ABSTRACT
In keeping with the synoptic, preliminary nature of this inquiry, I approach the question of modernism by listing several variants, without at first considering how they might be compared. Before I do so, it is relevant to remark that the variety of ways scholars have construed the history and characteristics of modernism is measurably different from the way that other periods in art history, say Baroque or Byzantine, have been understood. If I were to name a Renaissance painting — say Titian's Diana Discovering the Pregnancy of Callisto in Edinburgh — and ask about its place in the history of sixteenth-century painting, I might be able to entertain half a dozen different possibilities (see Figure 1.1). In the first place, Titian's painting could be used to exemplify some traits of the Renaissance in general, such as the interest in istoria, or the use of painting as a vehicle for moralizing emblems. More specifically, the painting could be proposed as a characteristic middle period work in Titian's oeuvre. Or it could be seen as evidence of Titian's interest in what has come to be known as Mannerism. It would also be possible to see this painting as a representative of the kind of Northern Italian work that Vasari contrasted with good Central Italian practice, and that would tie it to the discourse of colorito and disegno. At a stretch I might define the painting against one of several senses of transalpine art, as an Italian alternative to the practices described, for example, by Karel Van Mander. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203699713/36e93e21-d3b0-49b3-8013-297404b8a139/content/fig1_1_C.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
