Francisco de Hollanda completed Da pintura antigua in 1548, eight years after the young Portuguese humanist, painter, and architect had spent two years in Italy. Book I is the first Portuguese treatise on the theory and practice of painting. In contrast to Italian texts on artistic theory, which define painting as the imitation of nature, Hollanda’s treatise, influenced by Neoplatonism, develops a theory of the painter as an original creator guided by divine inspiration. Book II, “Dialogues in Rome,” is a record of three conversations with Michelangelo, Vittoria Colonna, and members of their circle and a fourth with Giulio Clovio. It is the most informative and intimate intellectual portrait of Michelangelo before the biographies by Vasari and Condivi.
Alice Sedgwick Wohl is an independent scholar and translator. Joaquim Oliveira Caetano is Curator of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon.Charles Hope is the retired former director of the Warburg Institute in London.Hellmut Wohl is Professor Emeritus of Art History at Boston University.
IntroductionNote on the Early Years of the Portuguese EmpireAlice Sedgwick WohlFrancisco de Hollanda (1517–1584): The Fascination of Rome and the Times in PortugalJoaquim Oliveira CaetanoFrancisco de Hollanda and Art Theory, Humanism, and Neoplatonism in ItalyCharles HopeOn Antique PaintingBook IPrologueChapter I: How God Was a PainterChapter II: What Painting IsChapter III: On the First PaintersChapter IV: Which Was the Fatherland of PaintingChapter V: When Painting Was Lost, and When It Was RediscoveredChapter VI: How the Holy Mother Church Preserves PaintingChapter VII: What the Painter Must BeChapter VIII: What Sciences Are of Use to the PainterChapter IX: By What Means the Painter Must LearnChapter X: The Second Thing from Which He Must LearnChapter XI: The Difference of AntiquityChapter XII: Why Antique Painting Is Celebrated and What It IsChapter XIII: How the Precept of Antique Painting Spread Through the Whole WorldChapter XIV: Concerning Some Precepts of Antiquity, and First, Concerning the InventionChapter XV: Concerning the Idea, What It Is in PaintingChapter XVI: In What the Power of Painting ConsistsChapter XVII: Of the Proportion of the BodyChapter XVIII: On AnatomyChapter XIX: On PhysiognomyChapter XX: Precept for Antique Figures Standing StillChapter XXI: On Antique Figures That Move or Walk or Run or FightChapter XXII: On Antique Figures That Are Seated and [Those That Are] RecumbentChapter XXIII: On Antique Equestrian StatuesChapter XXIV: On the Ornament and Costume of the Ancients in Their ImagesChapter XXV: On Painting AnimalsChapter XXVI: On the Composition of Antique HistoriasChapter XXVII: On Painting Sacred Images, and First, Images of Our SaviorChapter XXVIII: On Painting Images of the InvisibleChapter XXIX: On the Divine ImageChapter XXX: On Other Images of the Invisible, Such as the VirtuesChapter XXXI: On Invisible Forms Such as the VicesChapter XXXII: On Painting Purgatory and HellChapter XXXIII: On Painting Eternity and Glory, and the WorldChapter XXXIV: On Light or Brightness in PaintingChapter XXXV: On Shade and Darkness in PaintingChapter XXXVI: On Black and WhiteChapter XXXVII: On the ColorsChapter XXXVIII: On Decorum or DecencyChapter XXXIX: On PerspectiveChapter XL: On the Point at Which the Painting ConvergesChapter XLI: On ForeshorteningChapter XLII: On Statuary Painting or SculptureChapter XLIII, Part 1: On Painting as ArchitectChapter XLIII, Part 2: On Painting as ArchitectChapter XLIV, Part 1: On All the Types and Modes of PaintingChapter XLIV, Part 2: On All the Types and Modes of PaintingTable of Some Rules for PaintingBook IIPrologueFirst DialogueSecond DialogueThird DialogueFourth DialogueTable of the Famous Modern Painters Whom They Call EaglesProverbs About PaintingRemembranceAppendix A: Chronology of Popes and RulersAppendix B: Works by Francisco de HollandaGlossaryBibliographySubject IndexIndex of Names and Places
“As the only English translation of this significant Renaissance treatise, On Antique Painting marks a contribution not only to the field of Portuguese literature but also to the study of humanism during the Renaissance.”—Barbara von Barghahn, George Washington University