During the dukedoom in Ferrara, Ercole I uses several strategies to communicate the sacredness of his power. While the prince increases the patronage of the visual arts, he finds in sacred representation a new and effective instrument to convey to his subjects the image of "religiosissimo principe", as Sabadino degli Arienti says in The Triumphis religionis. A common culture of representation informs both pictorial and theatrical figurations. The images are useful to show the prince's religiouseness which undertakes the shapes of popular devotion to Eucharistic piety and Christ's Passion and recomposes them in a celebratory vein. The paper will investigate some of these forms of visual culture, which imprint sacred representation at Ferrara, starting from the analysis of some religious paintings in Ferrara in the late Quattrocento.
Piety and Power: The Case of Ercole's Passions in Ferrara (1471-1505)
LIPANI, Domenico Giuseppe
2012
Abstract
During the dukedoom in Ferrara, Ercole I uses several strategies to communicate the sacredness of his power. While the prince increases the patronage of the visual arts, he finds in sacred representation a new and effective instrument to convey to his subjects the image of "religiosissimo principe", as Sabadino degli Arienti says in The Triumphis religionis. A common culture of representation informs both pictorial and theatrical figurations. The images are useful to show the prince's religiouseness which undertakes the shapes of popular devotion to Eucharistic piety and Christ's Passion and recomposes them in a celebratory vein. The paper will investigate some of these forms of visual culture, which imprint sacred representation at Ferrara, starting from the analysis of some religious paintings in Ferrara in the late Quattrocento.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
