This article proposes the first investigation on the apse window of the church of San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno in Pisa. After describing the work in its current state, it highlights inconsistencies due not only to the replacement of lost parts and the error in the reassembly following the post-war restoration, but also to the need to adapt a stained-glass window, originally designed to contain all twelve Apostles within a space that could only accommodate ten. Focusing in particular on the half-figures of the Pantocrator and Saints Peter and Paul in the upper part of the work, the author identifies a stylistic affinity with a stained-glass window in the Chapel of San Pietro of Alcantara in the lower Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi. Hence, it has been possible to connect this part of the Pisan window to a Venetian glass workshop of the early fourteenth century, in analogy with what has been authoritatively stated regarding the aforementioned Assisi window.
This article traces the history of a painting attributed to Francesco Hayez, depicting an historical episode regarding Jacopo Foscari, son of the Venetian doge Francesco Foscari. Hayez painted four versions of this historical theme, only two of which survive including this one and that differ completely from one another. The first version (this canvas) was recorded in 1890 by Giulio Carotti as dating back to 1827. The painting has never been exhibited or attributed to Hayez, and was neglected by art critics. This omission could be due to a quarrel between Hayez himself and the painting's owner, Defendente Sacchi, which was not mentioned in contemporary publications. However, Hayez reported in his Memorie, published in 1890 long after the writer and collector's death in 1840, that Sacchi had previously despised him, saying he was not a truly great artist because he could only paint small figures, meanwhile greatly praising Diotti of Bergamo, who Hayez considered to be outdated. The monumental painting therefore could have been Hayez's response to Sacchi's criticism. Two cousins of Sacchi were also Hayez's pupils; one of whom, Luigi, in the same years exhibited a small-scale copy of the painting depicting Jacopo Foscari, an artwork that has also been lost. This examination also touches on Hayez's critical and historical reception, which was entirely Italian and has exploded in the last thirty years without ever appealing to European criticism. The influences of ancient Venetian painting on Hayez's art are also analyzed in detail, finding that, especially for portraiture, the source is sometimes Jacopo Tintoretto. The comparison between Hayez's famous portrait of the singer Matilde Juva Branca and Tintoretto's portrait of the young Jacopo Sansovino confirms that the painter transposed the model of an ancient male portrait, with its unconscious charisma remaining at the subliminal level, onto the modern female portrait.
The 1930s represented a prolific period in English art, characterized by group alliances, international contributions, and debates. In this context, Jessica Dismorr' works responded to the formal demands advocated by the modernist groups Unit One and Circle, reflecting her own personal vision while aligning with the general artistic milieu of the decade. The painter's departure from Vorticism and Post-Impressionism in favour of abstraction represented a significant contribution to the development of contemporary art in Great Britain. The author highlights Jessica Dismorr's role within English art production, closely connected to the investigation conducted in the non-figurative field and interactions with avant-garde artists and groups active in the 1930s. In Hampstead, the painter came into contact with important European avant-garde artists at a time when the neighborhood became a hub of creative activity. She joined the Seven and Five Society, initially oriented towards themes inspired by everyday life, but later assuming the outlines of the avant-garde, culminating in the Unit One group, founded by Paul Nash with the intention of creating a movement capable of operating following the principles of Bauhaus. Despite the lack of information to enable a comprehensive overview of her activity, her paintings reflect a full engagement in the contemporary experimentation pursued by Ben Nicholson and Henry Moore. Equally significant is the affinity of Dismorr's art with the surrealist works of Edward Wadsworth and primarily Hans Arp in terms of the relationship between form and space, exhibited at the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936, and previously disseminated by "Axis", a journal which favoured debate on abstract art during that period. Furthermore, the essay also considers, the artist's commitment to opposing totalitarian regimes on an international level.
The article proposes a comparison between two operational models implemented in the second half of the twentieth century to provide the cities of Florence and Livorno with contemporary art museums. The two case studies are those of the Museo Internazionale d'Arte Contemporanea and the Museo Progressivo d'Arte Contemporanea. While the former - known as MIAC -, was strongly desired and imagined by Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti for the flooded city of Florence in the late 1960s, the latter was conceived and launched by Lara-Vinca Masini with Vera Durbe, Aldo Passoni and Vittorio Fagone in Livorno in 1974. Through a necessarily synthetic reconstruction of the events linked with these initiatives, the two operational models and their relative contexts of reference are here compared by analyzing shared and divergent aspects.
This article offers a reinterpretation of the figurative and literary sources, both ancient and modern, pertaining to the personal seal of the Ferrarese sculptor Alfonso Lombardi. This seal was used by the master in letters he sent to Federico II Gonzaga between 1529 and 1536 and was also employed, like a signature, on the button of Saint Jerome's robe in the relief modeled for Fra Sabba da Castiglione in the late 1520s. Particularly, the focus of this article is the identification of an important iconographic precedent of the seal: a small chalcedony cameo, preserved in the Florentine archives of Palazzo Pitti, which depicts a nude male figure kneeling and holding an all'antica vase. Thus, the article attempts to clarify the meaning of the eloquent figure impressed on the seal, which seems so similar to that of a potter, by mentioning the importance of the vase theme in the humanist reflection on the human condition, as well as the role this theme played in the development of the idea of artistic creation. From this, the author takes the opportunity to re-examine Alfonso's reflections on his own art, especially considering his friendship with Fra Sabba. It is thus suggested that the signature that appears on the Virgin's throne in the relief with the Adoration of the Kings sculpted for the predella of the Arca di San Domenico in Bologna derived from the development of a solid artistic self-consciousness in those same years. Based on this, the author also proposes to identify, among the characters of the scene just mentioned, a self-portrait of the sculptor and a portrait of Federico Gonzaga, relying on the presence of a rather unusual iconographic detail, which has thus far gone unnoticed.
