The Court Cities of Northern Italy
Milan, Parma, Piacenza, Mantua, Ferrara, Bologna, Urbino, Pesaro, and Rimini

This volume examines the painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and architecture produced in nine important court cities of Italy during the course of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. The six essays, which were specially commissioned for this volume, examine the development of patronage as well as the production of art in Milan, Parma, Piacenza, Mantua, Ferrara, Bologna, Urbino, Pesaro, and Rimini. They explore the interaction of artists and their civic and/or courtly patrons within the context of prevailing cultural, political, and religious circumstances. Although each chapter represents a separate study of a particular geographical locale, many common themes emerge, including the nature of artistic practice; the concept of the court artist; the politics of local and foreign styles; the role of corporate and individual patronage and production; the circulation of artists and images in Northern Italy and beyond; the function of art in constructing individual and group identity; and the relationships among science, theology, and the visual arts, particularly in the sixteenth century. A multifaceted consideration of the art created for princes, prelates, confraternities, and civic authorities – works displayed in public squares, private palaces, churches, and town halls – Northern Court Cities of Italy provides a rich supplement to traditional accounts of the artistic heritage of the Italian Renaissance, which have traditionally focused on the Florentine, Venetian, and Roman traditions. The book includes both 35 color plates and 221 black and white illustrations.

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"Charles Rosenberg's The Court Cities of Northern Italy makes a valuable contribution to both court studies and to Italian Renaissance art and architectural history more generally. . . Artistic production is defined broadly, and the book’s vibrant and diverse array of objects, images, and monuments ranges from frescoes and illuminated manuscripts to tapestries and vessels, from palaces and villas to tomb sculpture and intarsia. . . An essential contribution."

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Product details

• Date Published: June 2010
• format: Hardback
• isbn: 9780521792486
• length: 468 pages

• dimensions: 286 x 224 x 29 mm
• weight: 1.67kg
• contains: 263 b/w illus. 3 maps
• availability: Available