Luxury Arts of the Renaissance


Book Description

Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.




Singing to the Lyre in Renaissance Italy


Book Description

The first comprehensive study of the dominant form of solo singing in Renaissance Italy prior to the mid-sixteenth century.




Spanish Music in the Age of Columbus


Book Description

FOR AID in preparing the present resume of Spanish music to 1530 I am indebted to so numerous a company of friends that I must content myself in this preface with no more than a token alphabetical list. In an earlier article - "Music Research in Spanish Libraries," published in Notes of the Music Library Association, sec. ser. X, i (December, 1952, pp. 49-57) - Richard Hill did kindly allow me to itemize my indebtednesses to the Spanish friends whose names make up two-thirds of the following list. The reader who has seen that article already knows how keenly felt are my gracias. Fernando Aguilar Escrich, Norberto Almandoz, H.K. Andrews, Higinio Angles, Jesus Bal y Gay, Robert D. Barton, Gilbert Chase, R. Thurston Dart, Exmos. Sres. Duques de Medinaceli, Charles Warren Fox, Nicold, s Garcia,]ulidn Garcia Blanco, Juan Miguel Garcia Perez, Santiaga Gonzdlez Alvarez, Francisco Guerrero, Perreal Herndndez, Ma cario Santiaga Kastner, Adele Kibre, Edmund King, Luisa de Larramendi, Pedro Longds Bartibds, M arques de Santo Domingo, M arques de Villa-Alcdzar, J uan M ontejano Chico, B. Municio Crist6bal, Ricardo Nuiiez, Clara L. Penney, Carmen Perez-Ddvila, Gustave Reese, Francisco Ribera Recio, Bernard Rose, Samuel Rubio, Adolfo Salazar, Francisco Sdnchez, Graciela Sdnchez Cerro, Manuel Sdnchez Mora, Alfredo Sixto Planas, Denis Stevens, fase Subird, Earl 0. Titus,]. B. Trend,]ahn Ward, Ruth Watanabe,]. A. Westrup, Franktin Zimmerman




The Art of Renaissance Europe


Book Description

Works in the Museum's collection that embody the Renaissance interest in classical learning, fame, and beautiful objects are illustrated and discussed in this resource and will help educators introduce the richness and diversity of Renaissance art to their students. Primary source texts explore the great cities and powerful personalities of the age. By studying gesture and narrative, students can work as Renaissance artists did when they created paintings and drawings. Learning about perspective, students explore the era's interest in science and mathematics. Through projects based on poetic forms of the time, students write about their responses to art. The activities and lesson plans are designed for a variety of classroom needs and can be adapted to a specific curriculum as well as used for independent study. The resource also includes a bibliography and glossary.




A History of Irish Music


Book Description







Dosso's Fate


Book Description

Dosso Dossi has long been considered one of Renaissance Italy's most intriguing artists. Although a wealth of documents chronicles his life, he remains, in many ways, an enigma, and his art continues to be as elusive as it is compelling. In Dosso's Fate, leading scholars from a wide range of disciplines examine the social, intellectual, and historical contexts of his art, focusing on the development of new genres of painting, questions of style and chronology, the influence of courtly culture, and the work of his collaborators, as well as his visual and literary sources and his painting technique. The result is an important and original contribution not only to literature on Dosso Dossi but also to the study of cultural history in early modern Italy.




Instruments in the History of Western Music


Book Description

Originally published in 1943 and subsequently as a revised and enlarged edition in 1978, Musical Instruments has long been held in high regard, not only for its erudition, but for its originality of approach. By relating the instruments to their time and each other, epoch by epoch, the author sheds fresh light on their evolution and enables the reader to follow their ups and downs against the changing background of taste and fashion. Each chapter is introduced with an account of the musical forms and artistic trends of the period, before considering in detail the instruments that gave them expression. The reader is carried along, from the magical-sacred beginnings of music, through the instruments of antiquity, the experiments of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the refined instruments of the Baroque and classical periods, down to those of the Romantic age and its aftermath, including the modern era with its electronic synthesizers. The book is completed by an Appendix on the acoustics of music and amply illustrated by nearly 100 pictures and diagrams.




Claudio Monteverdi


Book Description

Claudio Monteverdi: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography that navigates the vast scholarly resources on the composer with the most updated compilation since 1989. Claudio Monteverdi transformed and mastered the principal genres of his day and his works influenced generations of musicians and other artists. He initiated one of the most important aesthetic debates of the era by proposing a new relationship between poetry and harmony. In addition to scholarship by musicologists and music theorists, Monteverdi’s music has attracted attention from literary scholars, cultural historians, and critical theorists. Research into Monteverdi and Renaissance and early baroque studies has expanded greatly, with the field becoming more complex as scholars address such issues as gender theory, feminist criticism, cultural theory, new criticism, new historicism, and artistic and popular cultures. The guide serves both as a foundational starting point and as a gateway for future inquiry in such fields as court culture, opera, patronage, and Italian poetry.