Abstract

Historians of Renaissance art have long been familiar with Giovanni Aurelio Augurello’s interest in painting and sculpture, while historians of alchemy are aware of his lifelong dedication to the gold-making art immortalized in his masterpiece, Chrysopoeia (1515). Yet the problem of how these interests intersect in the poet’s work has either been disregarded or framed within outdated categories such as occultism and hermeticism. In a dialogue with recent theoretical work on intermediality, and based on the identification of several key artistic allusions in Augurello’s Chrysopoeia, this article proposes to interpret them beyond the conventions of ekphrasis. A remarkable focus on artistic techniques, processes, and materials, we argue, defines the self-referential blend of poetry and alchemy inscribed in Chrysopoeia. Rather than being the expression of an occult or hermetic mentality, this poem’s fascination with the materiality and poetics of artworks, we propose, is attuned with the Northern Italian aesthetics nurtured by Andrea Mantegna, Giulio Campagnola, and other artists of the time.

摘要

文艺复兴时期的艺术史学家早已熟悉 Giovanni Aurelio Augurello 对绘画和雕塑的兴趣，而炼金术史学家则知道他毕生致力于黄金制作艺术，其杰作 Chrysopoeia (1515) 使之永垂不朽。然而，这些兴趣如何在诗人的作品中交叉的问题要么被忽视，要么被归入神秘主义和封闭主义等过时的范畴。与最近关于中介性的理论工作的对话，并基于对 Augurello 的Chrysopoeia中几个关键艺术典故的识别, 本文建议在 ekphrasis 的惯例之外解释它们。我们认为，对艺术技巧、过程和材料的非凡关注定义了Chrysopoeia中诗歌和炼金术的自我指涉融合。我们认为，这首诗对艺术作品的物质性和诗学的迷恋与其说是一种神秘或封闭的心态的表达，不如说是与安德里亚·曼特尼亚 (Andrea Mantegna)、朱利奥·坎帕尼奥拉 (Giulio Campagnola) 和当时其他艺术家培育的意大利北部美学相协调的。