<i>Cangianti</i> and Shot Silk: Material Influence on Artistic Practice in Central Italian Painting from 1300 to 1550

<p>In central Italian paintings from 1300 to 1550, “<em>cangianti</em>”—draperies modeled with two or more hues— have long been considered formal devices invented around the time of Giotto to compensate for a limited palette; rare instances of textural intent are thought to have occurred only towards the end of the period in question. Little serious consideration has been given to <em>seta cangiante</em> —shot silk, also known as iridescent or changeable silk—the actual fabric that shares its name and appearance with these fictional draperies.</p> <p>I have explored the relationship between <em>seta cangiante</em> and <em>cangianti</em> in paintings from three very different perspectives: the assumptions and linguistic errors that led to the original, misleading conclusions advanced by John Shearman, on which much subsequent scholarship was based; the philosophical arguments that purportedly deterred painters from mixing pigments to increase the range of colors available to them; and the presence and importance of silk in Italy during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.</p> <p>Chapter 2 examines prior scholarship, including significant contributions by Marcia B. Hall and John Gage, which reached a peak in 1990 when Michelangelo’s newly cleaned Sistine Chapel frescoes were revealed.</p> <p>Chapter 3 begins with a survey of ancient Greek concepts of color, especially those of Empedocles, Plato, Aristotle, and Theophrastus, whose ideas were inseparable from theories of sight. To gain a better understanding of their theories, I investigated color vision, color perception, and color naming. The hypotheses of Brent Berlin and Paul Kay shed light on the philosophers’ theories and on Apelles’ four-color palette as well, both of which influenced the practice and theory recorded centuries later by Cennino Cennini, Leon Battista Alberti, and Leonardo da Vinci.</p> <p>Chapter 4 traces the path of the<em> Bombyx mor</em>i silkworm from ancient China through Rome and Byzantium to the city-states of Italy. Beginning in the 13th century, <em>panni tartarici</em> found their way to Europe via Mongol envoys; these cloths of silk and gold inspired the industries in Lucca, Florence, and Venice to great heights of creativity and skill. The ambiguities surrounding certain cloth names, including <em>purpura</em>, are discussed in this chapter; <em>byssos</em> and <em>bukalamun</em> are treated separately in an appendix.</p> <p>In most cases, painted <em>cangiant</em>i represent <em>sete cangianti</em>. In the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo transformed that equation from material to transcendent.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Bryn Mawr only

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History of Art

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Meier, Melissa Jane

Repository record dc:identifier

https://repository.brynmawr.edu/dissertations/122

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.brynmawr.edu:dissertations-1122