An Art Lover's Guide to Florence

by Testa, Judith Anne

• ISBN13: 9780875806808
• ISBN10: 0875806805
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-09-15
• Publisher: Northern Illinois Univ Pr

Summary

No city but Florence contains such an intense concentration of art produced in such a short span of time. The sheer number and proximity of works of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Florence can be so overwhelming that Florentine hospitals treat hundreds of visitors each year for symptoms brought on by trying to see them all, an illness famously identified with the French author Stendhal. While most guidebooks offer only brief descriptions of a large number of works, with little discussion of the historical background, Judith Testa gives a fresh perspective on the rich and brilliant art of the Florentine Renaissance in An Art Lover's Guide to Florence.Concentrating on a number of the greatest works, by such masters as Botticelli and Michelangelo, Testa explains each piece in terms of what it meant to the people who produced it and for whom they it made, deftly treating the complex interplay of politics, sex, and religion that were involved in the creation of those works. With Testa as a guide, armchair travelers and tourists alike will delight in the fascinating world of Florentine art and history.

Author Biography

Judith Testa is professor emerita at Northern Illinois University and author of Rome Is Love Spelled Backward: Enjoying Art and Architecture in the Eternal City.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 3
Historical Background
A Time of Turmoil	p. 9
The Flowering of Florence	p. 14
The (Mostly) Magnificent Medici	p. 17
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (1360-1429)	p. 18
Cosimo de' Medici Pater Patriae (1389-1464)	p. 18
Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, "The Gouty" (1416-1469)	p. 21
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, "Lorenzo il Magnifico" (1449-1492)	p. 22
Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici, "The Fatuous" (1472-1503)	p. 26
From Confusion to Duke Cosimo I	p. 27
The Cathedral of Florence: The Cupolone and the Condottieri	p. 29
Brunelleschi's Big Dome	p. 29
Inside the Cathedral - The Frescoed Monuments to John Hawkwood and Niccolò da Tolentino	p. 40
John Hawkwood	p. 41
Niccolò da Tolentino	p. 45
The Cathedral Baptistery
History of the Building	p. 49
The Three Sets of Bronze Doors	p. 52
Doors by Andrea Pisano	p. 52
Ghiberti's First Set of Doors	p. 52
Ghiberti's Second Set of Doors- "The Gates of Paradise"	p. 56
Inside the Baptistery	p. 60
The Other Pope John XXIII	p. 60
The Tale of a Tomb-The Burial Monument of Anti-Pope John XXIII (Baldassare Coscia)	p. 66
The Brancacci Chapel in S. Maria del Carmine: Where Renaissance Painting Was Born	p. 70
The Piazza della Signoria: Power Politics and Sexual Politics in the City Center	p. 81
Donatello's Judith Beheading Holofernes	p. 83
Cellini's Perseus and Medusa	p. 87
Giambologna's The Rape of a Sabine Woman	p. 92
Orsanmichele: A Multipurpose Architectural Masterpiece	p. 96
History of the Building	p. 96
The "March of the Statues"	p. 100
Verrocchio's Christ and Doubting Thomas	p. 106
The Ospedale degli Innocenti: Europe's First Foundling Hospital	p. 112
The Monastery of San Marco: Piety and Politics in a Cloistered World	p. 119
The Medici Palace and Its Chapel
The Architecture of Subtle Authority	p. 129
The Medici and the Magi	p. 134
A Man, a Plan, a Palazzo: Giovanni Rucellai and His Family Palace	p. 140
The Sassetti Chapel in S. Trinita: Politics, Religion, and Personal Reputation	p. 147
The Tornabuoni Chapel in S. Maria Novella
Dueling Donors	p. 157
The Tornabuoni Triumphant-Ghirlandaio's Frescoes in the Cappella Maggiore	p. 161
The Museo degli Uffizi: The Building and Some Highlights of the Collection	p. 167
History of the Building	p. 167
Uccello's Battle of San Romano	p. 169
Botticelli's Del Lama Adoration of the Magi	p. 176
Botticelli's Primavera	p. 181
Botticelli's Birth of Venus	p. 190
Hugo van der Goes's Portinari Altarpiece	p. 197
Raphael's Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de' Rossi	p. 204
Bronzino's Eleonora di Toledo and Her Son Giovanni de' Medici	p. 210
Titian's Venus of Urbino	p. 217
The Museo Nazionale del Bargello
History of the Building	p. 223
Donatello's Bronze David with the Head of Goliath	p. 224
Michelangelo's Brutus	p. 231
Il Gigante: Michelangelo's David	p. 235
Michelangelo's Medici Chapel: The Tragedy of Time in a Time of Tragedy	p. 243
Epilogue	p. 255
Acknowledgments	p. 257
Selected Bibliography	p. 259
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