The paper aims to analyse the centre and periphery paradigm in art history by comparing two seminal contributions of Croatian and Italian scholarship: Ljubo Karaman’s Problemi periferijske umjetnosti (1963) and Enrico Castelnuovo’s and Carlo Ginzburg’s Centro e periferia (1979). Despite only sixteen years separating them, these contributions present an opposite approach in many respects. The paper will debate the reasons for this very different perspective contextualising the authors and their objectives. Karaman, Castelnuovo and Ginzburg belonged to different generations in the first instance, and their formation differed significantly. Educated in early twentieth-century Vienna, Karaman was one of the first Croatian art historians and sought to establish working categories about centre and periphery for the next generations. The art historian Castelnuovo and the historian Ginzburg had quite the opposite view. Educated in post-war Italy, they attempted to dismantle a deeply rooted paradigm in Italian art history since Giorgio Vasari and Luigi Lanzi. If Karaman attempted to play the pars construens in the historiography discourse, Castelnuovo and Ginzburg performed the pars destruens. This opposite aspect of the two essays reflects the different professional settings in which the authors worked. On the one hand, Karaman’s operative attitude adopted in the conservation office needed a constructive theory easy to implement. On the other hand, Castelnuovo’s and Ginzburg’s academic environment permitted an entirely theoretical approach that could freely explore and criticise the historiographical construction from its very beginning. Finally, the paper intends to analyse the impact of the two essays in Croatian and Italian art history. To do this, it will consider some relevant examples showing the different approaches applied to some shared subjects, such as the art of the Adriatic basin. By comparing these different perspectives, the paper will give new and multifaceted insights into the centre and periphery paradigm.

Different perspectives on the centre-periphery paradigm: Karaman and Castelnbuovo-Ginzburg in comparison

Guarneri, Cristiano;Ivić, Ines
2024-01-01

Abstract

The paper aims to analyse the centre and periphery paradigm in art history by comparing two seminal contributions of Croatian and Italian scholarship: Ljubo Karaman’s Problemi periferijske umjetnosti (1963) and Enrico Castelnuovo’s and Carlo Ginzburg’s Centro e periferia (1979). Despite only sixteen years separating them, these contributions present an opposite approach in many respects. The paper will debate the reasons for this very different perspective contextualising the authors and their objectives. Karaman, Castelnuovo and Ginzburg belonged to different generations in the first instance, and their formation differed significantly. Educated in early twentieth-century Vienna, Karaman was one of the first Croatian art historians and sought to establish working categories about centre and periphery for the next generations. The art historian Castelnuovo and the historian Ginzburg had quite the opposite view. Educated in post-war Italy, they attempted to dismantle a deeply rooted paradigm in Italian art history since Giorgio Vasari and Luigi Lanzi. If Karaman attempted to play the pars construens in the historiography discourse, Castelnuovo and Ginzburg performed the pars destruens. This opposite aspect of the two essays reflects the different professional settings in which the authors worked. On the one hand, Karaman’s operative attitude adopted in the conservation office needed a constructive theory easy to implement. On the other hand, Castelnuovo’s and Ginzburg’s academic environment permitted an entirely theoretical approach that could freely explore and criticise the historiographical construction from its very beginning. Finally, the paper intends to analyse the impact of the two essays in Croatian and Italian art history. To do this, it will consider some relevant examples showing the different approaches applied to some shared subjects, such as the art of the Adriatic basin. By comparing these different perspectives, the paper will give new and multifaceted insights into the centre and periphery paradigm.
2024
Art history and discourse on the centre and periphery: An homage to Ljubo Karaman (1886-1971)
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Descrizione: Guarneri-Ivić, Different perspectives on the centre-periphery paradigm: Karaman and Castelnuovo-Ginzburg in comparison
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/5086668
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