Epic arts in Renaissance France / Phillip John Usher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Usher, Phillip John, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art and literature--France--History--16th century.

Art and literature.

Epic literature, French--History and criticism.

Epic literature, French.

Literature in art.

Dolet, Etienne, 1509-1546. Fata.

Dolet, Etienne.

Ronsard, Pierre de, 1524-1585. Franciade.

Ronsard, Pierre de.

Aubigné, Agrippa d', 1552-1630. Tragiques.

Aubigné, Agrippa d'.

History.

France.

Physical Description:

xi, 253 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014.

Summary:

Epic Arts in Renaissance France studies the relationship between epic literature and other art forms such as painting, sculpture, and architecture. Why, the book asks, the epic heroes and themes so ubiquitous in French Renaissance art are widely celebrated whereas the same period's literary epics, frequently maligned, now go unread? To explore this paradox, the book investigates a number of epic building sites, i.e. specific situations in which literary epics either become the basis for realizations in other art forms or somehow contest or compete with them. Beginning with a detour about the appearance of epic heroes (Odysseus and Aeneas) on marriage chests in fifteenth-century Florence, the study traces how French communities of readers, writers, translators, and artists reinvent epic forms in their own-or their patron's-image. Following extended discussion of three galleries in different regions of France, which all depicted key scenes from the classical epics of Homer, Virgil, and Lucan, the book turns to epics written in the period. Chapters of Epic Arts focus on Etienne Dolet's Fata, a text that praise the victories (but also failures) of François I

Contents:

1 Homer, Virgil, and Lucan: Classical Epic and Renaissance Art 23

The Rebirth of Epic Art 23

Homer at Fontainebleau 31

The Fireplace of Hell: Virgil at Oiron 49

Lucan and the Civil Wars in Burgundy 60

2 Dolet's Fata: Celebrating François I^er in the Wake of the Battle of Pavia 75

Monuments for the Second Ascension 79

Galleries of Kingly Resemblances 84

Foreign Perspectives 99

Epic Victory at Marignano 108

Epic Erasure of Defeat 111

3 Ronsard's Franciade: From National Genealogy to Tragic Love Story 120

The Birth of the Franciade 121

Calliope at the Louvre 128

Francus in Paris 132

Beautiful Objects 138

Francus' Pictorial Afterlife 145

4 D'Aubigné's Tragiques: A Wasteland of Graffiti 160

Tensions: Incultus or trop beau? 165

A Coat of Paint for the Palais de Justice 171

The Devil's Designs on the Louvre 181

The Vatican versus the Canvas of Heaven 190

Epic Perspectives and the Art of Delegation 199

Closing Remarks: From Epic Cassoni to Epic Coffrets 202.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-243) and index.

ISBN:

9780199687848

0199687846

OCLC:

859555860