Viewing Renaissance Art - Softcover

Open University, The

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300123434 ISBN 13: 9780300123432

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2007

Synopsis

This book focuses on the values, priorities, and motives of patrons and the purposes and functions of art works produced north and south of the Alps and in post-Byzantine Crete. It begins by considering the social range and character of Renaissance patronage and ends with a study of Hans Holbein the Younger and the reform of religious images in Basle and England.
Viewing Renaissance Art considers a wide range of audiences and patrons from the rulers of France to the poorest confraternities in Florence. The overriding premise is that art was not a neutral matter of stylistic taste but an aspect of material production in which values were invested―whether religious, cultural, social, or political.

About this title

About the Author:

Kim W. Woods, Carol M. Richardson, and Angeliki Lymberopoulou are lecturers, Art History Department, The Open University.

From Publishers Weekly:

It might come as a surprise to discover that a Renaissance-era art collector can get a Botticelli for much less than the wallpaper surrounding it; that's just one of the surprising details revealed in this collaborative effort, an unabashedly revisionist history which expands on the social, political, religious and economic context of Renaissance art. Just about every chapter refers to and gently rebukes influential 16th century art expert Vasari, who privileged painting, sculpture and architecture in the canon; urging readers to move beyond the era's well-known painters, sculptors and masterpieces, Woods and company consider the full range and variety of pieces marketed as "art" during the Renaissance; entire chapters are devoted to illuminated manuscripts and Cretan icons. Also challenged is the notion that Italy was the Renaissance's epicenter, with discussions of the lively arts scene in France, England and Switzerland. The closest the work comes to classic, artist-as-hero writing is the profile of Holbein the Younger, though it largely concerns the artist's challenges in the wake of the Reformation rather than the man himself. The third in a three-part series from Open University, the essays in this book are written by academics with few nods to a popular audience, though jargon is kept to a happy minimum. 200 color illustrations.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0300123434
• ISBN 13: 9780300123432
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 333
• Editor: Richardson Carol M., Woods Kim W., Lymberopoulou Angeliki