Chapter 10 Sculpture’s Narrativity in Northern Renaissance Prints
In: Sculpture in Print, 1480–1600Search for other papers by Franciszek Skibiński in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
This paper explores how images of sculptures were used as narrative devices in 16th century Northern European prints. To serve a narrative purpose images of sculptures were often detached from their original referents, reworked and redefined to fit a different subject. In this capacity they served as a device reaching into the structure of narrative time, contextualizing a scene and enhancing its narrative potential. Absorbed by a different culture, images of sculptures gained new connotations, and their impact extended beyond artistic and humanistic interests. As a result, they became potent devices capable of invoking various associations. Images of sculptures could then pass into a visual discourse in many ways, retaining their sculptural character or being transformed into living figures, largely independent of their actual referents. In every case they were an object of negotiation and thus a convenient tool in building a complex semantic structure characterizing Northern prints.