The Italian presence in American art, 1860-1920 / edited by Irma B. Jaffe. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Jaffe, Irma B.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art, American--20th century.

Art, American.

Art, American--Italian influences.

Art, Modern--19th century--United States.

Art, Modern.

Art, American--19th century.

Art, American--Italian influences--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 265 p., 16 p. of plates ) ill. (some col.), plans ;

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press ; Roma : Istituo della enciclopedia italian, c1992.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Like a magic potion, Italianita has seeped through the stream of American aesthetic consciousness ever since Benjamin West stepped onto Italian soil in 1760. The first period of this artistic phenomenon was investigated in The Italian Presence in American Art, 1760-1860 and the book at hand thus continues this intellectual exploration in its development during the following sixty years. Those decades between the Civil War and World War I brought to a climax the growing sense of American continental nationhood, and this strengthened perception of national identity was reflected in American art. A synthesis was achieved in which American values and images were fused with the great tradition flowing from its Italian source." "Among the themes that arise from this examination of the role that Italy played in shaping American art is first and foremost the struggle to resolve the issue of what American art ought to express: our European heritage or our cultural independence. This question penetrates to the heart of the most widely debated topic in present-day American culture - multiculturalism. The reader may well find previously unconsidered relationships between our past and present, and may be led to reconsider problems posed by the conflicting needs of unity and diversity in our nation. Other themes that appear in these essays deal with the development of American wealth and its role in influencing the taste of the period, and with feminism. In these pages it will be noticed how very closely American art mirrors the American Experience. While all art reflects the cultural context in which it is created, the nature of American art, predominantly Romantic-Realism, makes the link between idea and image particularly visible. What becomes evident is that "the Italian presence" was almost never a simple matter of direct influence; rather it was an experience for American artists that afforded them, above all, insight and inspiration. Italy was America's muse."--Jacket

Contents:

Celebrating Botticelli : the taste for the Italian Renaissance in the United States, 1870-1920 / Lillian B. Miller

Frederic Edwin Church and Italy / Gerald L. Carr

Inness and Italy / Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr.

John H. Twachtman : a "modern" in Venice, 1877-1878 / Lisa N. Peters

The murals by Constantino Brumidi for the United States Capital Rotunda, 1860-1880 : an iconographic interpretation / Francis V. O'Connor

Italian inspiration in Maitland Armstrong's stained glass and mosaics / Robert O. Jones

H. Siddons Mowbray : murals of the American Renaissance / Richard Murray

American "high" renaissance : Bowdoin's Walker art building and its murals / H. Barbara Weinberg

American memorial sculpture and the Protestant cemetery in Rome / William H. Gerdts

In the Tuscan mode : Italian influences on the architecture of Cass Gilbert / Timothy Rub

Stanford White and Italy / Paul R. Baker

From the Pio-Clementino to museums of fine arts : the Italian presence in American museum design, 1860-1920 / Helen Searing

Lizzie Boott at Bellosguardo / Carol M. Osborne

From private grief to public monument : the funerary effigy of Elizabeth Boot Duveneck / Lois Dinnerstein

Rome and the American Academy : art Mecca or artistic backwater? / Susan Rather

The old boy network in Rome : Tenth Street studio artists abroad / Annette Blaugrund

The Italian garden in America, 1890s-1920s / Margherita Azzi Visentini.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-585-19534-X