Renaissance Hybridity and the 2022 Venice Biennale
In a recent essay for Artribune, painter Nicola Verlato argues that the Renaissance, far from being a precursor to Enlightenment rationalism, was an era dominated by hybridity, the marvelous, and the power of images. He cites works by Piero di Cosimo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Giovanni Bellini, alongside scholarly texts by Aby Warburg and Edgar Wind, to challenge the dichotomy between rational and irrational. Verlato contends that Renaissance anthropocentrism, exemplified by Leonardo's Vitruvian Man, was a tragic awareness of human limits rather than Faustian hubris. He praises Biennale Arte 2022 curator Cecilia Alemani for opening her exhibition with paintings by Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini, and Paula Rego, which draw on Renaissance iconography as an antidote to modern technocratic aniconism. The essay links Renaissance image-power to contemporary art, suggesting that artists marginalized by modernist orthodoxy found in Renaissance imagery a vital counterforce.
Key facts
- Essay by Nicola Verlato published on Artribune.
- Focus on Renaissance hybridity and the power of images.
- References Aby Warburg's 'The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity' and Edgar Wind's 'Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance'.
- Cites James Simpson's 'Under the Hammer' on iconoclasm.
- Mention of Piero di Cosimo's 'Primitive Hunt' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- Leonardo's Vitruvian Man at Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.
- Giovanni Bellini's 'Feast of the Gods' at National Gallery of Washington.
- Cecilia Alemani curated the 2022 Venice Biennale.
- Alemani featured works by Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini, and Paula Rego.
- Verlato describes Renaissance anthropocentrism as tragic, following Massimo Cacciari's 'Tragic Humanism'.
- Reference to Pietro Montani's concept of the Borromean knot linking world, imagination, and language.
- Essay argues Renaissance art is relevant today as an antidote to technical hubris.
Entities
Artists
- Nicola Verlato
- Piero di Cosimo
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Giovanni Bellini
- Paolo Uccello
- Cristofano Allori
- Remedios Varo
- Leonor Fini
- Paula Rego
- Masaccio
- Piero della Francesca
- Filippino Lippi
- Pollaiolo
- Cosmè Tura
- Dosso Dossi
- Ercole de Roberti
- Giorgione
- Tiziano
- Raffaello
- Aby Warburg
- Edgar Wind
- James Simpson
- Massimo Cacciari
- Pietro Montani
- Poggio Bracciolini
- Lucrezio
- Senofane
- Francis Bacon
Institutions
- Artribune
- Biennale Arte di Venezia
- Gallerie dell'Accademia
- National Gallery of Washington
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Weinstein Gallery
Locations
- Venezia
- Italy
- Firenze
- Ferrara
- New York
- United States
- Washington
- San Francisco
- Los Angeles
- California
- Verona