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| Paragone (magazine) | |
|---|---|
| Title | Paragone |
| Category | Art criticism |
| Firstdate | 1950 |
| Finaldate | 1996 |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
Paragone (magazine) was an Italian periodical devoted to criticism and scholarship on painting, sculpture, architecture, art history, and visual arts, founded in 1950 and published until the late 20th century. The journal combined rigorous scholarship with polemical essays, engaging debates about modernity, the legacy of the Renaissance, and contemporary movements across Europe and the Americas. Paragone served as a nexus for discourse linking established figures from the Florence and Rome art worlds with international critics, curators, and historians.
Paragone was launched in 1950 in Florence by the art historian and critic Roberto Longhi, who had earlier been associated with scholarship on Caravaggio, Piero della Francesca, Giotto, and Michelangelo. The magazine’s early decades coincided with post‑war cultural reconstruction in Italy, intersecting with exhibitions at institutions such as the Uffizi Gallery, the Palazzo Pitti, and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello. Paragone engaged debates circulating through conferences like those at Venice Biennale and exchanges involving curators from the National Gallery, London, the Louvre, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. During the 1950s and 1960s the magazine tracked dialogues between proponents of formalist approaches rooted in Longhi’s pupils and critics aligned with movements in Paris, New York City, and Berlin. Editorial transitions in the 1970s reflected renewed attention to issues raised by scholars from Harvard University, the Warburg Institute, and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, while the magazine’s final decades documented shifts toward contemporary installation practices linked to venues like Tate Modern and the Centre Pompidou.
Paragone established a profile combining connoisseurship, philology, and aesthetic theory, regularly publishing essays on masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, and Giorgione alongside studies of modern figures including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, and Lucio Fontana. The editorial line emphasized archival research tied to collections in the Vatican Museums, the Accademia Gallery, and the Getty Museum, while also running polemical reviews of exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and catalogues issued by publishing houses like Skira and Thames & Hudson. The magazine featured technical studies involving conservation scientists from laboratories associated with the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and referenced restoration debates connected to projects at the Scrovegni Chapel and the Sistine Chapel. Regular sections included critical essays, archival documents, photographic plates, and bibliographies engaging scholars at institutions such as the Fondazione Giorgio Cini and the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro.
Paragone published early and often contributions from figures whose work shaped 20th‑century art history and criticism: Roberto Longhi, Lionello Venturi, Giovanni Previtali, Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, and later voices like Giorgio Vasari scholars influenced by modern philology. International contributors included scholars linked to Columbia University, University of Cambridge, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and curators from the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. The magazine provided a platform for critics who later participated in major exhibitions at the Biennale di Venezia, the Documenta series in Kassel, and retrospectives organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Centre Pompidou. Its contributors influenced conservation policy discussions in bodies such as the International Council of Museums and shaped curricular developments at universities like Università di Bologna and Sapienza University of Rome.
Originally issued in a quarto magazine format with monochrome plates, Paragone evolved to include high‑quality color reproductions, foldouts, and special monographic supplements devoted to artists such as Masaccio, Andrea Mantegna, Giorgio de Chirico, and Amedeo Modigliani. Printed in Florence and distributed through bookstores in Milan, Rome, Paris, London, and New York City, the periodical reached libraries and research centers including the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the New York Public Library. Subscriptions were held by museums, university departments, and private collectors across Europe and the Americas; individual issues became reference points for exhibition catalogues and doctoral theses deposited at institutions like Università degli Studi di Firenze.
Critical reception was polarized: advocates praised Paragone for its meticulous archival work and for advancing connoisseurship linked to the Longhi tradition, while critics accused it of privileging stylistic analysis over sociopolitical readings prominent in 1960s and 1970s Anglo‑American discourse. The magazine’s essays were cited in monographs on Caravaggism, the study of Mannerism, and analyses of Futurism and Arte Povera. Paragone influenced curatorial practice, informing exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and scholarly debates at academic gatherings such as meetings of the Associazione Internazionale di Storia dell'Arte.
Back issues of Paragone are held in special collections at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, the Getty Research Institute, and the library of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, and have been digitized selectively by university libraries in collaboration with archives at the Università degli Studi di Siena. The magazine’s legacy persists in curricula for art history programs, in methodological debates between connoisseurship and contextual analysis, and in continuing citation in scholarship on Renaissance and Baroque painting as well as 20th‑century movements. Its monographic supplements remain used by curators preparing exhibitions at institutions like the Uffizi Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts.
Category:Italian art magazines Category:Publications established in 1950 Category:Art history journals