Leone Leoni and the Status of the Artist at the End of the Renaissance

Di Dio Kelley Helmstutler

ISBN 10: 0754662349 / ISBN 13: 9780754662341

Published by Ashgate Publishing Company, 2010

About this Item

pp. 268.

Seller Inventory # 182066633

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Leone Leoni and the Status of the Artist at the End of the Renaissance
• Publisher: Ashgate Publishing Company
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0754662349
• ISBN 13: 9780754662341
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The late Renaissance sculptor Leone Leoni (1509-1590) came from modest beginnings, but died as a nobleman and knight. His remarkable leap in status from his humble birth to a stonemason's family, to his time as a galley slave, to living as a nobleman and courtier in Milan provide a specific case study of an artist's struggle and triumph over existing social structures that marginalized the Renaissance artist. Based on a wealth of discoveries in archival documents, correspondence, and contemporary literature, the author examines the strategies Leoni employed to achieve his high social position, such as the friendships he formed, the type of education he sought out, the artistic imagery he employed, and the aristocratic trappings he donned. Leoni's multiple roles (imperial sculptor, aristocrat, man of erudition, and criminal), the visual manifestations of these roles in his house, collection, and tomb, the form and meaning of the artistic commissions he undertook, and the particular successes he enjoyed are here situated within the complex political, social and economic contexts of northern Italy and the Spanish court in the sixteenth century.

About the Author

Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio (PhD, Rutgers University, 2000) is an Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Vermont, USA