Hiding Art, Hiding Codes and the Comic Strategies of Total Disappearing / Yiannis Melanitis
Yiannis Melanitis
Chapters:
Hiding Art, Hiding Codes and the Comic Strategies of Total Disappearing/
The artist, hidden inside the work of art/
Hiding human code inside an insect/ Artists’ Name as a Camouflage Tool/ Mimesis turns comical/The performance If You Cannot Be An Owl, Masquerade Like A Butterfly on the Isola di San Michele
Yiannis Melanitis
Chapters:
Hiding Art, Hiding Codes and the Comic Strategies of Total Disappearing/
The artist, hidden inside the work of art/
Hiding human code inside an insect/ Artists’ Name as a Camouflage Tool/ Mimesis turns comical/The performance If You Cannot Be An Owl, Masquerade Like A Butterfly on the Isola di San Michele
Image 9. Hercules as infant. A sublime archetype may suffer a ridiculoustransformation. Musei Capitolini, Rome.Imitation of Roman art above the Greek model also produced a series of comic distortions.
Image10. Portrait of Nano Morgante Agnolo Bronzino, 1552. / The portrait of Dwarf Morgante,the most famous of the five buffoons who lived at the court of Cosimo I de’ Medici, at the PittiPalace, the place where this legendary character – then known as Braccio di Bartolo – spent mostof his life. “Bronzino then made for Duke Cosimo a full-length portrait of the dwarf Morgante,showed nude, and from two perspectives – namely, with the front on one side of the picture, andthe back on the other, presenting the bizarre and monstrous semblance flaunted by that dwarf;whereas Bronzino’s painting, in that genre, is usually beautiful and marvellous” (Vasari, Life ofBronzino). The canvas is painted on both sides; it portrays the dwarf as a “fowler”, or birdcatcher,as he was not allowed to hunt larger animals, this being an activity reserved for charactersof higher ranks. The character is portrayed respectively from the front and back at two subsequentmoments of the action: at the front we see him before the hunt, holding an owl in a snare to beused as a bait to capture a jay that is flying in the air. Two scarce swallowtail butterflies cover hisgenitals; these were discovered recently when the painting was last restored. From behind, wesee him just about to turn towards the viewer, eager to proudly show off his prey. At the time,Bronzino was embroiled in the debate on “the competition” (the dispute on the supremacy ofpainting over sculpture). By painting a canvas from various perspectives Bronzino put his moneywhere his mouth was, proving wrong those who favored sculpture in the belief that it offered morePortrait of Nano Morgante, Agnolo Bronzino , 1552, Uffizi Gallery,Portrait of Nano Morgante, Agnolo Bronzino , 1552, Uffizi Gallery,
- Page 1 and 2: YIANNIS MELANITISI f You Can n ot B
- Page 3: An example of hidden coding is the
- Page 6: Images 13-16 : Transgenic Leda Mela
- Page 9 and 10: By developmental terms, genes contr
- Page 11 and 12: [The artist hidden inside artistic
- Page 13 and 14: image 18: The birth of Athena: Athe
- Page 15: image 23, © Donald L. J. Quicke.
- Page 20: If You Cannot Be An Owl,Masquerade
- Page 23 and 24: If You Cannot Be An Owl, Masquerade
- Page 25 and 26: YIANNIS MELANITISthree acts of rapi
- Page 28: Image stills from the authors’ pe
- Page 31: The performance If You Cannot Be An
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- Page 37 and 38: Yiannis MelanitisYiannis Melanitisa
Image10. Portrait of Nano Morgante Agnolo Bronzino, 1552. / The portrait of Dwarf Morgante,
the most famous of the five buffoons who lived at the court of Cosimo I de’ Medici, at the Pitti
Palace, the place where this legendary character – then known as Braccio di Bartolo – spent most
of his life. “Bronzino then made for Duke Cosimo a full-length portrait of the dwarf Morgante,
showed nude, and from two perspectives – namely, with the front on one side of the picture, and
the back on the other, presenting the bizarre and monstrous semblance flaunted by that dwarf;
whereas Bronzino’s painting, in that genre, is usually beautiful and marvellous” (Vasari, Life of
Bronzino). The canvas is painted on both sides; it portrays the dwarf as a “fowler”, or birdcatcher,
as he was not allowed to hunt larger animals, this being an activity reserved for characters
of higher ranks. The character is portrayed respectively from the front and back at two subsequent
moments of the action: at the front we see him before the hunt, holding an owl in a snare to be
used as a bait to capture a jay that is flying in the air. Two scarce swallowtail butterflies cover his
genitals; these were discovered recently when the painting was last restored. From behind, we
see him just about to turn towards the viewer, eager to proudly show off his prey. At the time,
Bronzino was embroiled in the debate on “the competition” (the dispute on the supremacy of
painting over sculpture). By painting a canvas from various perspectives Bronzino put his money
where his mouth was, proving wrong those who favored sculpture in the belief that it offered more
Portrait of Nano Morgante, Agnolo Bronzino , 1552, Uffizi Gallery,
Portrait of Nano Morgante, Agnolo Bronzino , 1552, Uffizi Gallery,
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