The Biography of the Object in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy

Material culture is not static: objects are created, used and re-used, sometimes for centuries, and their lives interact with those of the people who made and used them. The essays in this book discuss the ‘social lives’ of objects in late-medieval and renaissance Italy, ranging from maiolica, through sculpture and prostitutes’ jewellery, to miraculous painted images.

• Demonstrates the continued life of these objects well past the deaths of their creators and patrons.
  
• Contains a series of original contributions by young scholars, representing a broad range of approaches.

Roberta J.M. Olson is Professor Emeritus of Art History at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. She has worked as Curator of Drawings at the New-York Historical Society for seven years.

Patricia L. Reilly is Assistant Professor of Art History at Swarthmore College. She is currently finishing a book on Raphael, Giorgio Vasari and the development of what she terms the ‘Florentine Visual Vernacular’.

Rupert Shepherd is based in the Department of Western Art at the Ashmolean Museum. His previous employment included two years as a research fellow at the University of Sussex, working on the collaborative project The Material Renaissance: Costs and Consumption in Italy c.1300-1650.