, spiritual practices, and the important representatives of the order or saints chosen as role models. However, the high intellectual culture of the order gave rise to altarpiece programs that stood out for their complex and multilayered meanings. To develop their programs, the friars drew extensively from the theological heritage of their claimed founder and originated unique iconography that finds now parallel in Renaissance art. Their altarpieces, more than any other, required a specific way of perception, the so-called discursive perception, which was based on the viewer’s ability to establish connections between elements, draw parallels, evoke associations and synthesize all into a resulting meaning.

The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project № 20-012-00524.

Keywords
Reference Nazarova, Olga A. Augustinian Hermits as the Commissioners and the Audience of Painted Altarpiece in Renaissance Italy. Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art: Collection of articles. Vol. 12. Eds A. V. Zakharova, S. V. Maltseva, E. Iu. Staniukovich-Denisova. — St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Univ. Press, 2022, pp. 181–190. ISSN 2312-2129. http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa2212-02-11
Publication Article language english
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