Lorenzo Pericolo: Statuino: An Undercurrent of Anticlassicism in Baroque Art Theory

Vasari's ambivalent and at times contradictory statements on how antiquity as a model of perfection was and should be followed by painters were developed and to a certain extent exploited by art theorists of the seventeenth century. In particular, Carlo Ridolfi and Carlo Cesare Malvasia sought both to relativize Vasari's notion of disegno by targeting his outlook on antiquity and create new paradigms of artistic excellence of which disegno and antiquity were only a part, and not a foundation. This criticism of ancient art was channeled through what Lorenzo Pericolo defines as the statuino debate. This lecture is the first part of an essay that Pericolo is writing on this topic.

Dr. Lorenzo Pericolo is Associate Professor for Renaissance and Baroque Art at the University of Warwick. After seven years at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, where he studied under the supervision of Salvatore Settis, Lorenzo Pericolo entered the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Sorbonne, Paris, where in 1998 he finished his PhD on the French painter Charles Le Brun (1619-1690).

He taught the history of early modern art in various universities in France and Canada, in particular Paris 8 (1995-97), Rennes (1999-2006) and Montreal (2006-2010).

Lorenzo Pericolo was a "boursier" at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris (1989-90); a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Humboldt Universität, Berlin (2004-05); Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellow, Center for the Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Washington DC (2005-06); Scholar in Residence at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2007-08); the recipient of a three-year grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2007-2010); and Robert H. Smith Senior Research Associate at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Washington DC (2010-11).

Most notable among his publications are: the monograph on the Flemish-French painter Philippe de Champaigne (Tournai: La Renaissance du Livre, 2002); the critical edition of Claude Nivelon's 'Vie de Charles Le Brun' (Geneva: Droz, 2004). In 2010, he coedited with Alexander Nagel (Institute of Fine Arts, New York) 'Subject as Aporia in Early Modern Art' (Farnham: Ashgate). His latest book is entitled: 'Caravaggio and Pictorial Narrative: Dislocating the Istoria in Early Modern Painting' (London: Harvey Miller, 2011). With the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Washington DC, Dr. Lorenzo Pericolo is preparing the critical edition of Carlo Cesare Malvasia's 1678 'Felsina' Pittrice (The Lives of the Bolognese Painters) in sixteen volumes.