The Life of Giovanni Morelli in Risorgimento Italy (Hardcover)

Jaynie Anderson

ISBN 10: 8899765952 / ISBN 13: 9788899765958

Published by Officina Libraria, Milan, 2019

About this Item

Hardcover. AUSTRALIAN AUTHOR Giovanni Morelli (1816-1889) was the most influential Italian writer on art in the nineteenth century, whose books have been constantly discussed since his death. When asked about his own life Morelli always replied that he considered himself a politician, who had lived in Italy and who had worked tirelessly for his country. He saw his involvement with the art world as a marginal and later activity. His participation in the three wars of Italian Independence, from 1848 to 1866, reveals a patriot who would risk everything, even his life, for the love of his family, his friends and his country. Like many men of the Risorgimento he pursued romantic visions for the creation of a new democratic country, in whose government he participated as the popular elected member for Bergamo to the Camera dei Deputati for a decade. After the revolution disillusionment gradually set in. Morelli's life provides the framework for a new understanding of the culture of the Risorgimento and reveals why and how his famous method of attribution, was invented as a diagnostic instrument to preserve the heritage of Italy. His biography shows how he achieved this by virtue of his charismatic personality, equally popular and at ease with the Bergamo electorate, as with Lombardic foot soldiers in battle, or with European Royalty, Lombard aristocrats and distinguished writers. AUTHOR: Jaynie Anderson was the Foundation Director of the Australian Institute of Art History at the University of Melbourne from 2009-2015 and Herald Chair of Fine Arts from 1997 to 2014. She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA), and immediate past president of the International Committee of Art History (2008-2012), the Comite Internationale de l'Histoire de l'Art (CIHA. In 2015 she received from the President of the Republic of Italy, the knighthood of Ufficiale dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia. She was educated at the University of Melbourne and Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, and was the first woman Rhodes Fellow at the University of Oxford. She has curated exhibitions at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford,the Castello Sforzesco, Milan, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. SELLING POINTS: . The first biography of Giovanni Morelli, one of the founding fathers of modern art history and of connoisseurship . An intriguing biography of a man who trained as a phyisician, was soon a patriot and ended up as an influential senator of unified Italy and a great art historian 63 colour and 50 b/w images The first biography of Giovanni Morelli, one of the founding fathers of modern art history and of connoisseurship. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9788899765958

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Life of Giovanni Morelli in Risorgimento Italy (Hardcover)
• Publisher: Officina Libraria, Milan
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 8899765952
• ISBN 13: 9788899765958
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

• The first biography of Giovanni Morelli, one of the founding fathers of modern art history and of connoisseurship
• An intriguing biography of a man who trained as a phyisician, was soon a patriot and ended up as an influential senator of unified Italy and a great art historian

Giovanni Morelli changed the way we look at art.

Before Morelli (1816-1891), the attribution of a painting to a particular artist or school was often based on overall impression, hearsay, even gut feeling. But Morelli, having trained as a medical doctor to look closely at anatomical detail, applied scientific rigor to understanding the works of masters such as Titian, Leonardo, and Raphael, and of other Renaissance and Baroque painters. By closely scrutinising, analysing and comparing details overlooked by most other collectors, critics, and curators, his radical 'Morellian method' became the basis of modern art connoisseurship.

A proud Italian of Swiss Protestant heritage, Morelli was also a staunch patriot. He risked his life in the Italian Wars of Independence, and was elected four times to the parliament of the newly unified nation. In 1873 he was nominated senator for life. As a statesman he fought for his homeland's cultural patrimony: at a time when many of Italy's great art collections were being snapped up by foreign collectors and museums, he introduced some of the world's first legislation to prevent their loss to the nation.

The Life of Giovanni Morelli in Risorgimento Italy is the first full biography of this important figure, including his romantic friendships with remarkable women such as Clementina Frizzoni, Laura Acton Minghetti (wife of the Italian prime minister), and Princess Victoria (daughter of Queen Victoria and subsequently empress of Germany). At his death he bequeathed his art collection to the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, the birthplace of his mother, a city he loved.

About the Author

Jaynie Anderson is professor emeritus at the University of Melbourne, where she was foundation director of the Australian Institute of Art History (2009-15) and Herald Chair of Fine Arts (1997-2014). She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and past president of the Comité Internationale de l'Histoire de l'Art. In 2015 she was knighted by the president of the Republic of Italy as Ufficiale dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia. Educated at the University of Melbourne and Bryn Mawr College, she was the first woman Rhodes Fellow at the University of Oxford. Her recent books include Unconstrained Passions: The Architect's House as Museum in the Italian Past and the Australian Present (2016) and The Invention of Melbourne: A Baroque Archbishop and a Gothic Architect (2017).