H-ART. Revista de historia, teoría y crítica de arte

hart. Rev. Hist. Teor. Crit. Arte | eISSN 2590-9126 | ISSN 2539-2263

The First Painted Image of America in Europe: A Detail from Pinturicchio’s Resurrection in the Sala dei Misteri

No. 8 (2021-01-01)
  • Andrés H. Rubiano
    Tiene una maestría en Historia del Arte del Courtauld Institute of Art y una maestría en Filosofía de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Su trabajo se ha centrado en el Renacimiento italiano del Quattrocento, en particular en el intercambio de imágenes entre el arte neerlandés y florentino, y en la representación visual de Europa sobre el Nuevo Mundo.
https://doi.org/10.25025/hart08.2021.13

Abstract

The article analyses the Resurrection of Christ, a fresco commissioned from Pinturicchio by Pope Alexander VI in 1492 as part of his project to renovate the Borgia Apartments in the Vatican. The analysis focuses on a detail of the painting: the figures of what seems to be a group of indigenous warriors located at the centre of the fresco. The main purpose of the paper is to identify the iconographic meaning and sources of this particular image. The central claim is that Pinturicchio used specific scenes from Christopher Columbus’s Diario to create, biased by a misconception of the New World, the first painted image of America in Europe.

Keywords: New World, Alexander VI, Renaissance, Pinturicchio, Quattrocento, 1492, America

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