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Tropes of Revelation in Raphael's Transfiguration*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Jodi Cranston
Jodi Cranston*
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Abstract

The development of the contrapposto pose in Renaissance art depends, as is well known, on ancient discussions of the rhetorical figure of antithesis. Such philological associations, however, have drawn attention to the pose as a motif of style, notable only for its gracefulness of form. This essay considers how the turning pose in Raphael's work, rather than merely referring to the rhetorical figure of antithesis, evokes the thematic and structural significance of the trope. The discussion focuses on the turning female in his Transfiguration as a figuration of the antithetical event of revelation, where the unknown becomes known.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , Spring 2003 , pp. 1 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 2003

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Footnotes

*

The research and writing of this essay were supported by the Humanities Foundation at Boston University. I am grateful to David Rosand for his thoughtful reading of an earlier draft and for his continued support of the project. I would also like to thank the RQ readers, Marcia Hall and an anonymous reader, who offered helpful suggestions.

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