Non-Narrative Elements in Tuscan Gothic Frescoes. (Volumes I and II).
Brown, Ann Thurston
1980
Abstract
The purpose of this study has been to investigate and catalogue in color the non-narrative factors which accompany Tuscan Gothic frescoes, from c. 1290 until c. 1450. These factors, which include scene borders, fictive architectural features, tabernacles, and medallions, form an important part of fourteenth-century mural art, whether the frescoed program of a chapel or individual scenes which served as votive images or as components of wall tombs. Decorative elements were designed and painted along with the scenes they accompany and were intended either as an integral part of the narrative program or as adornment for architectural features within the ambience in which the narratives were painted. Heretofore, little attention has been paid to these decorative factors. Literature on the peripheral elements is almost entirely lacking, and , normally, borders are cropped from illustrations in publications. Non-narrative factors in Tuscan Gothic fresco decoration comprise a rich treasury of motifs; the time had come to survey them in depth. During the course of this study, I observed at first h and all available frescoes of the Gothic period within Tuscany, as well as significant frescoes by Tuscan artists painted outside of that region. This investigation was limited mainly to works in churches, because extant non-religious frescoes are extremely rare. First, all decorative elements were drawn in black and white from photographs in the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. These drawings were then duplicated and the designs indexed according to type. A period of extensive travel followed, during which phase the colors in the borders were noted. Those decorative factors selected for use in this study were then redrawn in color for inclusion in the catalogue of designs. Volume I is an essay which gives an overall picture of the various types of non-narrative elements which accompany fourteenth-century Tuscan frescoes. As the b and , or border, is the most important of these it is treated at greatest length. Various types of b and construction are discussed, and the motifs most frequently found within the b and are fully described. Other decorative elements are investigated separately. The final chapter deals with the problems of the construction and restoration of decorative elements. The three appendices contain information on three-dimensionality in peripheral ornament, the place of the Florentine artist Taddeo Gaddi as an innovator in the non-narrative field, and salient local non-Tuscan decorative features. Volume II contains the catalogue of designs and the color plates. The catalogue is arranged by design type, with b and components first and the other decorative categories following. Also in this volume are a geographical guide which enables the reader to find the decorative elements of any given program quickly and easily, and a glossary of unfamiliar terms. Full instructions for the use of the catalogue are found in the introduction to Volume II, and all major parts of Volume II--catalogue, plates, and geographical guide--are cross-referenced. This study has been a work of observation and demonstration. Because the dissertation is intended to be a research tool, few conclusions have been drawn within the text. The information contained in the catalogue, in concert with the descriptive material provided in Volume I, will benefit both art historians and conservators. Design groupings in the catalogue show exactly which artists used which motifs, and when and where. Data in the catalogue have already aided two researchers in the attribution of problematical frescoes. Conservators will find the plates useful as a guide to the present appearance of border motifs and hence as models for the restoration of these motifs in the future.Types
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