
Raphael's Poetics
Art and Poetry in High Renaissance Rome
David Rijser(Author)
Pallas Publications (Publisher)
Published on 28. March 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
520 pages
978-90-8964-342-1 (ISBN)
Description
Raphael's Poetics applies strategies of interpretation implicit in antique poetry to the visual art of the Renaissance, concentrating on Raphael's Roman works and their cultural context. Until recently, scholarly discussion was dominated by the application of Renaissance literary theory to visual arts, obscuring the fact that Renaissance humanists who contributed to literary theory were, in the first instance and almost without exception, poets rather than theorists. To counter the tendency towards theory, the hermeneutic rules implicit in their poetry and thus the poetry itself is brought to the fore by this study as a hermeneutical tool. By focusing on the interaction between the work of art and its public, Rijser offers innovative interpretations of canonical works and important insights into the cultural history of the early modern period. Reconstructing a visual grammar and defining the context in which Raphael's art functioned, this study illuminates contemporary significances that have since been lost.
Reviews / Votes
"A masterful accomplishment. Raphael's Poetics could not have been written except by someone steeped in the Classics, in the world of Renaissance humanism and of Western aesthetics in general. The book deepened my appreciation of matters with which I was familiar and aroused it when the subject was new. I have nothing but praise.' - Michael C. J. Putnam, Brown UniversityMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Academic
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 169 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
985 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-8964-342-1 (9789089643421)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€78.99
Available for download

E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€78.99
Available for download
Person
David Rijser is professor by special appointment at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen holding a chair of Classical Receptions.
Content
Abbreviations, Preface, Introduction: Aeneas' Example, Chapter 1. Nature's Anxiety, Chapter 2. Rule without End, Chapter 3. Let No One without Poem Enter, Chapter 4. Airy Nothing Gets a Local habitation and a Name, Bibliography, List of Figures, List of Plates, Index locorum et imaginum, Index Nominum et rerum