Nuovi dati e considerazioni sulla biografia e gli scritti di Carlo Bianconi che emergono principalmente dallo spoglio di materiale archivistico inedito. Con questo studio viene ad essere chiarita la fase formativa di Bianconi cresciuto in una casa di bibliofili e collezionisti d’arte. Aggiornato sulle elaborazioni teoriche di Winckelmann e Mengs entrambi conosciuti personalmente, lo vedono progressivamente avvicinarsi e aderire ai modi del classicismo, mediato anche dal rapporto instaurato con Francesco Algarotti, a cui viene in questa sede ridato valore. Uno spiraglio viene aperto sul biennio trascorso a Roma, la frequentazione del cardinale Albani e sul viaggio a Napoli con importanti risvolti per la sua maturazione intellettuale. Seguono i motivi della scelta di Bianconi a segretario dell’Accademia di Brera, le sue iniziative a livello didattico e il rapporto con Carlo di Firmian. Vengono, di volta in volta ricordati i suoi numerosi corrispondenti, la sua produzione figurativa e soprattutto commentati i suoi scritti editi (guide di Bologna e Milano) e inediti (Vitruvio, scritti teorici sull’origine dell’architettura e dell’incisione, orazioni) e riconsiderata la collaborazione all’Enciclopedia Metodica di Pietro Zani. Artista, collezionista, scrittore d’arte e insegnante, immerso in una temperie di matrice razionalista è precoce assertore dei dettami del nuovo gusto per il classico. / New information and analysis about Carlo Bianconi’s biography and writings mainly appear from unpublished archival material bare. This work allows to clarify the education of Bianconi, who grew up in a family of bibliophiles and art collectors. He kept abreast of theoretical development of Winckelmann and Mengs, who personally knew and he gradually moved closer and accepted the models of the classicism that was also mediated by the relationship established with Francesco Algarotti, who is here reevaluate. Regarding his two-year period spent in Rome, the relationship with the Cardinal Albani and moreover his trip to Naples, a glimmer is opened, with important implications for his intellectual maturity. Furthermore, there are: the reason regarding the choice of Bianconi as Secretary of the Academy of Brera, his educational initiatives and the relationship with Carlo di Firmian. From time to time, his many correspondents, his figurative works of art and especially his published writings were commented (for example the guide of Bologna and Milan) and his unpublished writings (such as Vitruvius, theoretical writings on the origin of architecture and engraving, orations) are remembered and also the collaboration with the Enciclopedia Metodica of Pietro Zani is reconsidered. Artist, collector, art writer and teacher, immersed in a climate of a Rationalism, he is a early supporter of the new taste for the classic.

This thesis explores the reception of Johann Joachim Winckelmann in Italian art scholarship, 1755-1834. Winckelmann posed a problem: he was a presence in Italy that could not be ignored, yet the views he expounded were Italophobic and contentious to an Italian readership. In light of this dilemma, the research question asked is how did Italian art scholarship respond to Winckelmann in this period and why did it respond in that way. The core argument advanced is that there were two opposing reactions to Winckelmann, both of which were motivated by nationalism. On the one hand, Italian art scholars presented Winckelmann, his works, and his views as less attractive to an Italian readership than they would otherwise have appeared and, on the other hand, they presented him as more attractive. Through these reactions – termed foreignization and domestication respectively – art scholarship either defended against and ostracized Winckelmann or, when presented as less offensive, welcomed and embraced him amongst Italians. Thus this thesis argues that both reactions demonstrate a nationalistic attempt to portray Winckelmann in the manner most auspicious to the yet-to-be-united peninsula. In order to explore this response to the German scholar, the thesis centres on three media: translations, art literature, and artistic journalism. Both foreignization and domestication are evident throughout the sources analysed, yet there is a predominance of domestication, achieved through a variety of methods. This investigation adds to existing literature by examining the previously overlooked dilemma that Winckelmann posed. Moreover, employing the original conceptual framework of foreignization and domestication allows for a re-evaluation of how the art scholarship of the period engaged with the German scholar. Finally, demonstrating the infiltration of nationalistic sentiment in this period, even extending to Italian art scholarship, this thesis is the first to posit that nationalism played a significant role in Winckelmann's critical legacy.

From the viewpoint of classical reception studies, I am asking what contemporary British art (by, for example, Sarah Lucas, Damien Hirst, and Mark Wallinger) has to do with the classical tradition – both the art and literature of Greco-Roman antiquity. I have conducted face-to-face interviews with some of the leading artists working in Britain today, including Lucas, Hirst, Wallinger, Marc Quinn, and Gilbert & George. In addition to contemporary art, the thesis focuses on Greco-Roman art and on myths and modes of looking that have come to shape the western art historical tradition – seeking to offer a different perspective on them from that of the Renaissance and neoclassicism. The thesis concentrates on the generation of artists known as the YBAs, or Young British Artists, who came to prominence in the 1990s. These artists are not renowned for their deference to the classical tradition, and are widely regarded as having turned their backs on classical art and its legacies. The introduction asks whether their work, which has received little scholarly attention, might be productively reassessed from the perspective of classical reception studies. It argues that while their work no longer subscribes to a traditional understanding of classical ‘influence’, it continues to depend – for its power and provocativeness – on classical concepts of figuration, realism, and the basic nature of art. Without claiming that the work of the YBAs is classical or classicizing, the thesis sets out to challenge the assumption that their work has nothing to do with ancient art, or that it fails to conform to ancient understandings of what art is. In order to do this, the thesis analyses contemporary works of art through three classical ‘lenses’. Each lens allows contemporary art to be examined in the context of a longer history. The first lens is the concept of realism, as seen in artistic and literary explorations of the relationship between art and life. This chapter uses the myth of Pygmalion’s statue as a way of thinking about contemporary art’s continued engagement with ideas of mimesis and the ‘real’ which were theorised and debated in antiquity. The second lens is corporeal fragmentation, as evidenced by the broken condition of ancient statues, the popular theme of dismemberment in western art, and the fragmentary body in contemporary art. The final chapter focuses on the figurative plaster cast, arguing that contemporary art continues to invoke and reinvent the long tradition of plaster reproductions of ancient statues and bodies. Through each of these ‘lenses’, I argue that contemporary art remains linked, both in form and meaning, to the classical past – often in ways which go beyond the stated intentions of an artist. Contemporary art continues to be informed by ideas and processes that were theorised and practised in the classical world; indeed, it is these ideas and processes that make it deserving of the art label.