'Gli Asolani' and some Venetian paintings of the early cinquecento

This dissertation argues a close correlation between several Venetian paintings of the early-cinquecento and Pietro Bembo's vernacular dialogue, Gli Asolani (1505). One painting by Lorenzo Lotto (ca. 1505), one by Palma Vecchio (ca. 1515), and five paintings by Titian (ca. 1515) are the subject of these essays. In them I discuss poetic invention, feminine and masculine ideals, Classicism, Petrarchism, and Neoplatonism that are present in the text and also appear in the paintings.;My primary methodology is textual. I draw comparisons between the literary text and the paintings. I also consider the cultural context, including manuscripts, letters and biographical evidence, to confirm these comparisons. Additionally, I address the artists' invention by considering how their paintings fit within the Venetian and northern-Italian pictorial traditions and how they reflect the goals of Venetian painting outlined in Paolo Pino's Dialogo di pittura (1548), the first Venetian treatise on painting.;Each of these paintings parallels some aspect Bembo's text. Lorenzo Lotto's A Maiden's Dream is a poetic invention like one of Bembo's Petrarchan poems. Three portraits by Titian, the Halifax Portrait of a Man, the Galleria Spada Portrait of a Musician, and the Frick Man in a Red Cap, all ca. 1515, conform to the masculine ideal of the humanist/courtier that emerged in Gli Asolani. Several paintings of women, all ca. 1515, reflect ideals of love and beauty presented within Gli Asolani. Titian's Flora compares to Gismondo's sensuous prose description, an ideal of beauty prevalent in vernacular literature. In Titian's Sacred and Profane Love, the woman in white mirrors the courtly Petrarchan beauty in one of Lavinello's canzoni, and the nude figure embodies Neoplatonic ideals of love and beauty discussed by the Hermit at the end of the dialogue. Palma Vecchio's La Bella reflects the enriched Petrarchan ideal in another of Lavinello's canzoni. Sacred and Profane Love contains a multitude of additional reference to the argument of Gli Asolani, notably its Neoplatonic ideas and structure, which contribute significantly to the painting's meaning. Titian created the painting during a time when Bembo, a friend of the patron, visited Venice and republished Gli Asolani .