Medallions

Nakon kraćega prikaza stratigrafije lokaliteta, izdvaja se horizont novovjekovnih grobova. Opisuju se bogatiji grobovi, te se pojedini nalazi analiziraju i interpretiraju. Na temelju analize odabranih nalaza i njihove interpretacije, nalazi se, a time i grobovi, kronološki smještaju uglavnom u početak 18. st. Pritom se koriste i podaci iz pisanih izvora: kanonskih vizitacija, matične knjige umrlih te župne spomenice. Problematizira se tumačenje novovjekovnih nalaza i potreba multidisciplinarnoga pristupa. U radu se posebna pozornost obratila osobitoj krunici iz groba 60, na kojoj su među zrnima visjeli i privjesci - simboli arma Christi. /
Following a brief presentation of the site stratigraphy, a horizon of postmediaeval graves is singled out. Richer graves are described and specifi c fi nds are analyzed and interpreted. Based on the analysis of the chosen fi nds and their interpretation, the fi nds, and thus also the graves, are chronologically attributed mostly into the beginning of the 18th century. Data are used from written sources in the process: canonical visitations, register of the dead and parochial memorials. The interpretation of Modern Age fi nds and the need for a multidisciplinary approach are discussed. Particular attention was given in the paper to a singular rosary from grave 60, on which, among the beads also hung pendants – the arma Christi symbols.

Представлена на рецензування магістерська робота подана у формі
рукопису загальним обсягом 87 сторінок друкованого тексту, включаючи ілюстровані додатки. Роботу виконано студентом ІІ курсу історичного факультету Київського Національного університету ім. Тараса Шевченка – Володимиром Григоровичем Лазаренко під науковим керівництвом професора Ірини Нінелівни Войцехівської.

The subject examined in the article is the propaganda programme of emperors, members of the Constantinian dynasty, as documented by inscriptions and iconography of medallions. These the author proposes to analyse in the context of late-antique rhetoric texts (Orationes of Themisthius, Panegyrici Latini) and ideas of Eusebius Pamphilius contained in Vita Constantini. The conclusion furnished by this analysis is that the propaganda content broadcast in the works of rhetoric is closely related to the message communicated by the medallions and is an expression of a coherent ideological programme.

The Renaissance Gaze Shift in portraiture and socio-economics of 15th century Europe, shifted aesthetics from profile to direct gaze and wealth from the nobility to the merchant class. Yet, its true revolutionary, democratizing effect was the celebration of a new portrait subject: the “common” individual. This paper demonstrates the evolution in portraiture from Florentine profile portrait (adopted from the revered Greco-Roman profile) to Flemish ¾ averted gaze portrait trend and ultimately head-on stare. Embodying the humanistic concept of “self-fashioning” as put forth in Baldassare Castiglione’s Il Cortigiano, this dynamic hallmark effect is anachronistically shared with today’s digital self-portraits. Pisanello’s profile medallions, Leonardo da Vinci’s Portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci and contemporary digital media imagery illustrate the aesthetic and social shift, arriving at the “selfie” as rooted in the Renaissance Gaze, the visual ancestor which asserted modernity, identity, newfound wealth and power, while directly confronting artist/viewer/self and presciently forecasting the future.

The paper analyzes eight Roman bronze medallions found from the second half of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century in Northern Italy. They are three specimens of Hadrian (from Oderzo/Opitegium, before 1874; from Aquileia, 1930; from Augusta Praetoria/Aosta, 1968); two specimens of Antoninus Pius (from Eporedia/Ivrea, 1900; from Augusta Praetoria/Aosta, 1968), one specimen of Lucius Verus (from Abano Terme, 1882), one specimen of Septimius Severus (from Pontecchio Polesine, 1905), one specimen of Probus (from Mediolanum/Milan, 1998).

While the communicative nature of early modern Italian portraits becomes increasingly overt during the 15th and 16th centuries, the continued, and increasing, prevalence of the portrait medallion might at first seem to stand against the tide of period advances in creating portraits that engage with the viewer by looking out of the image. Although the portrait medallion, in its sculpted, metallic form, certainly creates a more physically-lasting work, the object’s lack of a transitive, communicative sitter (as these sitters are nearly always in strict profile) might lead one to assume that the work is less capable of creating any such connection. Taking account of these things, this study challenges this assumption, examining the way that a portrait medallion, in its three-dimensionality, may actually provide a different, yet equally communicative, connection with the mind of a period viewer. Considering the Aristotelian belief that an image might be capable of ‘impressing’ itself in a viewer’s memory – a belief reexamined in the late medieval and early modern periods – this article suggests that patrons of portrait medallions sought to make an impact on the beholder by way of the artwork’s very form. Drawing from the belief that images impress themselves in the mind, as a seal impresses wax, this article adds to readings considering the appeal of portrait medallions in early modernity. By embodying a medium and genre of representation particularly equipped to produce memories, the portrait medallion could metaphorically ‘stamp’ itself on the beholder’s mind, thereby working towards a primary goal of early modern portraiture – perpetually commemorating period sitters.

Knihu vydalo Jihočeské muzeum v Českých Budějovicích roku 2008 / The book was published by the South Bohemian Museum in České Budějovice in 2008 / The book was published by the South Bohemian Museum in České Budějovice in 2008 / The book was published by the South Bohemian Museum in České Budějovice in 2008. ISBN:978-80-86260-96-9