Italian Renaissance frescoes as a place to transgress the picture’s limits

Loos, Roxanne [UCL]

Considered as devices designed to connect the fictional space of the picture to the real space of the beholder, Roman Renaissance frescoes are privileged vehicles for questioning the complex relationships between the wall decorations and the environment they fit into. Beyond the architectonic structures that constrain the frescoes implementation (e.g. pilasters, doors, etc.), the latter may in turn restructure the room through painted architectural frames. In order to understand these links between both media (painting and architecture), one space in particular will retain our attention, namely secondary or peripheral zones surrounding the main fresco, such as pillars or socles. By standing on such restricted areas, the figures depicted on these supports are more likely to transgress the picture threshold. As an example, the feigned marble which frames Isaiah (painted by Raphael on one of the S.Agostino Church nave pillars, c.1512) is exceeded by the Prophet’s foot and drapery. At the limits of representation, the frame acts therefore as a substantial device to structure spatialities as it defines both their boundaries and connections between reality and fiction.