Patronage and Italian Renaissance Sculpture

<p>The first book to be dedicated to the topic, <em>Patronage and Italian Renaissance Sculpture</em> reappraises the creative and intellectual roles of sculptor and patron. The volume surveys artistic production from the Trecento to the Cinquecento in Rome, Pisa, Florence, Bologna, and Venice. Using a broad range of approaches, the essayists question the traditional concept of authorship in Italian Renaissance sculpture, setting each work of art firmly into a complex socio-historical context. Emphasizing the role of the patron, the collection re-assesses the artistic production of such luminaries as Michelangelo, Donatello, and Giambologna, as well as lesser-known sculptors. Contributors shed new light on the collaborations that shaped Renaissance sculpture and its reception.</p> Contents: Foreword; Introduction: the virtues of the medium: the patronage of sculpture in Renaissance Italy, Kathleen Wren Christian and David J. Drogin; 'There are many sculptors but to Giovanni remain the honors of praise': the rhetoric of Giovanni Pisano's words and images, Francis Ames-Lewis; Professors and princes: patronage of sculpture in the Capella Bentivoglio, Bologna, David J. Drogin; The humanist and the poet: Bernardo Bembo's portrait of Dante, Debra Pincus; Partnerships in commemoration: the patronage and production of the Brusati and Barbo tombs in quattrocento Rome, Shelley E. Zuraw; Donatello and his patrons, David G. Wilkins; Reversing the rules: Michelangelo and the patronage of sculpture, William E. Wallace; Passim: sculptors and sculptural patronage in and beyond Florence in the 15th century, Roger J. Crum; Giambologna's equestrian monument to Cosimo I: the monument makes the memory, Sarah Blake McHam; Pirro Ligorio's Roman fountains and the concept of the antique: investigations of the ancient nymphaeum in cinquecento antiquarian culture, Robert W. Gaston; Selected works cited; Index.