ARTPOST #17

The opportunity to spend time in research mode with the Gallery’s collection is a delight. This week, Guidoccio Cozzarelli’s (1450-1516) Dance of Salome caught my eye.
 
For me, this work brings up interesting questions in relation to the reception histories of biblical texts: the way invented elements in art fill out imaginative gaps in the original text, enlivening or complicating the narrative; or the way long histories of interpretation can propel and embed emblematic readings of biblical figures. How does Cozzarelli interpret the text? [Mark (6:14-29), Matthew (14:1-12)]. Is Salome an innocent victim caught up in a murderous plot, or a 15th Century femme fatale?


Noho ora mai, Joanna Osborne
Curatorial Intern, Dunedin Public Art Gallery
[The DPAG Curatorial Internship Programme is generously supported by Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa]

Dance of Salome is currently on show in the History Painting section of the Style & Substance: A Journey through the Collection exhibition.

[image: GUIDOCCIO COZZARELLI (1450-1516) Dance of Salome (detail) Oil on panel. Collection of Dunedin Public Art Gallery]

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