Series | Quaderni di Venezia Arti
Edited book | Taking and Denying
Chapter | Peltae subacquee e specchiature marmoree
Peltae subacquee e specchiature marmoree
La forma dell’acqua tra storia dell’arte e filosofia
Abstract
This paper focuses on two canonical representations of water in 12th-century Venetian churches: (i) the so-called ‘peltae pattern’, usually defined as ‘geometric decoration’ and recognized as the symbol of water; and (ii) the ‘marble slab’, usually included among non-iconic decorations and recognized as il mare. Why did the medieval masters represent the same natural element in the same type of location in these two different ways? Our hypothesis is that (i) represented the turbulent water of terrestrial life, while (ii) represented heavenly water. We argue that support for both claims can be found by retracing the sources of the two decorative models and looking at them from an art historical point of view, and by analyzing them from a philosophical and perceptological standpoint in order to retrieve universal perceptual patterns that can sustain the iconological reading.
Published Dec. 22, 2020 | Language: it
Keywords Marble slab • Visual perception • Medieval mosaic floor • Shape of water • Peltae pattern
Copyright © 2020 Luca Marchetti, Beatrice Spampinato. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-462-2/003
