Giusto Le Court

: allegory, memory, and identity in seventeenth-century Venetian sculpture

Abstract

This thesis is the first comprehensive study of Giusto Le Court, the foremost Baroque sculptor in seventeenth-century Venice. This study attempts to fill significant gaps in his biography and highlights the recurring themes of his career, such as his vivid depiction of allegorical subjects, his collaborations with major Venetian architects, and the power of his sculptures to capture and commemorate the character of his subjects. It focuses on the two types of work that Le Court produced most often in Venice: sculptures for funerary monuments, and sculptures for high altars. Issues of attribution, patronage, and chronology are discussed for each of these commissions, as well as any artistic and literary influences that may have inspired Le Court’s approach to them. Several new attributions and dates have been proposed for some of his sculptures, based on stylistic and formal analysis.

In addition to the main dissertation text, a catalogue of all known, attributed, and lost works by Le Court has been included with accompanying images, in order to appreciate his oeuvre in full and to identify further patterns in his style and patronage. The aim of the thesis and catalogue is to elevate his works to the level of more well-known sculptors of the era, and to emphasise Le Court’s importance in the art history of Venice, and of the seventeenth- century as a whole.

Date of Award	22 Jun 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	Laura Moretti (Supervisor)