"This book explores grace as a complex idea and term that at once expresses and connects the most pressing ethical, social, and aesthetic debates of the Italian Renaissance. Grace surfaced time and again in the period's discussions of the individual pursuit of the good life and in the collective quest to determine the best means to a harmonious society. It rose to prominence in theological debates about the soul's salvation and in secular debates about how best to live at court. It was absolutely central to the thinking of Reformation figures such as Erasmus and Luther, and just as central to the Counter-Reformation response. It played a pivotal role in the humanist campaign to develop a shared literary language and it featured prominently in the efforts of writers and artists to express the full potential of mankind. Grace abounded in the Italian Renaissance, yet it was as hard to define as it was ever-present. The courtier and writer, Baldassare Castiglione, for example, described it as that 'certain air' which distinguished excellent courtiers and court ladies from their mediocre counterparts, while his artist friend, Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael), saw it as that quality produced when one conceals the hard work and effort of art behind a veil of nonchalance and ease. This classically-inspired grace was used by many as a way of claiming distinction for themselves and of arguing for the pre-eminence of their chosen disciplines, but it drew criticism too from those who saw it as self-interested and superficial. Quarrels about the meaning and value of grace involved theologians, artists, writers and philosophers and intersected with the most famous debates of the time about language, society and the role of literature and the visual arts. As well as shedding light on what grace meant to those who invoked it, this book aims to trace the interdisciplinary transactions that the word made possible. Each chapter combines consideration of pivotal texts and images with interdisciplinary approaches, examining what grace meant to protagonists of the Italian Renaissance and exploring the correspondence, whether direct or indirect, between them. What emerges is a network of friendships, rivalries, agreements and disputes: a sketch of the interconnections that made the Italian Renaissance"--

How grace shaped the Renaissance in Italy "Grace" emerges as a keyword in the culture and society of sixteenth-century Italy. The Grace of the Italian Renaissance explores how it conveys and connects the most pressing ethical, social and aesthetic concerns of an age concerned with the reactivation of ancient ideas in a changing world. The book reassesses artists such as Francesco del Cossa, Raphael and Michelangelo and explores anew writers like Castiglione, Ariosto, Tullia d'Aragona and Vittoria Colonna. It shows how these artists and writers put grace at the heart of their work. Grace, Ita Mac Carthy argues, came to be as contested as it was prized across a range of Renaissance Italian contexts. It characterised emerging styles in literature and the visual arts, shaped ideas about how best to behave at court and sparked controversy about social harmony and human salvation. For all these reasons, grace abounded in the Italian Renaissance, yet it remained hard to define. Mac Carthy explores what grace meant to theologians, artists, writers and philosophers, showing how it influenced their thinking about themselves, each other and the world. Ambitiously conceived and elegantly written, this book portrays grace not as a stable formula of expression but as a web of interventions in culture and society.

Zuffi reveals the world of the Renaissance masters in a new and rich light. Each spread uses an important painting as a way to explain a key concept. Includes brief biographies of the major artists, provided an accessible introduction to the art and culture of the Italian Renaissance.

Recent decades have seen an outpouring of literature about the tragic destruction of European Jewry during the Second World War. Yet virtually nothing has been published about the astounding process of healing and recovery undergone by many survivors of the Holocaust, who had to overcome unspeakable personal trauma to build successful new lives. The present book, written with sensitivity and eloquence by the loving son of two such people, breaks important new ground in describing and shedding light on this remarkable phenomenon. The story follows Bela and Judit Rubinstein as they return from the camps at the end of the War, their families having been murdered by the Nazis. They flee Hungary and end up trapped in a refugee camp in northern Italy. Finally, an unforeseen opportunity arises to immigrate to Canada. The Rubinsteins establish a new home, raise a family, and integrate into the Toronto community. The book's universal message of hope is sure to inspire a broad range of readers.

Certain words played a crucial role in the making of the European Renaissance, and still recur today in our shifting understanding of it. Discretion and grace, to take two examples studied here, express how individuals thought about themselves, each other and their experience of the world, yet they are as hard to define as they are ever-present in Renaissance discourse. In this collection of essays, scholars from across the Humanities offer new interpretations of these and other 'keywords', to adopt Raymond Williams's term, and investigate the vocabulary that not only accompanied, but also produced, the cultural transformations that made the Renaissance so distinctive. A keywords approach to Renaissance Europe provides a rich contextual framework for the exploration of its central ideas. It also highlights the need for fresh thinking on current histories of the age. Seven Renaissance Keywords engages with the ongoing debate about the term 'Renaissance' itself, perhaps more our keyword than theirs, and seeks alternative ways to understand a culture and society which produced conceptions of the self as much as it did art and science. The result is an exploration at the cutting edge of contemporary research. Ita Mac Carthy is Lecturer in Italian Studies at the University of Birmingham.

In fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy, many leading citizens constructed and furnished distinctive studies for themselves. The study was an individually designed room for private and social use - as an office, library, a family archive or treasury, as the nucleus of an art collection, or as a space for contemplation. This book is an account of the Renaissance Italian study and its contents. Illustrated with depictions of studies and the precious and unusual objects they contained, the book examines the significance of the study to its owner and visitors, its structure and location, and the prized possessions that might fill such a special room.

This new volume is the most comprehensive examination of Italian Renaissance sculpture from 1490 to 1560 ever published. Central to the whole study is the sculpture of Michelangelo, which is illustrated in its entirety in the documentation section. Nineteen of Michelangelo's contemporaries are also treated in detail, with full individual biographies and representative examples of their work. Special attention is paid to Jacopo Sansovino, Benvenuto Cellini, Baccio Bandinelli, and Bartolomeo Ammannati. In his introductory essays, Joachim Poeschke, professor of art history at the University of Dusseldorf and the author of numerous publications on Italian art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, places the sculpture of the sixteenth century in its intellectual and cultural context. He discusses the shift in its subject matter and function and examines the theoretical notions that motivated the artists of the period. Poeschke's broad overview of the period makes this volume an invaluable addition to Renaissance literature. The works are presented in masterful new photographs taken especially for this book by Albert Hirmer and Irmgard Ernstmeier-Hirmer. The illustrations, which include fifty-two full-page colorplates, afford an opportunity to see these works in extraordinary detail and often from several viewpoints. With an extensive and up-to-date bibliography, Michelangelo and His World is an invaluable reference for scholars, students, and aficionados of Italian Renaissance art.