Titian and Callisto’s Double Metamorphosis

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_6644
dc.title	Titian and Callisto’s Double Metamorphosis. The punctum around which the Original Revolves
dc.contributor.author	Rossi Alessandro
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	it
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/venezia-arti/2021/1/tiziano-e-la-duplice-metamorfosi-di-callisto/
dc.description.abstract	A careful examination of Diana and Callisto, painted by Titian (London, National Gallery and Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland), its copy by Rubens (Knowsley Hall, Earl of Derby) and the version by Titian’s workshop in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) reveals details hitherto unrecognised by scholars. Although marginal, these take on extraordinary iconographic and communicative value, and it is precisely through these details that Titian evokes the mutations of the nymph Callisto narrated by Ovid in the Metamorphoses (2.401-530). The way in which the details are depicted and coordinated within the composition allows the beholder to experience the ‘graduality of discovery’. This is useful not only for lending the fixed image a temporality similar to that of literary narration (consisting of a ‘before’ and an ‘after’) but above all to induce, within the process of visual-perceptual discovery and its subsequent iconographic comprehension, the sequence of ‘desire-surprise-reward’ theorised by Daniel Arasse with regard to the revelatory power of detail, here applied to the polarity punctum/studium.
dc.relation.ispartof	Venezia Arti
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 30 \| December 2021
dc.issued	2021-12-21
dc.dateAccepted	2021-10-08
dc.dateSubmitted	2021-07-06
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2385-2720
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/VA/2385-2720/2021/07/003
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Copy/original
dc.subject	Copy/original
dc.subject	Daniel Arasse
dc.subject	Daniel Arasse
dc.subject	Details
dc.subject	Details
dc.subject	Diana and Callisto
dc.subject	Diana and Callisto
dc.subject	Ovid’s Metamorphoses
dc.subject	Ovid’s Metamorphoses
dc.subject	Punctum/studium
dc.subject	Punctum/studium
dc.subject	Rubens
dc.subject	Rubens
dc.subject	Theory of art
dc.subject	Theory of art
dc.subject	Titian
dc.subject	Titian
dc.subject	Visual semiotics
dc.subject	Visual semiotics

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

The punctum around which the Original Revolves

Alessandro Rossi Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italia

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abstract

A careful examination of Diana and Callisto, painted by Titian (London, National Gallery and Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland), its copy by Rubens (Knowsley Hall, Earl of Derby) and the version by Titian’s workshop in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) reveals details hitherto unrecognised by scholars. Although marginal, these take on extraordinary iconographic and communicative value, and it is precisely through these details that Titian evokes the mutations of the nymph Callisto narrated by Ovid in the Metamorphoses (2.401-530). The way in which the details are depicted and coordinated within the composition allows the beholder to experience the ‘graduality of discovery’. This is useful not only for lending the fixed image a temporality similar to that of literary narration (consisting of a ‘before’ and an ‘after’) but above all to induce, within the process of visual-perceptual discovery and its subsequent iconographic comprehension, the sequence of ‘desire-surprise-reward’ theorised by Daniel Arasse with regard to the revelatory power of detail, here applied to the polarity punctum/studium.

Published

Dec. 21, 2021

Accepted

Oct. 8, 2021

Submitted

July 6, 2021

Language

Keywords: Diana and Callisto • Theory of art • Copy/original • Daniel Arasse • Rubens • Ovid’s Metamorphoses • Visual semiotics • Titian • Details • Punctum/studium

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/VA/2385-2720/2021/07/003

Copyright: © 2021 Alessandro Rossi. 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.

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