This article concerns attitudes to melancholia and melancholic painters in the literature of the arts from sixteenth-century Italy, and focuses primarily on the writings of Giorgio Vasari, with some attention also to texts by Pino, Dolce, Lomazzo, and others. Remarks made by these authors are analyzed in relation to other sources of primary evidence, ranging from a carnival song to a treatise by Marsilio Ficino on "black bile," the humor supposed to cause melancholia. The principal argument, built around the figure of Michelangelo, is that, contrary to received wisdom, there is no strong evidence that sixteenth-century artists feigned melancholy. As well as rehearsing the many negative and ambivalent views on the humor expressed by cinquecento authors, this article shows that these commentators believed that melancholy gives rise to a very specific kind of painterly flair, namely, a genius for the fantastical and grotesque.
In publication since 1969, the Sixteenth Century Journal (SCJ) prints twenty to twenty-five articles and over four hundred book reviews a year. The SCJ is dedicated to providing readers with thought-provoking research and inquiry into the sixteenth century broadly defined (i.e., 1450-1648). Our articles all maintain a strong historical core and cover subjects from around the world.
In publication since 1969, the Sixteenth Century Journal (SCJ) prints twenty to twenty-five articles and over four hundred book reviews a year. The SCJ is dedicated to providing readers with thought-provoking research and inquiry into the sixteenth century broadly defined (i.e., 1450-1648).
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