The Vision of Rome in Late Renaissance France

461 Pages Indexed. Bluecloth with gold spine lettering. The extraordinary richness of ancient Rome was recurring inspiration to writers, artists, scholars and architects in 16th century France. McGowan explores the ways in which the perception of Rome as a physical and symbolic entity stimulated intellectdual endeavour across the disciplines. The French vision of Rome was initially determined by travel journals, guidebooks and a rapidly developing trade in antiquities. Against this background the author examines work by writers such as Du bellay, Grevin, Montaigne and Garnier, and by architects and artists such as Philibert de L'Orme and Jean Cousin, showing how they drew upon classical ruins and reconstructions not only to re-enact past meanings and achievements but also, more dynamically, to interpret the present.She describes how Renaissance Rome, enhanced by the presence of so many signs of ancient grandeur, provided a fertile source of intellectual and artistic creativity. Study of the fragments of the past tempted writers to an imaginative reconstruction of whole forms, while the new structures they created in France revealed the artistic potency of the incomplete and the fragmentary. McGowan carries the underlying themes of the book -- perception, impediments to seeing, and artistic transformation -- to the end of the 16th century when they culminated in the transfer to France of the grandeur that was Rome. Illustrated with 101 figures and 12 color plates. Contents in Eight Chapters: Voyages, The Guidebook, Appropriation and Transformation, The Transporters, Visions Transported The Creative Power of Ruins, Fragments and Wholes, Negative Responses and Reverse Appropriation, and Two Distilled Models of Rome. Large heavy book that may incur additional shipping charges to some locations.…