The Intellectual Education of the Italian Renaissance Artist

Scholars have traditionally viewed the Italian Renaissance artist as a gifted, but poorly educated craftsman whose complex and demanding works were created with the assistance of a more educated advisor. These assumptions are, in part, based on research that has focused primarily on the artist's social rank and workshop training. In this volume, Angela Dressen explores the range of educational opportunities that were available to the Italian Renaissance artist. Considering artistic formation within the history of education, Dressen focuses on the training of highly skilled, average artists, revealing a general level of learning that was much more substantial than has been assumed. She emphasizes the role of mediators who had a particular interest in augmenting artists' knowledge, and highlights how artists used Latin and vernacular texts to gain additional knowledge that they avidly sought. Dressen's volume brings new insights into a topic at the intersection of early modern intellectual, educational, and art history.

• This book offers new insides at the intersection of Art History, History of Education, and Intellectual History in regard to Renaissance Italy
• This book gives an overview of the history of education in the Renaissance, looks where the artist fits into it, and provides specific examples for artists and texts they used
• Makes the concepts and context available for a broad readership, with or without prior knowledge