The Kind of Virgin That Keeps a Parrot： Identity, Nature, and Myth in a Painting by Hans Baldung Grien

The 16th-century Protestant Reformation shattered the foundations of faith and art. As traditional theology was both besieged and defended, art had to adapt. Of course, a new theology needed new kinds of pictorial extrapolations. But truly, the most interesting change was hidden in plain sight. Subjects that may have looked familiar were in fact utterly new, because subversive ideas and contexts uprooted older meanings. The painting Madonna with Parrots （1533）, by Hans Baldung Grien demoted the chaste protectress by transforming her into a flawed, even dangerous, human mother. In the painting, an oddly sultry Virgin shows off her breast, her shoulder, and her chest as a parrot nibbles her neck. The complexities of Baldung＇s painting underpin debates about the status of the Virgin during the Reformation and the freedom of an artist to tamper with sacred subject matter.

维纳斯的“忧郁”--论波提切利神话主题绘画中的新柏拉图主义意蕴

15世纪60年代,在佛罗伦萨的“柏拉图学园”里逐渐兴起一种后来被命名为“新柏拉图主义”的哲学思想。画家波提切利曾与学园里的这群人文主义者们有过一段密切的交往,并在其15世纪80年代的神话题材画作中显示出受到新柏拉图主义的影响,尤其反映在他对女神维纳斯形象的表现上。他创作的维纳斯形象与其早期的圣母形象有着高度相似的“忧郁”神情。维纳斯的“忧郁”实际上是一种沉思神情,配合着优美的线条造型,呈现出一个和谐而优美的女神形象。在表达自己对美的形式的理解之外,波提切利也在努力刻画新柏拉图主义所说的那种能够引导人从感性到知性、从对可见之美的“俗爱”上升到对普遍之美的“圣爱”的美的化身。

意大利文艺复兴时期女性艺术赞助人研究——以伊莎贝拉·德·埃斯特为例

意大利文艺复兴盛期,除以男性为主流的艺术赞助人外,还有一些宫廷贵族身份的女性赞助人,她们对意大利文艺复兴时期的艺术发展、文艺复兴艺术高峰的到来也有着重要影响。本文以意大利曼图瓦宫廷著名的艺术赞助人伊莎贝拉·德·埃斯特为例,通过分析她的艺术赞助和收藏活动特征来研究文艺复兴时期女性赞助人的赞助领域、赞助倾向,以及她们的艺术赞助对于文艺复兴艺术的影响。