In recent years, art historians have begun to delve into the patronage, production and reception of sculptures-sculptors' workshop practices; practical, aesthetic, and esoteric considerations of material and materiality; and the meanings associated with materials and the makers of sculptures. This volume brings together some of the top scholars in the field, to investigate how sculptors in early modern Italy confronted such challenges as procurement of materials, their costs, shipping and transportation issues, and technical problems of materials, along with the meanings of the usage, hierarchies of materials, and processes of material acquisition and production. Contributors also explore the implications of these facets in terms of the intended and perceived meaning(s) for the viewer, patron, and/or artist. A highlight of the collection is the epilogue, an interview with a contemporary artist of large-scale stone sculpture, which reveals the similar challenges sculptors still encounter today as they procure, manufacture and transport their works.

The social problem of infant abandonment captured the public's imagination in Italy during the fifteenth century, a critical period of innovation and development in charitable discourses. As charity toward foundlings became a political priority, the patrons and supporters of foundling hospitals turned to visual culture to help them make their charitable work understandable to a wide audience. Focusing on four institutions in central Italy that possess significant surviving visual and archival material, Visual Cultures of Foundling Care in Renaissance Italy examines the discursive processes through which foundling care was identified, conceptualized, and promoted. The first book to consider the visual culture of foundling hospitals in Renaissance Italy, this study looks beyond the textual evidence to demonstrate that the institutional identities of foundling hospitals were articulated by means of a wide variety of visual forms, including book illumination, altarpieces, fresco cycles, institutional insignia, processional standards, prints, and reliquaries. The author draws on fields as diverse as art history, childhood studies, the history of charity, Renaissance studies, gender studies, sociology, and the history of religion to elucidate the pivotal role played by visual culture in framing and promoting the charitable succor of foundlings.

Though Bartolomeo Scappi's Opera (1570), the first illustrated cookbook, is well known to historians of food, up to now there has been no study of its illustrations, unique in printed books through the early seventeenth century. In Food and Knowledge in Renaissance Italy, Krohn both treats the illustrations in Scappi's cookbook as visual evidence for a lost material reality; and through the illustrations, including several newly-discovered hand-colored examples, connects Scappi's Opera with other types of late Renaissance illustrated books. What emerges from both of these approaches is a new way of thinking about the place of cookbooks in the history of knowledge. Krohn argues that with the increasing professionalization of many skills and trades, Scappi was at the vanguard of a new way of looking not just at the kitchen-as workshop or laboratory-but at the ways in which artisanal knowledge was visualized and disseminated by a range of craftsmen, from engineers to architects. The recipes in Scappi's Opera belong on the one hand to a genre of cookery books, household manuals, and courtesy books that was well established by the middle of the sixteenth century, but the illustrations suggest connections to an entirely different and emergent world of knowledge. It is through study of the illustrations that these connections are discerned, explained, and interpreted. As one of the most important cookbooks for early modern Europe, the time is ripe for a focused study of Scappi's Opera in the various contexts in which Krohn frames it: book history, antiquarianism, and visual studies.

For too long, the 'centre' of the Renaissance has been considered to be Rome and the art produced in, or inspired by it. This collection of essays dedicated to Deborah Howard brings together an impressive group of internationally recognised scholars of art and architecture to showcase both the diversity within and the porosity between the 'centre' and 'periphery' in Renaissance art. Without abandoning Rome, but together with other centres of art production, the essays both shift their focus away from conventional categories and bring together recent trends in Renaissance studies, notably a focus on cultural contact, material culture and historiography. They explore the material mechanisms for the transmission and evolution of ideas, artistic training and networks, as well as the dynamics of collaboration and exchange between artists, theorists and patrons. The chapters, each with a wealth of groundbreaking research and previously unpublished documentary evidence, as well as innovative methodologies, reinterpret Italian art relating to canonical sites and artists such as Michelangelo, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Sebastiano del Piombo, in addition to showcasing the work of several hitherto neglected architects, painters, and an inimitable engineer-inventor.

Prints changed the history of art, even as that history was first being written. In this study, Sharon Gregory argues that this reality was not lost on Vasari; she shows that, contrary to common opinion, prints thoroughly pervade Vasari's history of art, just as they pervade his own career as an artist. This volume examines Giorgio Vasari's interest, as an art historian and as an artist, in engravings and woodblock prints, shedding new light not only on aspects of Vasari's career, but also on aspects of sixteenth-century artistic culture and artistic practice. It is the first book to study his interest in prints from this dual perspective. Investigating how prints were themselves more often interpretive than strictly reproductive, Gregory challenges the long-held view that Vasari's reliance on prints led to errors in his interpretation of major monuments. She demonstrates how, like Raphael and later artists, Vasari used engravings after his designs as a form of advertisement through which he hoped to increase his fame and attract influential patrons. She also explores how contributing illustrations for books by his scholarly friends, Vasari participated in the contemporary exchange of intellectual ideas and concerns shared by Renaissance humanists and artists.

Decorated by Giovanni Buonconsiglio, Jacopo Tintoretto, Palma il Giovane, Sebastiano Ricci and Giambattista Tiepolo, the church of the former Benedictine female monastery Santi Cosma e Damiano occupies an outstanding position in Venice. The author of this study argues that from its foundation in 1481 to its dissolution in 1805, Santi Cosma e Damiano was a reform convent, and that its nuns employed art and architecture as a means to actively express their specific religious concerns. While on the one hand focusing, on the basis of extensive archival research, on the reconstruction of the history and construction of the convent, this study's larger concern is with the religious reform movement, its ideas concerning art and architecture, and with the convent as a space for female self-realization in early modern Venice.

Ideal painting in the Renaissance was an art of illusionism that eliminated for the viewer any overt sense of its making. Titian's paintings, in contrast, with their roughly worked and "open" surfaces, unexpected glazes, and thick impasto brushstrokes, made the fact of the paint increasingly visible. Previous scholars have read these paintings as unfinished or the product of lesser studio hands, but in The Muddied Mirror, Jodi Cranston argues that this approach to paint is integral to Titian's later work. Rather than presenting in paint a precise reflection of the visible world, the artist imparted an intrinsic corporeality to his subjects through the varying mass and thickness of the paint. It is precisely the materiality and "disfiguration" of these paintings that offer us the key to understanding their meanings. More important, the subjects of Titian's late paintings are directly related to the materiality of the body--they represent physical changes wrought through violence, metamorphosis, and desire.

Hans Baldung Grien war einer der aussergewoehnlichsten deutschen Kunstler der Renaissance. In einer Epoche tiefgreifender Umwalzungen schuf er ein vielfaltiges und eigenstandiges Werk, das bis heute fasziniert. Der Katalog begleitete die Grosse Landesausstellung in der Staatlichen Kunsthalle Karlsruhe und umfasst rund 250 Exponate aus zahlreichen internationalen Sammlungen, darunter intime Andachtsbilder, leuchtende Glasgemalde, charaktervolle Portrats, humanistische Denkbilder und sinnliche Akte, zu denen auch die beruhmten Sundenfalldarstellungen und die drastischen Hexenszenen zahlen. Mit Einfuhrungen und Exponat-Texten, die sich an ein breiteres Publikum richten, sowie vielen Abbildungen bietet er einen einzigartigen UEberblick uber das Werk dieses grossen Malers, Zeichners und Druckgrafikers.

In 1505, Michelangelo began planning the magnificent tomb for Pope Julius II, which would dominate the next forty years of his career. Repeated failures to complete the monument were characterized by Condivi, Michelangelo's authorized biographer, as "the tragedy of the tomb." This definitive book thoroughly documents the art of the tomb and each stage of its complicated evolution. Edited by Christoph Luitpold Frommel, who also acted as the lead consultant on tge recent restoration campaign, this volume offers new post-restoration photography that reveal the beauty of the tomb overall, its individual statues, and its myriad details. This book traces Michelangelo's stylistic evolution; documents the dialogue between the artist and his great friend and exacting patron, Pope Julius II (who died long before the work was completed); unravels the complicated relationship between the master and his assistants, who executed large parts of the design; and sheds new light on the importance of Neo-Platonism in Michelangelo's thinking, which gave shape to the tomb's most famous statue, the Moses, and the work as a whole. A rich trove of documents in the original Latin and archaic Italian-many unpublished-relates the story firsthand through letters, contracts, and other records covering Michelangelo's travels, the purchase of the marble, the concerns that arose as work progressed, and numerous disagreements and negotiations. The book also includes catalogues of fifteen sculptures designed for the tomb and more than 80 related drawings, as well as an extensive and up-to-date bibliography.

Richly illustrated, and featuring detailed descriptions of works by pivotal figures in the Italian Renaissance, this enlightening volume traces the development of art and architecture throughout the Italian peninsula in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. * A smart, elegant, and jargon-free analysis of the Italian Renaissance what it was, what it means, and why we should study it * Provides a sustained discussion of many great works of Renaissance art that will significantly enhance readers understanding of the period * Focuses on Renaissance art and architecture as it developed throughout the Italian peninsula, from Venice to Sicily * Situates the Italian Renaissance in the wider context of the history of art * Includes detailed interpretation of works by a host of pivotal Renaissance artists, both well and lesser known

This volume represents an important tool for getting to know every aspect of Leonardo da Vinci's work: his pictorial technique, his scientific and technological investigation, his study on anatomy, his Codices, and every suggestion produced by his genius. All works and paintings are accompanied by descriptive and technical sheets, and ample space has been given to images and details, to the updated report on his most controversial works, to those of recent critical acceptance, and to the masterpieces that have animated the international debate such as The Encarnate Angel, the Salvator Mundi, and La Bella Principessa (Portrait of Bianca Sforza). The narrative captions reveal the most curious aspects of the history of each painting. Thanks to the direct contribution of collectors and museums the photographic reproductions of paintings and works reflect the last restorations. Text in English and French.

This work, the fruit of more than ten years of research, consists of a systematic cataloguing of all Florentine painters, and of all the painters active over many years in the Tuscan city, between the early 17 th and the end of the 18 th Centuries. Alongside artists who have already won renown and about whom various monographic studies already exist, this publication shines a collateral light on relatively unknown personages who are worthy of more than a little interest. In some cases these are artists otherwise unknown to contemporary criticism. The intention is to make a significant contribution to art history and the work is in some cases decisive in its attributions of uncertain works that have hitherto been habitually associated only with the better-known names. The three volumes are accompanied by biographies and lists of paintings along with, as is to be expected, an ample selection of approximately 1,800 colour and monochrome photographic reproductions. Volume I (312 pages) Presentation and introduction by Mina Gregori Colour plates I-CVI Biographies of the artists and index of works Bibliography, index of artists in the catalogue, of names and place names Volume II (376 pages) Plates 1-824 (Allori - Guiducci) Volume III (392 pages) Plates 825-1,698 (Hugford - Zocchi)

English Description: Group portraits are an exceptional form of Dutch painting that particularly took hold in the burgeoning metropolis of Amsterdam. This volume focuses on the 17th century, the "Golden Age" of Dutch painting, and 11 famous group portraits that perfectly capture the essence of Dutch society at that time. The group portraits were commissioned for special occasions and displayed prominently as commemorations on the premises of a variety of institutions that played an important role in the political and economic life of the city. Painters include Adriaen Backer, Frans Badens, Ferdinand Bol, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Govert Flinck, Bartholomeus van deer Helst, Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy, and Dirck van Santvoort. German text. German description: Das Gruppenportrat stellt eine herausragende hollandische Bildform dar, die besonders in der aufbluehenden Metropole Amsterdam Fua fasste. Im Zentrum des Katalog-Buches steht das 17. Jahrhundert, das so genannte "Goldene Zeitalter" und elf beruehmte Gruppenportrats, die das damalige Wesen der hollandischen Gesellschaft vollkommen ausdruecken. Regelmaaig lieaen sich Mitglieder des vermogenden Stadtbuergertums in voller Lebensgroae vereint darstellen, wie sie von Amts wegen gemeinsame Aufgaben wahrnehmen. Der besondere Reiz dieser Bilder aus dem 17. Jahrhundert besteht nicht zuletzt in ihrem unmittelbaren Bezug zur Gegenwart. Was damals in einem vom monarchischen Absolutismus gepragten Europa eine Ausnahme darstellte, bildet im heutigen politischen und wirtschaftlichen Leben die Regel: Organisationen und Firmen werden von Personengruppen als Kommissionen, Kuratorien oder Aufsichtsrate gefuehrt. Damit schlagen diese Bilder eine Bruecke, die Vergan- genheit und heutige Lebenswelt unmittelbar verbindet. Die Gruppenportrats wurden zu besonderen Anlassen in Auftrag gegeben und zur Erinnerung in den Reprasentationsraumen der Institutionen aufgehangt. Sie gelangten nach deren Auflosung in das Eigentum der Stadt Amsterdam, einen Teil bildet die Schuttersgalerij im Amsterdams Historisch Museum. Aus diesem Bestand wurden die elf Bilder der Ausstellung ausgewahlt, die von den Malern Adriaen Backer, Frans Badens, Ferdinand Bol, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Govert Flinck, Bartholomeus van der Helst, Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy und Dirck van Santvoort stammen.

Andrea del Sarto's 1514 painting The Holy Family with St. Elizabeth, St. John the Baptist and two angels counts as one of the masterpieces of Italian painting in Munich's Alte Pinakothek. Her art, at the threshold between High Renaissance and Mannerism, is the focus of a special exhibition, and is extensively documented in this publication. For nearly 20 years, the painting was withdrawn from public viewing as its poor state required extensive restorations. To mark its return to the gallery in Munich from the collection of the Elector Johann Wilhelm in Dusseldorf, the painting is presented together with del Sarto's second version of the theme, currently in the possession of the Louvre. This results in the first opportunity to analyze the relationships between the two works side by side. This catalog documents and analyzes the art historical research and the results of detailed investigation of both paintings. German text.

The Moretti Gallery presents this compilation of carefully chosen paintings and accompanying critical essays intended as a tool for approaching its collection of late-medieval and early Renaissance works. Italian and English text.

Dieser Band enthalt 131 Katalognummern mit mittelalterlichen und fruhneuzeitlichen Inschriften der Stadt Wiesbaden und ihrer eingemeindeten Vororte bis zum Jahr 1700. Sowohl die im Original erhaltenen als auch die verlorenen, jedoch durch Abschriften, Zeichnungen oder Fotos uberlieferten Inschriften wurden in den Katalog aufgenommen. Die altesten Grabsteine des 5. bis 6. Jahrhunderts legen Zeugnis ab von dem Weiterleben christlicher Glaubenstradition in der germanischen Bevolkerung nach dem Ende der romischen Herrschaft am Rhein. Gegen Ende des Mittelalters setzt auch in Wiesbaden die allenthalben zu beobachtende Verdichtung des Materials ein. Der Kreis der Auftraggeber von Inschriften erweitert sich und umfasst nun Adlige, Amtleute, Pfarrer und ein Jahrhundert spater auch Burgerliche, die in der untergegangenen Mauritiuskirche und den Vororten ihre Denkmaler hinterliessen. Die Einleitung des Bandes stellt Bezuge zwischen dem Inschriftenbestand und der Stadtgeschichte her. Im Katalogteil werden die Inschriftentrager beschrieben, die Texte wiedergegeben, bei Bedarf mit Ubersetzungen versehen und eingehend besprochen. Register und ein ausfuhrlicher Tafelteil erganzen die Edition.

Der Band enthalt die kommentierte Edition von 180 Inschriften der Stadt Goslar in ihren heutigen Grenzen bis zum Jahr 1650 sowie weitere 67 Jahreszahlen, Initialen und Christusmonogramme. Erfasst werden nicht nur die im Original erhaltenen Inschriften, sondern auch diejenigen, die nur noch in alteren Abschriften oder Photographien vorliegen. Den Schwerpunkt des Bandes bilden die im Zusammenhang von Wand- und Deckenmalereien angebrachten Texte, unter denen der fruhneuzeitliche Sibyllenzyklus in der Goslarer Ratsstube (Huldigungssaal) als das hervorragendste Beispiel anzusehen ist. Den grossten Anteil an dem hier vorgelegten Bestand haben in der Fachwerkstadt Goslar die das Stadtbild pragenden Hausinschriften. Sie uberliefern eine grosse Anzahl von Namen und Daten und stellen somit zusammen mit den Grab- und Stifterinschriften eine reichhaltige Quelle fur die Personengeschichte der Stadt dar. Die Inschriftentexte werden unter Auflosung der Abkurzungen ediert und kommentiert. Lateinische Inschriften und Texte alterer deutscher Sprachstufen werden ubersetzt. Ein ausfuhrlicher Tafelteil erganzt die Edition und den Kommentar.

This is the first book dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci's commission for The Virgin of the Rocks. Leonardo completed fewer than twenty paintings in his lifetime, yet he returned twice to this same mysterious subject over the course of a twenty-five year period. Identical in terms of iconography, stylistically these paintings are worlds apart. The first, of c.1482-4, was Leonardo's magnum opus, catapulting the young artist from obscurity to fame. When, in 1508, he finished the second painting, he was nearing the end of his artistic career and had become an international celebrity. Why did he revisit The Virgin of the Rocks? What was the meaning behind the cavernous subterranean landscape? What lies behind the colder monumentality of the second version?This book opens up Leonardo's world, setting the scene in Republican Florence and the humanist court of the Milanese warlord Ludovico Sforza, to answer these questions. Through lyrical yet scholarly analyses of Leonardo's paintings, notebooks and technical experimentation, it unveils the secret realms of human dissection and Neo-Platonic philosophy that inspired the creation of the two masterpieces. In doing so, the book reveals that The Virgin of the Rocks holds the key to the greatest philosophical, scientific and personal transformations of Leonardo's life.Images and links to figures are available at www.virginoftherocks.com.

This is the catalogue of an exhibition held at the Museum of Archeology and Art in Grosseto, Italy, from May to September 2008 in which thirty-one masterpieces of sixteenth-century Tuscan art were displayed for the public, most for the first time. Precise reproductions, both complete and in detail, are accompanied by rigorous academic and philological critical essays. The catalogue provides the reader with a striking pictorial treasure of rare beauty, while also appealing to scholars and experts through the quality of so many previously unpublished works by over twenty famous artists from the period. Italian text.

Caravaggio's (ca. 1571-1610) spectacularly new way of painting was also enthusiastically received by his Dutch contemporaries and inspired them to new illustrative inventions. This catalog demonstrates how his followers in Utrecht developed a new type of musicians' portraits through the dialog with its Italian model. German text.