Our systems are now restored following recent technical disruption, and we’re working hard to catch up on publishing. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Find out more

Recommended product

Popular links

Popular links


Drawing and Painting in the Italian Renaissance Workshop

Drawing and Painting in the Italian Renaissance Workshop

Drawing and Painting in the Italian Renaissance Workshop

Theory and Practice, 1300–1600
Carmen Bambach , Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
December 1999
Unavailable - out of print December 2004
Hardback
9780521402187

Looking for an inspection copy?

This title is not currently available for inspection.

Out of Print
Hardback

    Since Vasari, the artists of the Italian Renaissance have been characterized in superhuman terms, suggesting that they were responsible both for the conceptualization, as well as demanding execution of the creative output. In Drawing and Painting in the Italian Renaissance Workshop, Carmen Bambach reassesses the role of artists and their assistants in the creation of monumental painting. Analyzing representative wall paintings and the many drawings related to the various stages of their production, Bambach convincingly reconstructs the development of workshop practice and design theory in the early modern period. She establishes that between 1430 and 1600, cartoons - drawings ostensibly of a utilitarian nature - became common practice, and, moreover, moved to the forefront of artistic expression. Her exhaustive analysis of archaeological evidence as well as textual evidence provides a timely and much-needed re-assessment of the working methods of artists in one of the most vital periods in the history of art.

    • The book presents unpublished data on works by a great number of famous artists
    • It develops an archaeological method of analysis that bears application in a number of different directions for the fields of Renaissance drawing and painting
    • It offers an integrated reading of a large variety of period written sources rarely tapped for the broad history of Italian Renaissance art

    Awards

    Received special commendation by the judges of the Mitchell Prize 2000.

    Read more

    Reviews & endorsements

    'It is a truly ground-breaking and dauntingly omniscient consideration of a subject of obviously seminal importance which everyone else has shied away from … bound to be essential reading for anyone interested in the Italian renaissance, and it is impossible to imagine it being superseded.' Apollo

    '… based on years of scrupulous, exhaustive research … the author's findings are invariably grounded in her knowledge of the already ample literature on the subject. Bambach's book goes a long way to shed much-needed light on the laborious and complex working processes of Renaissance painting.' Apollo

    See more reviews

    Product details

    December 1999
    Hardback
    9780521402187
    576 pages
    288 × 223 × 39 mm
    2.19kg
    300 b/w illus. 14 colour illus.
    Unavailable - out of print December 2004

    Table of Contents

    • 1. Introduction: from workshop practice to design theory
    • 2. Processes, materials, tools and labor
    • 3. Traditions of copying
    • 4. The censure of copying practices
    • 5. The splendors of Ornament
    • 6. Toward a scientific design technology in the Quattrocento
    • 7. The Ideal of the 'Ben Finito Cartone in the Cinquecento'
    • 8. The 'Substitute Cartoon'
    • 9. The Art of Disegnare
    • 10. Techniques of Stylus Incisions
    • 11. Spolvero, Calco, and the Technical Virtuosity of Fresco painting.
      Author
    • Carmen Bambach , Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York