Water and land, where the world ends. Ghirri, Celati, Ariosto, the Columns and the Embankment

The article aims at offering a new interpretation of some photographs of Luigi Ghirri’s Il profilo delle nuvole. Once separated from the linear sequence in which they are arranged in the book and recomposed in a panel inspired by Aby Warburg’s Bilderatlas Mnemosyne, these images reveal a hidden gene...

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Main Author: Corrado Confalonieri
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Bologna 2023-09-01
Series:Finzioni
Subjects:
Online Access:https://finzioni.unibo.it/article/view/17974
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author Corrado Confalonieri
author_facet Corrado Confalonieri
author_sort Corrado Confalonieri
collection DOAJ
description The article aims at offering a new interpretation of some photographs of Luigi Ghirri’s Il profilo delle nuvole. Once separated from the linear sequence in which they are arranged in the book and recomposed in a panel inspired by Aby Warburg’s Bilderatlas Mnemosyne, these images reveal a hidden genealogy that, taking into account both Luigi Ghirri’s suggestions and readings of his work by Marco Belpoliti and Gianni Celati, traces the figure of the columns back to 15th- and 16th-century motifs, in particular to the columns of Hercules in the Age of Discovery. It is then possible to create a connection between Il profilo delle nuvole and a text which is apparently distant from it, namely Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, a poem that just like Ghirri’s photo-text feature two crucial elements of landscape in the Po Valley such as the columns and the embankment. By establishing what Carlo Ginzburg would call an intentionally anachronistic and asymmetric dialogue between these texts, a new hypothesis is made about Luigi Ghirri’s understanding of the relationship between the columns and the embankments, a relationship that is entrusted with the task of showing that it is possible to take care of reality by taking care of its representation.
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spelling doaj.art-5cc65670756748719eb7089238cf59132023-09-14T17:43:21ZengUniversity of BolognaFinzioni2785-22882023-09-0135133110.6092/issn.2785-2288/1797416333Water and land, where the world ends. Ghirri, Celati, Ariosto, the Columns and the EmbankmentCorrado Confalonieri0Università degli studi di ParmaThe article aims at offering a new interpretation of some photographs of Luigi Ghirri’s Il profilo delle nuvole. Once separated from the linear sequence in which they are arranged in the book and recomposed in a panel inspired by Aby Warburg’s Bilderatlas Mnemosyne, these images reveal a hidden genealogy that, taking into account both Luigi Ghirri’s suggestions and readings of his work by Marco Belpoliti and Gianni Celati, traces the figure of the columns back to 15th- and 16th-century motifs, in particular to the columns of Hercules in the Age of Discovery. It is then possible to create a connection between Il profilo delle nuvole and a text which is apparently distant from it, namely Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, a poem that just like Ghirri’s photo-text feature two crucial elements of landscape in the Po Valley such as the columns and the embankment. By establishing what Carlo Ginzburg would call an intentionally anachronistic and asymmetric dialogue between these texts, a new hypothesis is made about Luigi Ghirri’s understanding of the relationship between the columns and the embankments, a relationship that is entrusted with the task of showing that it is possible to take care of reality by taking care of its representation.https://finzioni.unibo.it/article/view/17974aby warburggianni celatiludovico ariostoluigi ghirripo river
spellingShingle Corrado Confalonieri
Water and land, where the world ends. Ghirri, Celati, Ariosto, the Columns and the Embankment
Finzioni
aby warburg
gianni celati
ludovico ariosto
luigi ghirri
po river
title Water and land, where the world ends. Ghirri, Celati, Ariosto, the Columns and the Embankment
title_full Water and land, where the world ends. Ghirri, Celati, Ariosto, the Columns and the Embankment
title_fullStr Water and land, where the world ends. Ghirri, Celati, Ariosto, the Columns and the Embankment
title_full_unstemmed Water and land, where the world ends. Ghirri, Celati, Ariosto, the Columns and the Embankment
title_short Water and land, where the world ends. Ghirri, Celati, Ariosto, the Columns and the Embankment
title_sort water and land where the world ends ghirri celati ariosto the columns and the embankment
topic aby warburg
gianni celati
ludovico ariosto
luigi ghirri
po river
url https://finzioni.unibo.it/article/view/17974
work_keys_str_mv AT corradoconfalonieri waterandlandwheretheworldendsghirricelatiariostothecolumnsandtheembankment