Patronage in Renaissance Italy:From 1400 to the Early Sixteenth Century: From 1400 to the Early 16th Century

Mary Hollingsworth

ISBN 10: 0719553784 / ISBN 13: 9780719553783

Published by John Murray Press, United Kingdom, London, 1994

About this Item

This is a comprehensive study of patrons in the Italian quattrocento. It should be of interest to art historians and their students and to lovers of Renaissance art and civilization. At the start of the 15th century the patron, not the artist, was seen as the creator and he carefully controlled both subject and medium. In a competitive and violent age, image and ostentation were essential statements of power. Buildings, bronzes or tapestry were much more eloquent statements than the cheaper marble or fresco. The artistic quality that concerns us nowadays was less important then than perceived cost. The arts in any case were just part of a pattern of conspicuous expenditure which would have included for instance holy relics, manuscripts and jewels - all of which had the added advantage that they were portable and could be used as collateral for bank loans. Since Christian teaching frowned on wealth and power, money had also to be spent on religious endowments made in expiation. But here too the patron was in control, and used the arts and other means to express religious belief, not aesthetic sensibility. Thus artists in the Early Renaissance were employed as craftsmen. Only late in the century did their relations with patrons start to adopt a pattern we might recognize today. This book, which also discusses the important differences between mercantile republics like Florence and Venice, the princely states such as Naples and Milan, and the papal court in Rome, offers a fuller understanding of why the works of this seminal period take the forms they do. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Seller Inventory # GOR001636035

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Patronage in Renaissance Italy:From 1400 to the Early Sixteenth Century: From 1400 to the Early 16th Century
• Publisher: John Murray Press, United Kingdom, London
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719553784
• ISBN 13: 9780719553783
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 821 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This is a comprehensive study of patrons in the Italian quattrocento. It should be of interest to art historians and their students and to lovers of Renaissance art and civilization. At the start of the 15th century the patron, not the artist, was seen as the creator and he carefully controlled both subject and medium. In a competitive and violent age, image and ostentation were essential statements of power. Buildings, bronzes or tapestry were much more eloquent statements than the cheaper marble or fresco. The artistic quality that concerns us nowadays was less important then than perceived cost. The arts in any case were just part of a pattern of conspicuous expenditure which would have included for instance holy relics, manuscripts and jewels - all of which had the added advantage that they were portable and could be used as collateral for bank loans. Since Christian teaching frowned on wealth and power, money had also to be spent on religious endowments made in expiation. But here too the patron was in control, and used the arts and other means to express religious belief, not aesthetic sensibility. Thus artists in the Early Renaissance were employed as craftsmen. Only late in the century did their relations with patrons start to adopt a pattern we might recognize today. This book, which also discusses the important differences between mercantile republics like Florence and Venice, the princely states such as Naples and Milan, and the papal court in Rome, offers a fuller understanding of why the works of this seminal period take the forms they do.

Review

"Hollingsworth pursues her subject from Florence to Venice, into five of Italy's independent princely states (Milan, Ferrara, Mantua, Urbino, and Naples) before ending with the papal court at Rome. She writes authoritatively, drawing on a vast store of knowledge." -- Sunday Times

"An absorbing study of fifteenth-century patrons and artists... A vivid, lively account of a complex society in which art was made to express the wealth, status, worldly concerns, and religious aspirations of its patrons." -- Art Quarterly