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Anthony Colantuono

Anthony Colantuono

Professor, Art in Seventeenth-Century Italy, France and Spain, Art History and Archaeology
Professor, Classics

(301) 405-1496

4229 Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building
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Education

Ph.D., , The Johns Hopkins University

Research Expertise

Critical Theory
Early Modern Studies
Film
Gender
Visual Culture

Curriculum Vitae

Anthony Colantuono is Professor of Early Modern Italian, French and Spanish Art.  His work deals with problems of interpretation, criticism and theory in painting and sculpture, with special emphasis on the interaction of literary and pictorial theories and technologies of visual rhetoric.  His books include Guido Reni's Abduction of Helen (1997), exploring the role of Reni's famous painting and other works as instruments of diplomatic communication in the context of the Thirty Years War; and Titian, Colonna and the Renaissance Science of Procreation: Equicola's Season of Desire (2010), which shows that Titian's famous mytho-poetical paintings for the camerino of Duke Alfonso I d'Este of Ferrara (ca. 1511-25), and Francesco Colonna's literary romance titled Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) were both designed as pedagogical allegories whose purpose was to instruct the reader/beholder in the pseudo-Aristotelian theory of the 'libidinal seasons' and the art of successful procreation.  Professor Colantuono's most recent book is a volume of essays, Critical Perspectives on Roman Baroque Sculpture (2014), co-edited with Professor Steven Ostrow (University of Minnesota), which deals with problems in the interpretation and criticism of seventeenth-century sculpture.
 
His articles and essays address a wide range of topics including the rhetorical and logical structure of pictorial conceits in Poussin, Caravaggio and Lorenzo Lippi, the theory and criticism of sentiment in early modern art, theories and practices of diplomatic imagery, and connoisseurial problems in Poussin and Titian.
 
Professor Colantuono has received numerous grants and awards for research, including the two-year pre-doctoral 'Rome Prize' at the American Academy in Rome (1983-85), the Robert Lehman Fellowship at Villa I Tatti (the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (2002-03), Florence, Italy), and two NEH fellowships (summer 1990 and calendar year 2004).
 
Professor Colantuono's current projects include a study of the activity and methods of medieval and early modern iconographical advisors, an edition and English translation of Orfeo Boselli's 17th-century treatise Osservationi della scoltura antica, and a study of the relationships between Baroque painting and modern film.

Faculty Spotlight Spring 2015

Publications

Visceral Responses: Unexplained Expressions of Astonishment, Disbelief and Marvel in Poussin's Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus

This article shows that Poussin's altarpiece of St. Erasmus (1628) for St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, is not merely a portrayal of the saint's martyrdom, but actually embodies a complex symbolic conceit involving the likening of Erasmus's disembowelment to

Art History and Archaeology

Author/Lead: Anthony Colantuono
Dates:
Anthony Colantuono's article titled "Visceral Responses: Unexplained Expressions of Astonishment, Disbelief and Marvel in Poussin's Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus" proceeds from the observation that in Poussin's famous altarpiece of 1628 (Vatican Museums), the pagan men who are shown in the act of disemboweling the saint exhibit unexpected facial expressions and bodily gestures, seemingly designed to express the unexpected sentiments of astonishment, disbelief and marvel or wonder -- as opposed to the expected expression of simple hatred and cruelty. Colantuono shows that these expressions are explained when we realize that the artist has added iconographic details designed to imply an analogy between the saint's disembowelment and the pagan religious ritual of haruspicy -- the practice in which the ancient Romans would examine the entrails of sacrificial animals in order to perceive the future. Colantuono argues that Erasmus's torturers are examining the entrails and in them foresee the end of paganism and the future triumph of Christianity.

Giorgione's Tempesta in Iconological Perspective: Pierio Valeriano, Giovanni Cotta and the "Paduan Hypothesis"

This article shows that Giorgione's famous painting, the 'Tempesta' (ca. 1509), was conceived as a form of political discourse similar to Jacopo Sannazaro's Arcadia, and incorporates political-discursive tropes deriving from the hieroglyphic research of

Art History and Archaeology

Author/Lead: Anthony Colantuono
Dates:
Anthony Colantuono's article "Giorgione's Tempesta in Iconological Perspective: Pierio Valeriano, Giovanni Cotta and the 'Paduan Hypothesis' - shows that the famously problematic imagery of Giorgione's Tempesta is informed by a specifically political argument, probably conceived by the humanist Pierio Valeriano in the service of a member of the Vendramin family. Vindicating Paul H.D. Kaplan's seemingly forgotten 'political' interpretation (1986), Colantuono shows that the painting's imagery does indeed refer to the struggle between Venice and the Holy Roman Empire for control of Padua, in the context of the Cambrai wars. But Colantuono further demonstrates that the painting's imagery is composed of anti-Germanic tropes likening the invading imperial armies to Attila's Hunnish barbarians, who had similarly invaded the Venetian mainland in medieval times. it is shown that similar anti-Germanic imagery was employed by the poet Giovanni Cotta who, like Valeriano, was connected with the artist's patrons. Moreover, Cotta was connected with the Neapolitan poet Sannazaro, whose famous work, the Arcadia, probably provided Valeriano with the primary literary model for his iconographic invention. The larger point is that the correct application of iconological principles yielded a completely coherent interpretation of the painting's imagery, where other methods failed.

Read More about Giorgione's Tempesta in Iconological Perspective: Pierio Valeriano, Giovanni Cotta and the "Paduan Hypothesis"

Titian, Colonna and the Renaissance Science of Procreation: Equicola's Seasons of Desire

This book demonstrates that Titian's famous series of bacchanalian paintings for Duke Alfonso d'Este's camerino -- and Francesco Colonna's literary romance titled 'Hypnerotomachia Poliphili' were both based upon the ancient medical notion of the 'libidin

Art History and Archaeology

Author/Lead: Anthony Colantuono
Dates:
Titian, Colonna and the Renaissance Science of Procreation: Equicola's Seasons of Desire
Anthony Colantuono's monograph titled 'Titian, Colonna and the Renaissance Science of Procreation: Equicola's Seasons of Desire (Ashgate 2010 / Routledge paperback 2016) demonstrates that Bellini's and Titian's famous series of bacchanalian paintings (ca. 1511-25) for the camerino or personal study of Duke Alfonso I d'Este of Ferrara embodies the ancient medical theory of the 'libidinal seasons,' symbolically explicating how the masculine sexual drive and procreative potency changes throughout the four seasons of the year, and locating the optimal procreative moment in the season of spring. The study demonstrates that the artists received their iconographic instructions from the learned courtier Mario Equicola, who writes about this ancient theory in his book titled 'Libro de Natura De Amore,' composed precisely at the same moment. Relating this peculiar medical theme to the duke's dynastic role and his consequent obligation to produce legitimate offspring, the author shows that Francesco Colonna's literary romance, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) engages a similar set of themes, similarly inspired by the predicament of the impotent Duke Guidubaldo I of Urbino.

Read More about Titian, Colonna and the Renaissance Science of Procreation: Equicola's Seasons of Desire

Guido Reni's 'The Abduction of Helen': The Politics and Rhetoric of Painting in Seventeenth-Century Europe

This book demonstrates that Guido Reni's painting, 'The Abduction of Helen,' was conceived and deployed by Pope Urban VIII and his nephew Cardinal Francesco Barberini as an instrument of diplomatic discourse in the context of the Thirty Years War.

Art History and Archaeology

Author/Lead: Anthony Colantuono
Dates:
Guido Reni's 'The Abduction of Helen': The Politics and Rhetoric of Painting in Seventeenth-Century Europe
Anthony Colantuono's monograph titled 'Guido Reni's Abduction of Helen' (Cambridge University Press, 1997) was the first major study of how the Barberini papacy (1623-44) used works of art as instruments of diplomatic discourse, furnishing artists with iconographic instructions encoding moral and political concepts designed to influence the intended recipient. Reni's 'Helen' for Philip IV of Spain is the prime example: The painting's imagery insinuates that the Spanish monarchy, like the Trojans of old, will receive divine punishment for their war-mongering behavior. The study also demonstrates that the peculiar flurry of encomiastic publications describing and interpreting the paintings were deliberately orchestrated to increase the fame of the painting after the Spanish ambsassador refused to accept it.

Read More about Guido Reni's 'The Abduction of Helen': The Politics and Rhetoric of Painting in Seventeenth-Century Europe