When did Amphitrite Cross the Tyrrhenian Sea? Some Reflections on the Appearance of Grisaille, Myth and the Classical Renaissance Style in the Periphery of the Crown of Aragon

Salis Mauro

2020-01-01

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Abstract

In the historiography of the painting in the Crown of Aragon, the chronology and methods of introduction of the Italian Renaissance in its periphery are still debated. In fact, excluding Naples and Valencia, in the other regions the evidence of the reception of the new style is not completely convincing. The difficulties in tracing this evidence are diverse: the loss of many paintings, the lack of archival documentation as well as the dispersion of graphic and literary sources. Formal and stylistic analysis does not always help to fill in the gaps, since for example, until the end of the 16 th century, altarpieces were produced in the late Gothic forms. Also, the golden surfaces can distort the perception of depth and volume and the construction of space is obtained with empirical construction systems instead of the scientific method. Therefore, a shift of attention from a purely aesthetic and formal analysis to a broader cultural one may help to better understand when and how the classical Renaissance style was introduced to the island. A contribution can result from the iconographic analysis of two painted panels of the altarpiece known as Retablo di Sant’Eligio (National Gallery, Cagliari), in which two key elements of the Renaissance appear for the first time ever in the production of late Gothic polyptychs in Sardinia: namely the grisaille technique employed to represent images from Classical mythology.