With the aim of deepening our knowledge of tarantism’s iconographic tradition, the contribution studies the scene of the Typus Tarantiacorum Saltantium published by Athanasius Kircher within his Phonurgia Nova (1673). With this image Kircher intended to offer a visual contribution to the understanding of the powerful effects of music. Differently from other mythical narratives of music therapy, the case of tarantism allowed him to concretely demonstrate the effectiveness of the musical method. In the iatromusical scene from his Phonurgia Nova, though, characters are represented not in a realistic context, but rather in a mythical-Arcadic dimension. Kircher may have made this choice with the scope of legitimating the folk tradition, by projecting it into the horizon of antiquity.
La scena di iatromusica nella Phonurgia Nova di Athanasius Kircher
camilla cavicchi
2013
Abstract
With the aim of deepening our knowledge of tarantism’s iconographic tradition, the contribution studies the scene of the Typus Tarantiacorum Saltantium published by Athanasius Kircher within his Phonurgia Nova (1673). With this image Kircher intended to offer a visual contribution to the understanding of the powerful effects of music. Differently from other mythical narratives of music therapy, the case of tarantism allowed him to concretely demonstrate the effectiveness of the musical method. In the iatromusical scene from his Phonurgia Nova, though, characters are represented not in a realistic context, but rather in a mythical-Arcadic dimension. Kircher may have made this choice with the scope of legitimating the folk tradition, by projecting it into the horizon of antiquity.
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