Abstract
At the heart of the project are artistic depictions of animals and plants in a precise geographical area and over a long chronological span: North Italy between the 14th and 17th centuries. The representation of natural elements has characterised Western art since antiquity. Over the centuries, artists’ methods and approaches have changed, as have the religious and symbolic meanings of the various species depicted, introduced mainly by Christian theologians and exegetes from the Patristic era onwards. Within the framework of existing research on the subject, the project proposes to develop for the first time systematic repositories, to be incorporated into digital databases, aimed at the identification of animal or plant species. The insights and case studies envisaged by the project aim to lay the foundations for the development of a database dedicated to the theme of animals and plants seen through the filter of artistic representations: a repository useful for a better knowledge - and therefore protection - of individual works, but also as a tool to find new links between apparently different contexts, through the centuries, thanks to the persistence of certain models (for which it will be possible to create a sort of family tree). The database, filled by the materials collected thanks to the case studies, will then be the ideal platform for new studies and new repositories, which would then further enrich it. The investigation into the artistic testimonies of the past, adequately rendered through knowledge dissemination tools, including digital ones (databases; but also video documentaries), thus aims to contribute to a growth in awareness on the theme of ecological transition, knowledge of and respect for the environment and biological diversity, as well as to an awareness of the strategic centrality of environmental protection, placing reflections on sustainability in a historical perspective and providing study and consultation tools for a scholarly audience that could be much broader than just art historians. The case studies, from which the repository that will fill the database will be drawn, will be mainly four: 1. Painting and manuscript illumination in northern Italy between the 14th and 15th centuries; 2. Sculpture in the Po Valley in the 15th century (with particular attention to the wooden panels from choir stalls, including those of the Milanese basilica of Sant’Ambrogio); 3. Painting in the Po Valley and Venice between the late 15th and early 16th centuries (with a particular focus on the Venice of Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione and young Titian); 4. Bologna between the mid-16th and early 17th century (following a chronological period that coincides with that of Ulisse Aldrovandi’s career). The project objectives will be pursued through the achievement of three intermediate milestones: the organization of two international conferences and the creation of an open access digital database.
Project details
Unibo Team Leader: Gianluca Del Monaco
Unibo involved Department/s:
Dipartimento delle Arti
Coordinator:
Università degli Studi di MILANO(Italy)
Total Unibo Contribution: Euro (EUR) 115.655,00
Project Duration in months: 24
Start Date:
30/11/2023
End Date:
28/02/2026
