As the first comprehensive treatment of Venetian sculpture of the early Renaissance in nearly a century, this book examines the documents, literary sources, and oeuvre of all Venetian sculptors in stone, bronze, and wood between the decoration of the crowning of San Marco at the beginning of the fifteenth century and the artistic revolution wrought by Jacopo Sansovino from ca. 1530 on. Its text pays particular attention to the style of individual works, to their physical and artistic context, their sources and their influence, and synthesizes forty-five years of attentive looking, of research in archives and libraries of the Veneto, and hundreds of photographic campaigns throughout Italy and as far afield as Croatia and Poland - many from specially mounted scaffolds. The introduction treats general questions of material, purpose, patronage, the origin of sculptors, their workshop practices and the structure of guilds, while the conclusion considers ways in which Venetian sculpture was unique. There is no aspect of the subject to which the author has not contributed major discoveries and her book, with its 800 illustrations, should constitute a work of reference long into the future.

Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.

As the first comprehensive treatment of Venetian sculpture of the early Renaissance in nearly a century, this book examines the documents, literary sources, and oeuvre of all Venetian sculptors in stone, bronze, and wood between the decoration of the crowning of San Marco at the beginning of the fifteenth century and the artistic revolution wrought by Jacopo Sansovino from ca. 1530 on. Its text pays particular attention to the style of individual works, to their physical and artistic context, their sources and their influence, and synthesizes forty-five years of attentive looking, of research in archives and libraries of the Veneto, and hundreds of photographic campaigns throughout Italy and as far afield as Croatia and Poland - many from specially mounted scaffolds. The introduction treats general questions of material, purpose, patronage, the origin of sculptors, their workshop practices and the structure of guilds, while the conclusion considers ways in which Venetian sculpture was unique. There is no aspect of the subject to which the author has not contributed major discoveries and her book, with its 800 illustrations, should constitute a work of reference long into the future.

Series statement from publisher's website.

This insightful volumes the use of imitation and the modern cult of originality through a consideration of the disparate fates of two Venetian painters - the canonised master Titian and his artistic heir, the little-known Padovanino.

This book chronicles the conceptual and methodological facets of psychiatry and medical psychology throughout history. There are no recent books covering so wide a time span. Many of the facets covered are pertinent to issues in general medicine, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and the social sciences today. The divergent emphases and interpretations among some of the contributors point to the necessity for further exploration and analysis.

Fifteenth-century Italy witnessed sweeping innovations in the art of sculpture. Sculptors rediscovered new types of images from classical antiquity and invented new ones, devised novel ways to finish surfaces, and pushed the limits of their materials to new expressive extremes. The Art of Sculpture in Fifteenth-Century Italy surveys the sculptural production created by a range of artists throughout the peninsula. It offers a comprehensive overview of Italian sculpture during a century of intense creativity and development. Here, nineteen historians of Quattrocento Italian sculpture chart the many competing forces that led makers, patrons, and viewers to invest sculpture with such heightened importance in this time and place. Methodologically wide-ranging, the essays, specially commissioned for this volume, explore the vast range of techniques and media (stone, metal, wood, terracotta, and stucco) used to fashion works of sculpture. They also examine how viewers encountered those objects, discuss varying approaches to narrative, and ponder the increasing contemporary interest in the relationship between sculpture and history.