Synopses & Reviews
With contributions by Sarah Cartwright, Jessie McNab, J. Kenneth Moore, Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, Wendy Thompson, and Jeremy Warren
Many famous Italian Renaissance artworks were made to celebrate love and marriage. They were the pinnacles of a tradition---dating from the early Renaissance---of commemorating betrothal, marriage, and the birth of a child by commissioning extraordinary objects or exchanging them as gifts. This important volume is the first to examine the entire range of works to which Renaissance rituals of love and marriage gave rise and makes a major contribution to our understanding of Renaissance art in its broader cultural context. Some 140 works of art, dating from about 1400 to 1600, are discussed by a distinguished group of scholars and are reproduced in full color.
Marriage and childbirth gifts are the point of departure. These range from maiolica, glassware, and jewelry to birth trays, musical instruments, and nuptial portraits. Bonds of love of another sort were represented in erotic drawings and prints. From these precedents, an increasingly inventive approach to subjects of love and marriage culminated in paintings by some of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, including Giulio Romano, Lorenzo Lotto, and Titian.
Review
Selected as a finalist for the 2010 Alfred H. Barr Jr., Award given by the College Art Association -- Choice
Review
"A major contribution to our understanding of Renaissance art in its broader culturual context...A must-have for anyone interested in Renaissance art and private life."--Katherine A. McIver, Renaissance Quarterly -- Alfred H. Barr Jr., Award - College Art Association
Synopsis
A new examination of Leonardo's career that illuminates his time as court painter to the Duke of Milan, an experience that fundamentally changed his outlook and his legacy
Synopsis
Leonardo da Vinci's reputation as an inventor and scientist, and the complexity of his creativity andand#160;personality, have sometimes almost overshadowed the importance of his aims and techniques as a painter. Thisand#160;catalogue focuses on a crucial period in the 1480s and 1490s when, as a salaried court artist to Duke Ludovico Sforza in the city-state of Milan, freed from the pressures of making a living in the commercially minded Florentine republic, Leonardo produced some of the most celebratedand#8212;and influentialand#8212;work of his career. The Last Supper, his two versions of The Virgin of the Rocks, and the beautiful portrait of Ludovico's mistress, Cecilia Gallerani (The Lady with an Ermine),and#160;were paintings that set a new standard for his Milanese contemporaries. Leonardo's style was magnified, through collaboration and imitation, to become the visual language of the regime, and by the time he returned to Florence in 1500, his status had been utterly transformed.and#160;
About the Author
Luke Syson is Curator of Italian paintings before 1500 and Head of Research at the National Gallery, London. His previous publications include Renaissance Siena:and#160;Art for a Cityand#160;and, as co-author, Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court and Objects of Virtue:and#160;Art in Renaissance Italy. Larry Keith, Arturo Galansino, Antonio Mazzotta, Minna Moore Ede, Scott Nethersole, and Per Rumberg are all present or former members of staffand#160;at the National Gallery, London.