ABSTRACT: This thesis explores what motivated the Marchese Diomede Bourbon di Sorbello to write an ekphrastic inventory list of rooms in his palazzo in Perugia between 1794 and 1797. Evidence will be presented to argue for the literary value of the inventory in addition to being a document preserving the now-lost interior decoration of an eighteenth-century Italian palazzo containing both mobile and immobile objects and decorative arts. Common threads woven through the thesis are English translation excerpts positioned to offer comparisons and support the primary arguments of why the Marchese Diomede chose to write in this manner and demonstrate the inventory’s two-fold value as a literary and historical work of art. The prosopography of Diomede, including friendships with Vittorio Alfieri and François-Xavier Fabre, together with family history of collecting and the effects of the French Revolution are discussed as affecting both the manner and timing of the writing of the inventory list. A striking similarity between Diomede’s written descriptions and existence of floor plans, compared to the 1774 and 1786 editions of Mr. Horace Walpole’s description of his Villa at Strawberry-Hill are suggested as a possible model. The use of technical ekphrasis is illustrated by the use of movement and infinitive verbs to give the reader explicit instructions about how mechanical gadgets functioned and expressed opinions about how, when and where certain objects were to be used. The manner of writing descriptive sentences, creating a visual image with written words is what sets this inventory list apart from others in the family archive as well as from other published inventories at the same time in history. Translation of the twenty-three page original Italian document is included as an appendix A. Floor plans of the palazzo are present in Appendix B.
ABSTRACT: Using art historical methodologies, this paper examines the edible, sculptural simulacra known
as frutta Martorana - a Sicilian confection that has been produced by monastic nuns from at least
the Renaissance through today. The research investigates these objects for their ambivalent
artistic, religious and historical implications - in part by investigating their usage in the Catholic
rituals of the Festa dei Morti, or Day of the Dead, as well as by situating their place in Sicilian
folkloric visual culture. This paper proposes that cuisine is a viable form of art in itself and that
an overlooked simple confection can offer a profound glimpse into historical realities, and that
by including the spectacular visual and artistic legacies of cuisine into the canon of art historical
scholarship, history itself can be more fully explored and understood. Additionally, this paper
aims to show that the myriad of living culinary traditions that ‘remake history’ everyday may be
further recognized as worthy of preserving, not as out-dated kitsch or culinary nostalgia, but as
inherently valuable artistic contributions to the contemporary world.
