“The Young Pope. La tiare et l’image” par Cyril Gerbron
Cyril Gerbron, art historian and former fellow at the French Academy in Rome in 2017-2018, focused on the power of images in Paolo Sorrentino’s series The Young Pope. His work, entitled The Young Pope. La tiare et l’image, is published posthumously in May 2021 by Presses Universitaires François-Rabelais.
Summary
Art history is a major aspect of the visual poetics of Paolo Sorrentino’s series The Young Pope. Paintings, statues and works of art from the past are under the spotlight in this story of the rise to power of a young, offbeat, and reactionary American pope, Pius XIII. These works of art play an important role in the verisimilitude that the series seeks to achieve, since the Vatican buildings and gardens are indeed filled with images. Contemplated and commented on by the characters, used for their devotions, these works are more than elements of decor, they are “activated” and become alive.
The images in the series are themselves informed by images from the past and The Young Pope stages “image journeys”, moving between material, dreamlike, visionary, and cinematic images. This book explores the history of these images and how they create new visual and semantic journeys within the series.
Presses Universitaires François-Rabelais – Collection « Sérial »
Published: May 2021
189 pages, 64 colour illustrations, 15,3 × 21 cm
ISBN: 978-2-86906-739-4
25 €