Luxury Arts Of The Renaissance

by Marina Belozerskaya

• ISBN13: 9780892367856
• ISBN10: 0892367857
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Summary

Today we associate Renaissance arts with painting, sculpture, and architecture. Yet gem-studded goldwork and richly embellished armor; splendid tapestries, embroideries, and textiles; ephemeral multimedia spectacles; and other opulent creations were consistently more celebrated by contemporaries. Thus, Isabella d'Este, Marchesa of Mantua, bequeathed to her children vases of semiprecious stones mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, antique bronzes, and marbles. Her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings! This distribution underscores Renaissance aesthetic preferences and cultural values: finely-wrought luxury artifacts were extolled for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components, while paintings and sculptures in modest materials were considered of lesser consequence. Luxury Arts of the Renaissance endeavors to return to the mainstream materials long overlooked due to historical and ideological biases. The author traces luxury arts from their status as markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to their subsequent marginalization as extravagant trinkets unworthy of the status of art. By re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, Belozerskaya demonstrates how sumptuous creations constructed both the world and taste of Renaissance elites. Without these art forms the study of Renaissance arts is impoverished and history misrepresented.

Author Biography

Marina Belozerskaya is an independent researcher and writer focusing on the Renaissance.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	vi
Acknowledgments	vii
Prologue	1	(12)
The Demise of Luxury Arts	13	(34)
Rank, not Genius	14	(3)
Art Academy as Social Strategy	17	(4)
Vasari's Imaginary Lives	21	(1)
``Art and Nature Play with One Another''	22	(8)
The Eighteenth Century: A Turning Point or Continuity?	30	(8)
The Age of Public Museums and Art Education	38	(6)
Back to the ``Period Eye''	44	(3)
The Powers of Gold and Precious Stones	47	(42)
The Spiritual Aura of Gold and Gems	50	(6)
The Magical Powers of Metals and Gems	56	(2)
Geography and Learning	58	(6)
Goldwork and Diplomacy	64	(5)
Gold, Automata, and the Culture of Wonder	69	(10)
The Royal Table	79	(5)
The Language of Personal Adornment	84	(5)
Woven Narratives of Rule	89	(46)
Princely Art par Excellence	98	(4)
The Language of Allegories	102	(13)
Tapestries as Gifts and Competition	115	(2)
Tapestries for Social Climbing	117	(4)
Making and Marketing	121	(14)
Armor: The High Art of War	135	(52)
The Ubiquity of War, the Practicality of Armor	139	(8)
Chivalric Displays	147	(10)
Parade Armor: The Theater of Supremacy	157	(11)
Garnitures	168	(2)
Leading Armorers of the Day	170	(6)
Production and Techniques	176	(3)
Decorations	179	(8)
Sweet Voices and Fanfares	187	(40)
Sacred Polyphony	191	(12)
Secular Songs	203	(5)
Instrumental Music	208	(6)
Dance	214	(8)
Court Festivities and Music	222	(5)
The Seduction of All Senses	227	(36)
The Wedding of the Century	229	(11)
The Ephemeral War	240	(9)
Civic Pride and Private Ostentation	249	(7)
The Final Journey and Perpetual Memory	256	(7)
Notes	263	(4)
Bibliography	267	(7)
Index	274