Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's <i>Prometheus</i>

Leonardo Masone

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12

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Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's Prometheus

Leonardo Masone^*

Published in Advances in Sciences and Humanities (Volume 10, Issue 3)

Received: 6 June 2024 Accepted: 20 June 2024 Published: 30 August 2024

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Abstract

As happens in almost all eras, contemporary thinkers have been able to prepare new tools for understanding the historical phases that preceded them. Tools that have led to new disciplinary directions and new interpretative methods: think of semiotics which in relation to the artistic field has highlighted alternative exhibition languages for reading paintings; or to the philosophical question of symbolic politics. With these tools it has been possible to read the timeless myth of Prometheus with a decidedly original key and in the modern age we see a clear revival in the use of this myth, both in political essays, in philosophy, in literature and in art. Also because Prometheus brings with him many messages also based on how one wants to think of him, whether free to grant the flame to humanity or chained due to the punishment of Zeus. With this essay, we try to read the interpretation of Prometheus by one of the most important painters of the European seventeenth century, Giovan Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino who at the age of 25 decided to open the Academy of the Nude in his hometown, Cento between Bologna and Ferrara, for very young aspiring painters, and it is precisely in the rooms of that art school that he frescoed his first and only Prometheus in the act of granting flame to the inanimate clay statue. A gesture that marks the meaning of art considered one of the highest human virtues.

Published in	Advances in Sciences and Humanities (Volume 10, Issue 3)
DOI	10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12
Page(s)	39-45
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Guercino, Prometheus, Academy of the Nude, Myth

References

[1]	Algirdas Julien Greimas,, (1991), “Semiotica figurativa e semiotica plastica” [Figurative semiotics and plastic semiotics], in L. Corrain e M. Valenti, a cura di, Leggere l'opera d'arte. Dal figurativo all'astratto, Bologna, Esculapio, p. 37.
[2]	Hans-Georg Gadamer, (1960)., Wahrheit und Methode [Truth and Method], trad. it.(2021), Verità e metodo, in G. Vattimo (a cura di), Firenze-Milano, Bompiani, p. 193.
[3]	R. Graves, (1955), Greek Myths, trad. It. (1963), I miti greci, Milano, Longanesi. 1963, pp. 128-129.
[4]	Ruggero Eugeni, (2004), Analisi semiotica dell'immagine. Pittura, illustrazione, fotografia. Nuova edizione riveduta e aggiornata [Semiotic analysis of the image. Painting, illustration, photography. New revised and updated edition], Milano, Pubblicazioni dell'I.S.U. Università Cattolica, pp. 14-24.
[5]	Omar Calabrese, (1985), La macchina della pittura [The painting machine], Roma-Bari, Laterza., p. 9.
[6]	Marciari, J., (2019), Guercino Virtuoso Draftman, New York, Morgan Library, p. 17.
[7]	Alfio Giacomelli, (2002), “L’evoluzione socio-patrimoniale di una famiglia centese nel ‘500-’600. Un ramo della famiglia Fabri e l’acquisizione fortunosa del suo patrimonio al monastero bolognese di Santa Margherita” [The socio-patrimonial evolution of a family from Cento in the 1500s and 1600s. A branch of the Fabri family and the fortunate acquisition of its patrimony at the Bolognese monastery of Santa Margherita], in Le famiglie centesi. Atti del convegno di studi “17-18 novembre 2000, Cento, Indipendence Press, p. 102.
[8]	Giacomo Baruffaldi, (1844-46), Vite dei pittori e scultori ferraresi [Lives of the painters and sculptors of Ferrara], in G. Boschini, a cura di, II Ferrara, p. 473.
[9]	Elena Russo, (1991), Il Guercino e la sua Bottega [Guercino and his workshop], in Mostra delle incisioni, Ferrara, Catalogo mostra E.F.E.R., pp. 89-109.
[10]	See Turner, N., (2017), The Painting of Guercino. A Revised and Expanded Catalogue raisonné, Roma, Ugo Bozzi s.a.s., no. 32.
[11]	Cf. Denis Mahon, (1969), Il Guercino. Catalogo critico dei disegni, Bologna, Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio 1 settembre-18 novembre 1968 [Guercino. Critical catalog of drawings, Bologna, Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio 1 September-18 November 1968], Bologna, n. 39, 108. 110, 111, 162, 163, 173.
[12]	Algirdas Julien Greimas, (1991), “Semiotica figurativa e semiotica plastica” [Figurative semiotics and plastic semiotics], in L. Corrain e M. Valenti, a cura di, Leggere l'opera d'arte. Dal figurativo all'astratto, Bologna, Esculapio, pp. 37-38.
[13]	Algirdas Julien Greimas, (1994), Del senso 2. Narrativa, modalità, passioni [On Sense 2. Narrative, modality, passions], Milano, Bompiani., pp. 65-99.
[14]	On the model of the light bearer in modern art, see Lucia Corrain, (1996), Semiotica dell’invisibile. Il quadro a lume di notte [Semiotics of the invisible. The painting by light at night], Bologna, Esculapio, pp. 51-53.
[15]	Andrea Appiano, (1999), “Comunicare per immagini. Immagini per comunicare” [Communicate through images. Images to communicate], in S. Gensini, (eds.), Manuale della comunicazione, Roma, Carocci, p. 272.
[16]	Robert Graves, (1955), Greek Myths, trad. it, (1963), I miti greci, Milano, Longanesi, pp. 127-133.
[17]	Barbara Ghelfi, (2022), Guercino decoratore fra poesia del quotidiano e scelte tecniche [Guercino decorator between everyday poetry and technical choices], in D. Benati, B. Ghelfi, R. Morselli (eds.), Storia dell'arte, 157, 1/2022, p. 210.
[18]	Algirdas Julien Greimas, Teresa Mary Keane, (1999), “Cronach: la bellezza femminile” [Cronach: female beuty], in L. Corrain, (eds.), Leggere l'opera d'arte II. Dal Figurativo all'astratto, Bologna, Esculapio, p. 11.
[19]	Panofsky, E., (1955), Meaning in the Visual Arts. Papers in and on Art History, trad. it. (1996), Il significato delle arti visive, Torino, Einaudi, p. 35.
[20]	Roland Barthes, (1982), L'obvie et l'obtus. Essais critiques III [The obvious and the obtuse. Essays III], trad. It. (1985), L'ovvio e l'ottuso, Torino, Einaudi, pp. 36 ff.
[21]	Lucia Corrain, (1996), Semiotica dell’invisibile. Il quadro a lume di notte [Semiotics of the invisible. The painting by light at night], Bologna, Esculapio, pp 35-41.
[22]	Tarcisio Lancioni, (2009). Immagini narrate. Semiotica figurativa e testo letterario [Narrated images. Figurative semiotics and literary text], Milano, Mondadori, pp. 57-58.
[23]	Rudolf Arnheim, (1999), Arte e percezione visiva [Art and visual perception, Milano, Feltrinelli, p. 49.
[24]	Algirdas Julien Greimas, Teresa Mary Keane, (1999), “Cronach: la bellezza femminile” [Cronach: female beuty], in L. Corrain, (eds.), Leggere l'opera d'arte II. Dal Figurativo all'astratto, Bologna, Esculapio 1999, pp. 4-5.
[25]	Cf. Thürlemann, F., (1991), “La doppia spazialità in pittura: spazio simulato e topologia planare. A proposito di Loth e le figlie” [Double spatiality in painting: simulated space and planar topology. About Loth and his daughters], in L. Corrain, M. Valenti, a cura di, Leggere l'opera d'arte, Bologna, Esculapio, pp. 55-64.
[26]	Polidoro, P., (2008), Che cos'è la semiotica visiva [What is visual semiotics], Roma, Carocci, pp. 103-105.
[27]	Felix Thürlemann, (1991), “La doppia spazialità in pittura: spazio simulato e topologia planare. A proposito di Loth e le figlie” [Double spatiality in painting: simulated space and planar topology. About Loth and his daughters], in L. Corrain, M. Valenti, a cura di, Leggere l'opera d'arte, Bologna, Esculapio, p. 64.
[28]	Ruggero Eugeni, (2004), Analisi semiotica dell'immagine. Pittura, illustrazione, fotografia. Nuova edizione riveduta e aggiornata [Semiotic analysis of the image. Painting, illustration, photography. New revised and updated edition], Milano, Pubblicazioni dell'I.S.U. Università Cattolica, pp. 37-41.
[29]	Algirdas Julien Greimas, (1974), Del senso [On Sense], Milano, Bompiani, pp. 195-242.
[30]	On the subject of the reception of the Aeschyllean tragedies in Humanism, see, among others, Stefano Pagliaroli, S., (2011), “Per la fortuna di Eschilo nell’umanesimo” [For the Reception of Aeschylus into Humanism], in Itaca Quaderns Catalans de Cultura Clàsica, vol. 27, pp. 57-80, in part. 63-65.
[31]	Lucia Corrain, Tarcisio Lancioni, (2012), Geometrie del senso. Ripensare la semiotica dell’immagine a partire da La macchina della pittura [Geometries of meaning. Rethinking the semiotics of the image starting from The Painting Machine], in Galaxia, n. 24, p. 223.
[32]	Cf. Giorgio Cerri, (1975), Il linguaggio politico nel Prometeo di Eschilo. Saggio di semantica [Political language in Aeschylus' Prometheus. Semantics essay], Roma, Edizioni dell'Ateneo, pp. 27-44.
[33]	Cf. Nicosetta Roio, Emilio Negro, Massimo Pirondini, (2004), La scuola del Guercino [Guercino's art school], Modena, Artioli, p. 9.

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Masone, L. (2024). Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's Prometheus. Advances in Sciences and Humanities, 10(3), 39-45. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12

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Masone, L. Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's Prometheus. Adv. Sci. Humanit. 2024, 10(3), 39-45. doi: 10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12

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AMA Style

Masone L. Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's Prometheus. Adv Sci Humanit. 2024;10(3):39-45. doi: 10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12,
  author = {Leonardo Masone},
  title = {Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's Prometheus
},
  journal = {Advances in Sciences and Humanities},
  volume = {10},
  number = {3},
  pages = {39-45},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ash.20241003.12},
  abstract = {As happens in almost all eras, contemporary thinkers have been able to prepare new tools for understanding the historical phases that preceded them. Tools that have led to new disciplinary directions and new interpretative methods: think of semiotics which in relation to the artistic field has highlighted alternative exhibition languages for reading paintings; or to the philosophical question of symbolic politics. With these tools it has been possible to read the timeless myth of Prometheus with a decidedly original key and in the modern age we see a clear revival in the use of this myth, both in political essays, in philosophy, in literature and in art. Also because Prometheus brings with him many messages also based on how one wants to think of him, whether free to grant the flame to humanity or chained due to the punishment of Zeus. With this essay, we try to read the interpretation of Prometheus by one of the most important painters of the European seventeenth century, Giovan Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino who at the age of 25 decided to open the Academy of the Nude in his hometown, Cento between Bologna and Ferrara, for very young aspiring painters, and it is precisely in the rooms of that art school that he frescoed his first and only Prometheus in the act of granting flame to the inanimate clay statue. A gesture that marks the meaning of art considered one of the highest human virtues.
},
 year = {2024}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's Prometheus

AU  - Leonardo Masone
Y1  - 2024/08/30
PY  - 2024
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12
T2  - Advances in Sciences and Humanities
JF  - Advances in Sciences and Humanities
JO  - Advances in Sciences and Humanities
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EP  - 45
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2472-0984
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12
AB  - As happens in almost all eras, contemporary thinkers have been able to prepare new tools for understanding the historical phases that preceded them. Tools that have led to new disciplinary directions and new interpretative methods: think of semiotics which in relation to the artistic field has highlighted alternative exhibition languages for reading paintings; or to the philosophical question of symbolic politics. With these tools it has been possible to read the timeless myth of Prometheus with a decidedly original key and in the modern age we see a clear revival in the use of this myth, both in political essays, in philosophy, in literature and in art. Also because Prometheus brings with him many messages also based on how one wants to think of him, whether free to grant the flame to humanity or chained due to the punishment of Zeus. With this essay, we try to read the interpretation of Prometheus by one of the most important painters of the European seventeenth century, Giovan Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino who at the age of 25 decided to open the Academy of the Nude in his hometown, Cento between Bologna and Ferrara, for very young aspiring painters, and it is precisely in the rooms of that art school that he frescoed his first and only Prometheus in the act of granting flame to the inanimate clay statue. A gesture that marks the meaning of art considered one of the highest human virtues.

VL  - 10
IS  - 3
ER  -

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Leonardo Masone

Department of Humanistic Research and Innovation, University of Bari, Bari, Italy

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Masone, L. (2024). Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's Prometheus. Advances in Sciences and Humanities, 10(3), 39-45. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12

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Masone, L. Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's Prometheus. Adv. Sci. Humanit. 2024, 10(3), 39-45. doi: 10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12

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AMA Style

Masone L. Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's Prometheus. Adv Sci Humanit. 2024;10(3):39-45. doi: 10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12,
  author = {Leonardo Masone},
  title = {Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's Prometheus
},
  journal = {Advances in Sciences and Humanities},
  volume = {10},
  number = {3},
  pages = {39-45},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ash.20241003.12},
  abstract = {As happens in almost all eras, contemporary thinkers have been able to prepare new tools for understanding the historical phases that preceded them. Tools that have led to new disciplinary directions and new interpretative methods: think of semiotics which in relation to the artistic field has highlighted alternative exhibition languages for reading paintings; or to the philosophical question of symbolic politics. With these tools it has been possible to read the timeless myth of Prometheus with a decidedly original key and in the modern age we see a clear revival in the use of this myth, both in political essays, in philosophy, in literature and in art. Also because Prometheus brings with him many messages also based on how one wants to think of him, whether free to grant the flame to humanity or chained due to the punishment of Zeus. With this essay, we try to read the interpretation of Prometheus by one of the most important painters of the European seventeenth century, Giovan Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino who at the age of 25 decided to open the Academy of the Nude in his hometown, Cento between Bologna and Ferrara, for very young aspiring painters, and it is precisely in the rooms of that art school that he frescoed his first and only Prometheus in the act of granting flame to the inanimate clay statue. A gesture that marks the meaning of art considered one of the highest human virtues.
},
 year = {2024}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Semiotics and Symbolic Politics in the Reception of Seventeenth-Century Art: Reflections on Guercino's Prometheus

AU  - Leonardo Masone
Y1  - 2024/08/30
PY  - 2024
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12
T2  - Advances in Sciences and Humanities
JF  - Advances in Sciences and Humanities
JO  - Advances in Sciences and Humanities
SP  - 39
EP  - 45
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2472-0984
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ash.20241003.12
AB  - As happens in almost all eras, contemporary thinkers have been able to prepare new tools for understanding the historical phases that preceded them. Tools that have led to new disciplinary directions and new interpretative methods: think of semiotics which in relation to the artistic field has highlighted alternative exhibition languages for reading paintings; or to the philosophical question of symbolic politics. With these tools it has been possible to read the timeless myth of Prometheus with a decidedly original key and in the modern age we see a clear revival in the use of this myth, both in political essays, in philosophy, in literature and in art. Also because Prometheus brings with him many messages also based on how one wants to think of him, whether free to grant the flame to humanity or chained due to the punishment of Zeus. With this essay, we try to read the interpretation of Prometheus by one of the most important painters of the European seventeenth century, Giovan Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino who at the age of 25 decided to open the Academy of the Nude in his hometown, Cento between Bologna and Ferrara, for very young aspiring painters, and it is precisely in the rooms of that art school that he frescoed his first and only Prometheus in the act of granting flame to the inanimate clay statue. A gesture that marks the meaning of art considered one of the highest human virtues.

VL  - 10
IS  - 3
ER  -

Copy | Download