The Aldobrandini Wedding is a Roman wall painting from the time of the Emperor Augustus, discovered about 1605 and named for its original owners. It shows ten figures in an interior. The central figure, all scholars agree, is a veiled bride; therefore the scene involves a wedding. For almost two centuries it was the only well-known example of large-scale ancient painting. The famous fresco' s archaeological history and its influence upon the artists and intellectuals of nearly four centuries--including Rubens, Peiresc, van Dyck, Cortona, Poussin, Winckelmann, Goethe, and David--are traced in this full-length study, the first in the English language, and the first extensive study since 1907. Relevant earlier material is made available and evaluated. The present work also includes all recent scholarship, presents a new interpretation in the context of current classical research--especially in Roman studies--and offers a new iconographic analysis. / The fresco's history became inextricably involved with a famous copy attributed to Poussin, disallowed only in this century. Documentation of this copy is extensively dealt with for the first time, demonstrating that the copy was credited to Poussin by the original owners, the dal Pozzo family. / The scholarly controversy over the interpretation of the fresco is summarized, with a list of the twenty-eight different theories concerning the figures in the scene. A comparative study of the customs of Greek and Roman marriage identifies the fresco's bride as Roman, and involves a significant comparison to the Bacchic marriage in the great frieze of the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii. The two central deities flanking the bride of the Wedding are identified as Bacchus and Ariadne, prototypes of happy marriage; the argument demonstrates the importance of Bacchus/Liber as a god of fertility, increase, and marriage, especially in the Augustan period. This aspect of Bacchus, seldom recognized, is agricultural and procreative, and extends to Ariadne as his wife. The married gods are traced through their imagery, despite name-changes in Roman (Bacchus/Liber/Mutinus-Tutinus and Venus/Libera/Ariadne), in Etruscan (Fufluns and Vesuna/Ariatha), and in Greek culture (Dionysos and Ariadne). Archaic Priapic Dionysos is shown to be Liber Pater, coarsely nicknamed. Ariadne's greatest significance, despite her early involvement with Theseus, was as a bridal figure, and her greatest importance was through her immortalizing marriage to the god. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-03, Section: A, page: 0647. / Major Professor: Nancy Thomson de Grummond. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76583 |
| Contributors | DuRette, B. Underwood., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 471 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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