Images of Troy and Carthage in Quatrocento Italian book miniatures and decorative painting
The essay is devoted to the artistic interpretation of motifs, associated with the images of Troy and Carthage in Quattrocento book miniatures and domestic painting (paintings of cassoni and spalliere). The text focuses on the connection between works of fine art and literary descriptions of disappeared ancient cities, iconography and the semantics of epic plots. The author concludes that the artistic interpretation of the image of the city in Quattrocento art was an important part of the Renaissance understanding of history and the place of man in it. Along with the general convention of the interpretation of antique motifs, miniaturists and masters of decorative painting found means and iconographic techniques to reflect the key literary topos associated with the history of ancient cities.