Item

Understanding Courtly Culture: The Series of Paintings in the Donjon of the Castle of Quart

Gandolfo, Federica
Citations
Altmetric:
Abstract
The Castle of Quart sees its most glorious time between its third construction, in 1261, and the fall of the dynasty of its lords, in 1377. This period, politically speaking, is one of the most interesting in the history of Valle d’Aosta. Indeed, a new form of government is starting to take shape, while the power is contended among the Savoia family, who rule on the region, the single lords, who acquire more and more territories to reaffirm their control, and the Church, who had been unofficially in charge up until then. The paintings in the donjon of the Castle of Quart date back to this period of political uncertainty, in particular the 1270’s. The fragments survived, recovered with a descialbo intervention in recent years, show that the room was meant to be richly decorated with an unprecedented combination of themes, whose interpretation is still a matter of speculation for scholars. Considering that the paintings have been only recently recovered, and that restoration and conservation works in the castle are still going on, it is hard to define with certainty the role the castle and its inhabitants had in the Middle Ages. The starting research question focused on the meaning that such a combination of images could have in a castle later abandoned and almost forgotten. The aim of this thesis is to show the interest that such paintings must have raised in any kind of audience of the time, through the analysis of the single themes both in relation to the valley and its land, and to the rest of Europe. This will be realized giving an insight on the themes represented in the donjon and on the possible parallelisms with similar works in central Europe, in relation to the history of the lords of Quart and of the Savoia family and their respective roles in Valle d’Aosta.
Description
Thesis (B.A. in Art History)--John Cabot University, Spring 2019.
Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Quart Castle, Paintings
Citation
Gandolfo, Federica. "Understanding Courtly Culture: The Series of Paintings in the Donjon of the Castle of Quart". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2019.
DOI
URL
License
Embedded videos