Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe


Book Description

This 2007 volume reveals how a first European identity was forged from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Cultural exchange played a central role in the elites' fashioning of self. The cultures they exchanged and often integrated with included palaces, dresses and jewellery but also gestures and dances.




The Discovery of Pictorial Composition


Book Description

In this illuminating book, art historian Thomas Puttfarken examines how pictorial composition and attitudes toward it changed between the early Renaissance and the beginning of the nineteenth century. Before 1600, a paintings overall composition was hardly ever discussed. As far as art theory and criticism were concerned, pictorial composition was a "discovery" of the seventeenth century, the author explains. In the first part of the book, Puttfarken investigates why pictorial composition did not figure in earlier accounts of the art. In Italy artists and patrons focused on large-scale wall paintings or altarpieces and on the presentation of life-size saints or protagonists whose physical proportions and interactions in narratives were considered more important than notions of overall effect or pictorial format. The second part of the book discusses the discovery of composition and Its consequences for both the theory and practice of painting, understood as the production of tableaux, or easel pictures. Puttfarken considers the effects on paintings of size, location, perspective, and relief, the relationship between ground and figures and between image and frame, and the different traditions defining Italian and Northern art. For readers with an interest in the theory and history of European art, this book is full of rich insights and fresh analyses.







Renaissance Theory


Book Description

Renaissance Theory presents an animated conversation among art historians about the optimal ways of conceptualizing Renaissance art, and the links between Renaissance art and contemporary art and theory. This is the first discussion of its kind, involving not only questions within Renaissance scholarship, but issues of concern to art historians and critics in all fields. Organized as a virtual roundtable discussion, the contributors discuss rifts and disagreements about how to understand the Renaissance and debate the principal texts and authors of the last thirty years who have sought to reconceptualize the period. They then turn to the issue of the relation between modern art and the Renaissance: Why do modern art historians and critics so seldom refer to the Renaissance? Is the Renaissance our indispensable heritage, or are we cut off from it by the revolution of modernism? The volume includes an introduction by Rebecca Zorach and two final, synoptic essays, as well as contributions from some of the most prominent thinkers on Renaissance art including Stephen Campbell, Michael Cole, Frederika Jakobs, Claire Farago, and Matt Kavaler.




Reclaiming Rome


Book Description

The fifteenth century was a critical juncture for the College of Cardinals. They were accused of prolonging the exile in Avignon and causing the schism. At the councils at the beginning of the period their very existence was questioned. They rebuilt their relationship with the popes by playing a fundamental part in reclaiming Rome when the papacy returned to its city in 1420. Because their careers were usually much longer than that of an individual pope, the cardinals combined to form a much more effective force for restoring Rome. In this book, shifting focus from the popes to the cardinals sheds new light on a relatively unknown period for Renaissance art history and the history of Rome. Dr. Carol M. Richardson has been awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize (2008) in the field of History of Arts.




Benozzo Gozzoli


Book Description

Providing a reassessment of Benozzo Gozzoli, one of the most esteemed and prolific artists of the Renaissance, this work focuses on the social and cultural context within which he worked. The book provides stylistic and technical discussions of each of his major works.




Caterina Cornaro


Book Description

Caterina Cornaro (1454-1510) came from one of the most important Venetian families of her time and became the last queen of Cyprus. On the occasion of the fifth centenary of her death, an international conference was held in Venice in September 2010 - organised by the two editors of this volume. During that interdisciplinary event, well-known scholars from the fields of history, art history, literary history, archaeology, Byzantine studies and musicology presented the results of their most recent research across a broad subject area. The queen's biography and myth were traced, as well as the reception of this historical figure in art and on stage. Stress was laid upon socioeconomic and cultural phenomena resulting from the close contact between Venice and Cyprus during the Renaissance period, and also in focus was the literary production at Caterina's court 'in exile' in Venice and the neighbouring mainland. The present volume offers a collection of the conference's papers. The book contains the papers (in Italian, English and French) by / Il volume contiene i contributi (in lingua italiana, inglese e francese) di Monica Molteni, Candida Syndikus, Martin Gaier, Ursula Schadler-Saub, Lina Bolzoni, Rotraud von Kulessa, Tobias Leuker, Daria Perocco, Benjamin Arbel, Gilles Grivaud, Catherine Otten-Froux, Chryssa Maltezou, Tassos Papacostas, Lorenzo Calvelli, David Michael Metcalf, Arnold Jacobshagen, Angel Nicolaou-Konnari. Caterina Cornaro (1454-1510) venne da una delle più importanti famiglie veneziane del suo tempo e diventò l'ultima regina di Cipro. In occasione del quinto centenario della sua scomparsa si è tenuto in settembre 2010 un Convegno Internazionale di Studi, organizzato dalle due curatrici di questo volume. Autorevoli specialisti nei campi della storia, storia dell'arte, storia della letteratura, archeologia, musicologia e degli studi bizantini hanno presentato - in un'ottica interdisciplinare - le loro ricerche più recenti su un vasto ambito tematico. Questi atti ne raccolgono i risultati. Si ripercorre la biografia e il mito della regina Cornaro nonché la ricezione della figura storica nell'arte e sul palcoscenico. Vengono inoltre messi in risalto vari fenomeni socioeconomici e culturali nello stretto contatto tra Venezia e Cipro durante il periodo del Rinascimento. Infine, viene presa in considerazione la produzione letteraria alla sua corte 'in esilio' a Venezia e in Terraferma.




Hans Holbein


Book Description

This is the first comprehensive monograph on Hans Holbein the Younger to have appeared in over 40 years. The authors re-examine every aspect of a remarkable career and cast fresh light on many hitherto vexing questions and misunderstandings.




Jan van Eyck and Portugal's 'Illustrious Generation'


Book Description

This book investigates Jan Van Eyck's patronage by the Crown of Portugal and his role as diplomat-painter for the Duchy of Burgundy following his first voyage to Lisbon in 1428-1429, when he painted two portraits of Infanta Isabella, who became the third wife of Philip the Good in 1430. New portrait identifications are provided for the Ghent Altarpiece (1432) and its iconographical prototype, the lost Fountain of Life. These altarpieces are analysed with regard to King Joao I's conquest of Ceuta, achieved by his sons, who were hailed as an "illustrious generation." Strong family ties between the dynastic houses of Avis and Lancaster explain Lusitania's sustained fascination with Arthurian lore and the Grail quest. Several chapters of this book are overlaid with a chivalric veneer. A second "secret mission" to Portugal in 1437 by Jan van Eyck is postulated and this diplomatic visit is related to Prince Henry the Navigator's expedition to Tangier and King Duarte's attempts to forge an alliance with Alfonso V of Aragon. Late Eyckian commissions are reviewed in the light of this ill-fated crusade and additional new portraits are identified. The most significant artist of Renaissance Flanders appears to have been patronized as much by the House of Avis as by the Duchy of Burgundy. Barbara von Barghahn is Professor of Art History at George Washington University and a specialist in the art history of Portugal, Spain, and their colonial dominions, as well as Flanders. In 1993, she was conferred O Grao Comendador in the Portuguese Order of Prince Henry the Navigator. She has spent nearly a decade completing research about Jan van Eyck's diplomatic visits to the Iberian Peninsula.