Synopses & Reviews
Art, Theory and Culture in Sixteenth-Century Italy offers a critical overview of the literature on the visual arts produced during the High and Late Renaissance. Analyzing and interpreting texts by such writers as Vasari, Lomazzo, Zuccaro, and Tasso, Robert Williams demonstrates how these works offer insight into the experience of contemporary viewers, thus permitting a clearer view of the relationship between abstract thought and lived experience. By focusing on a heretofore neglected, but important body of literature, Williams shows how an understanding of it can transform our knowledge and appreciation of the Renaissance.
Review
"Williams has written a thoughtful book meticulous in its reading of Vasari, Lomazzo, Zuccaro, Tasso, and Bocchi and in its original presentation of their writing as a rich and interrelated theoretical discourse." Deborah Cibelli, Sixteenth Century Journal"This is a well-written, well-conceived, provocative study and will fascinate those interested in Renaissance thought..." Renaissance and Reformation
Synopsis
This book offers a critical overview of the literature on the visual arts produced during the High and Late Renaissance. Analysing and interpreting texts by such writers as Vasari, Lomazzo, Zuccaro, and Tasso, Robert Williams demonstrates how these works offer insight into the experience of contemporary viewers, thus permitting a clearer view of the relationship between abstract thought and lived experience. By focusing on a hitherto neglected, but important, body of literature, Williams shows how an understanding of it can transform our knowledge and appreciation of the Renaissance.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. Vasari's concept of Disegno; 2. Style, decorum and aesthetic experience; 3. Absolute art: Lomazzo, Zuccaro and Tasso; 4. Francesco Bocchi; Conclusion.