Il progetto di Antonio Cadei per un manuale sull'arte del Duecento

Author: Carola Delpino
Abstract

ENGLISH
The Project by Antonio Cadei for a handbook on 13th Century Art

After his death, an unpublished and unfinished manuscript by Antonio Cadei concerning the art of the 13th century was found among his papers. The work had been commissioned by the publisher UTET and Cadei was involved in the project by Angiola Maria Romanini in the late 80s.
The book was initially structured in twenty chapters, covering the entire span of the 13th century, but Cadei only wrote the first six and sketched another two. The scholar initially followed the index that had been provided, but later decided to reorganize it in a different way; he first presented the general issues and the iconographic themes and then analyzed specific case studies.
The material recovered is divided into the following chapters: Classicism of the thirteenth century; Problems of terminology; Rational and secular Middle Ages; The gothic cathedral in the early thirteenth century; Sculpture of the cathedrals; Stained glass windows. Additionally, there is also some discussion on northeastern Europe and medieval castles.
The material mentioned shows varying degrees of achievement and includes research interests and fields of study cultivated by the scholar, on subjects that he had already published on or that he would have treated in later publications.
The arrangement by general themes rather than works and places provides a good overwiew of art history problems and provides the reader with a proper methodology for the study of this subject.

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