Ornament & illusion - Oliver Tostmann

Accompanying an exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston,this catalogue explores one of the most important but historically neglectedpainters of the Italian Renaissance, Carlo Crivelli (c. 1435-c. 1495). Venetian bybirth but shaped by formative experiences in Padua, Crivelli embarked on acareer that spanned both sides of the Adriatic. His extraordinary success led to avirtual monopoly in the Marches, where he dominated the market for toweringaltarpieces and jewel-like paintings for private devotion in the second half ofthe fi fteenth century. Pushing the boundaries between painting and sculpture,his works are distinguished by their radically expressive compositions, luxuriantornamental display and bravura illusionism.Seven essays challenge the prevailing view of Crivelli as a provincial artistworking in an anachronistic 'Gothic' style, investigate the remarkable facture ofhis paintings, and shed new light on his rediscovery by collectors. RepositioningCrivelli's contributions within wider developments in the history of westernart, Stephen J. Campbell (Johns Hopkins University), C. Jean Campbell (EmoryUniversity), Thomas Golsenne (cole Nationale Suprieure d'Art de Nice),and Alison Wright (University College London) reveal his artistic ambition.Crivelli is reevaluated as an experimental artist who masterfully manipulatedthe surfaces of his paintings into visionary encounters with the divine, forgeda modern icon, and off ered a powerful alternative to new models of paintingassociated with Florence. Gianfranco Pocobene (Isabella Stewart GardnerMuseum) examines the technical facility that underpins Crivelli's dazzlingpictorial eff ects and publishes the results of the fi rst ever technical analysison the Gardner's Saint George and the Dragon. Essays by Francesco De Carolis(Universit di Bologna) and Oliver Tostmann (Wadsworth Athenaeum)investigate the painter's critical fortunes. The former explores the dispersal ofCrivelli's works in nineteenth-century Italy and their role in shaping his modernreputation, while the latter examines the American taste for Crivelli in the earlytwentieth century.The catalogue refl ects the iconographic range of his images. Entries writtenby a team of scholars in Europe and the United States include new insights andup-to-date bibliography for twenty-three paintings and Crivelli's only survivingdrawing on paper.