Ethics and Economies of Art in Renaissance Spain: Felipe de Guevara’s Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos

The Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos (Commentary on Painting and Antique Painters) by the humanist Felipe de Guevara stands as the first art treatise of its type produced in Renaissance Spain. Critical studies underscore the reliance on ancient texts in spite of significant divergences f...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Renaissance quarterly 2014-03, Vol.67 (1), p.79-112
Main Author: Giménez-Berger, Alejandra
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Art criticism
Art history
de Guevara, Felipe
Ethics
Philosophers
Renaissance period
Spanish
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos (Commentary on Painting and Antique Painters) by the humanist Felipe de Guevara stands as the first art treatise of its type produced in Renaissance Spain. Critical studies underscore the reliance on ancient texts in spite of significant divergences from the sources. Philological studies of near-contemporary texts and a close reading of the author’s extant writings provide an alternative framework for understanding these transformations. Through the appropriation of ancient texts, Guevara calls for the practical overhauling of the Spanish artistic system. The text addresses the art of painting as having both transcendental and intrinsic values, focusing on its formative capabilities and virtue ethics as the most important for the former, and its role in the larger Spanish economy for the latter.
ISSN:0034-4338
1935-0236
DOI:10.1086/676153