Night Thoughts on Italian Poetry and Art: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered before the University of Cambridge on 16 November 1983Professor Boyde's extremely readable study is a survey of the representation of night and associated themes in the work of some of Italy's greatest painters and poets, including Michelangelo, Leonardo, Dante, and Petrarch. He shows that this apparently unrewarding and un-Italian theme called forth both fine and eminently characteristic work from each artist in turn, and that this work is quintessentially Italian in its formal perfection, intellectual vigour, and creative use of the past. |
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1514 Raphael painted 1620 when Rembrandt Aeneid Arezzo devoted Bassano and Caravaggio Betrayal of Christ Bolognese artist Guercino Cambridge Canto Chair of Italian ciel Clorinda Constantine who lies Correggio Dante deeply romantic colour early 1450s Piero earth Edward Young equally well-known scene eye cannot rid farai figure Fitzwilliam Museum foco Francesca had painted fuoco further off-make giovinezza Gray heaven heavenly messenger playing ideas Italian poetry Italy Jacopo Bassano Kenneth Clark La Notte Leonardesque gestures atti Leonardo was struggling Leonardo's imagination Leopardi lover Michelangelo modern close-up photograph moon mortal Night Thoughts notte Orlando Furioso passage penumbra Petrarch pieces of Rembrandt Piero della Francesca pletely at variance poet poetry and art reddish glow relatively unsympathetic medium remove from Leonardo Reproduced by permission simile sleep somno source of light sources of nocturnal striking night scenes strong images created supernatural light irradiating surprisingly modern close-up Tancredi Tasso terra theme Tintoretto Titian True Cross Virgil