Abstract: The subject of this article is the painting “Penitent Magdalene” by Titian (middle 1530’s, Florence, Palatine Gallery). The key research goal lies in demonstration of the origins of artist’s message and determine the its potential literary prototype. Raising the question in such form is substantiated by the explicit erotic intonations expressed in the painting, which do not quite align with the religious content of Titian’s work, unless it implies the contrast juxtaposition of the erotica and piousness of the conscious stylistic device. Thus, the author attempts to find a possible literary prototype that would contain similar contrast. The research method consists in the search of conceptual parallels between the content of Titian’s “Penitent Magdalene” and Pietro Aretino’s “The Humanity of Christ” (1535). The main result lies in determination of the essence of artistic method of Titian in painting the “Penitent Magdalene”, which consists in the stylistics device of contraposition borrowed from P. Aretion. Its application, reflected in contrast juxtaposition of the successful harlot to her own image as a repenting sinner, allowed justifying the presence of erotic motives in the painting as an expressive antithesis to her soul’s aspiration towards God.

Abstract: The subject of this research is a group of artworks of the Venetian Renaissance, united by depiction of the same creative theme – the image of Saint Jerome, Christian writer and priest, among the rural nature. Its composition in the local school is associated with the spread within Venetian society of the humanistic ideal of contemplative recreation, embodies in the image of the Saint, at times, identified with the persona of Renaissance humanist. Special attention is given to the works of the leading artists of the local school of painters – Giovanni Bellini, Lorenzo Lotto, Titian, which reflect the evolution of such image, since the influence of the principles of humanism, and later affected by ideological orientations of Counterreformation. The research method consists in examination of the various iconographic types of image of the Saint, giving special attention to the analysis of artistic construct of the demonstrated scene and principles of compositional organization surrounding the landscape, as well as the combination of landscape and human figure in format of a painting. The scientific novelty is defined by the fact that the author is first to trace the historical evolution of depiction of Saint Jerome in the Venetian art, as well as demonstration of appearance of the new iconographic scheme, which represented the Christian theologian contemplating among the nature, similar to a classical philosopher. Its realization was limited by the first two decades of the XVI century, after which the painters came back to depiction of Saint Jerome corresponding with the requirements of the religious dogmatics.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the group of picturesque oeuvres of Venetian Renaissance depicting young women, which can be attributed as the portraits of “beauties” popular in art of the XVI century. Such works signify the complicated semantics of its creative content, first and foremost, associated with the philosophical concept of the ideal beauty accepted in spiritual culture of the Renaissance. Their consideration in the context of Renaissance philosophy allows providing a fuller description of the metaphoric world of the paintings, as well as more precisely determining the context of the categories applied to the concept of female beauty in representations of the Renaissance era. The research method consists in search for the conceptual parallels between portraits of the “beauties” and positions of the philosophical teaching on beauty presented in treatise of Agnolo Firenzuola “On the Beauty of Women”. The found analogies allow spotting in portraits of the “beauties” a variety of “visual treatise” about the ideal essence of beauty. They were assigned with a role of so-called aesthetic mediators in the process of its perception, because the basic meaning of such oeuvres in spiritual parlance of the Renaissance lied in transformation of the desire to be beautiful towards strive for comprehending its true sublime nature and its admiration.  

Abstract: The subject of this article is an in-depth examination of the views on nature and rural life prevalent in Venice during the Renaissance era, which was considered moral and worthy of a noble person. The main sources for this work are the agricultural treatises of Agostino Gallo "Ten Days of Real Agriculture and Pleasures of the Villa" (Brescia, 1564) and Giuseppe Falcone "A New, Charming and Pleasant Villa" (Brescia, 1559). The examination of these texts enriches with new information our knowledge regarding the cultural life of the educated Venetians of the 16th century and their daily living habits. The author's research method is based on the extraction of information from agricultural treatises relevant to our study, whose content was closely tied to reality and which inform us of the nature of an important historical source that allows us to reconstruct in general outlines the typical setup of provincial life characteristic of the studied epoch. The research novelty of this study consists in it analyzing the text of agricultural treatises in terms of what advantages were associated with the way of life on an estate, and what values of a moral order were associated with it. Turning to these sources illustrates how they also contain valuable information about the due organization of the living setup in a country villa, reflecting the real practice of living arrangements.

Abstract: The subject of the research is the iconography and interpretation of the creative content of the frescoes series made by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo after 1565 in Villa Caldogno near Vicenza. The interpretation of the frescoes is based on the comparison of the narrative content of the frescoes with the descriptions of the country life in rural treatises of the second half of the 16th century such as Agostino Gallo's The Twenty Days Of Agriculture And The Pleasures Of The Villa (Brescian, 1564), Gioseppe Falcone's New Lovely and Pleasant Villa (Brescian, 1559) and Alberto Lollio A Letter In Praise of Villa (Venice, 1544). Such comparison allows to get a better insight into certain everyday life motifs as well as to understand a deep aesthetic meaning of the country life style as it was viewed by people of that epoch. The scientific novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author demonstrates iconographic parallels to Fasolo's genre paintings in both texts and artwork of the Ancient and Renaissance literature that described the country life as a decent life of a nobleman. For the first time in the academic literature the author of the article traces back sources of the creative message of fresco series in Villa Caldogno that can be found in preceding artistic tradition of the Venetian art and cast light on their semantics. The outcome of the research is that along with clarifying individual semantic aspects of each particular plot, the author of the article also manages to define the message of the entire series which was the idea of villa as a harmonious universe and perfect life order. From this point of view, everyday life in a villa is viewed as the foundation of life existence that is the best for the human nature.