Discourse on Sacred and Profane Images
Gabriele Paleotti1582

In the wake of the Counter-Reformation, Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, the archbishop of Bologna, wrote a remarkable treatise during a time when the Church feared rampant abuse in the arts. Translated into english here for the first time, Paleotti's Discourse on Sacred and Profane Images argues that art should adress a broad audience and explain the painter's responsibility to his spectator. The Discourse is introduced by historian Paolo Prodi, who explains how - even if the archbishop did not succeed in reforming the art - Paleotti's treatise constituted one last synthesis of art as a reading of creation and salvation history, and "sacred" art as a vehicle of devotion.

Titre original : Discorso intorno alle imagini sacre e profane (1582)