Jacob Burckhardt claimed that the state in Renaissance Italy became "a work of art". In this book, the authors illiminate the corollary: that art in Italy became a work of state. They study centres of power under three distinctive governments - a civic republic of the 14th century, a princely court of the 15th, and an absolutist state of the 16th. The authors argue that, no less than armies, laws and taxes, painted halls of state were strategic instruments, tactical weapons and technical machines of government.;The three rooms examined here are Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Sala dei Nove in Siena (1338-40), Andrea Mantegna's Camera Picta in Mantua (1465-74), and Giorgio Vasari's Sala Grande in Florence (1563-71), where the wedding procession of Giovanna of Austria and Francesco de'Medici culminated in 1565. The authors investigate the rooms as monuments of public art transformed by fundamental changes in political regimes, artistic practices and cultural values. They posit that far from merely reflecting political messages, the art both constructed and contested ideology. It follows that instead of looking through art objects for the realities allegedly underlying them, the authors see the signs encoded in art as a kind of reality.;The authors go beyond secure frontiers of history and art to a field of inquiry that locates the material of investigation in a shifting calculus of relations between images, texts and circumstances. They understand art as a form of power while charting the operations of power in the forms of art.

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.

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.