Artistic Exchange and Cultural Translation in the Italian Renaissance City

This book considers the reception of the early modern culture of Florence, Rome, and Venice in other centers of the Italic peninsula, such as Ferrara, Bologna, Ancona, San Gimignano, and Pistoia, which had flourishing local cultures of their own. Offering a perspective that focuses on dialogue and exchange between different urban centers and cultural groups, it also involves a reexamination of the Renaissance itself as a form of translation of a past culture, one that attempted to assimilate the lost or fragmentary world of the Roman emperors, the Greek Platonists, and the ancient Egyptians. Collectively the essays examine how the processes of cultural self-definition varied between the Italian urban centers in the early modern period, well before the formation of a distinct Italian national identity. Exploring how artistic forms made the transition from one Italian city to another, attention is also focused on the subtle modification of practice required by local conditions and priorities.

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'… a book with ambitions. … The editors are to be congratulated for bringing together essays that are in the main of an extremely high standard. The collection manages to focus on many intriguing objects that have tended to be neglected in traditional art history. … this is a valuable book. … it is to [the editors] credit that they have put together a thought-provoking group of essays which displays a zest for the exploration of methodologies, of previously little-studies centres, objects and artists and which act as a kind of manifesto for the current vivacity and ambition of Renaissance art history.' The Burlington Magazine

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Product details

• Date Published: October 2004
• format: Hardback
• isbn: 9780521826884
• length: 386 pages

• dimensions: 240 x 183 x 22 mm
• weight: 0.88kg
• contains: 88 b/w illus.
• availability: Available