The Renaissance Restored

This handsomely illustrated volume traces the intersections of art history and paintings restoration in nineteenth-century Europe. Repairing works of art and writing about them—the practices that became art conservation and art history—share a common ancestry. By the nineteenth century the two fields had become inseparably linked. While the art historical scholarship of this period has been widely studied, its restoration practices have received less scrutiny—until now. This book charts the intersections between art history and conservation in the treatment of Italian Renaissance paintings in nineteenth-century Europe. Initial chapters discuss the restoration of works by Giotto and Titian framed by the contemporary scholarship of art historians such as Jacob Burckhardt, G. B. Cavalcaselle, and Joseph Crowe that was redefining the earlier age. Subsequent chapters recount how paintings conservation was integrated into museum settings. The narrative uses period texts, unpublished archival materials, and historical photographs in probing how paintings looked at a time when scholars were writing the foundational texts of art history, and how contemporary restorers were negotiating the appearances of these works. The book proposes a model for a new conservation history, object-focused yet enriched by consideration of a wider cultural horizon.

The Renaissance Battle for Rome examines the rhetorical battle fought simultaneously between a wide variety of parties (individuals, groups, authorities) seeking prestige or legitimacy through the legacy of ancient Romeâe"a battle over the question of whose claims to this legacy were most legitimate. Distinguishing four domainsâe"power, morality, cityscape and literatureâe"in which ancient Rome represented a particularly powerful example, this book traces the contours of this rhetorical battle across Renaissance Europe, based on a broad selection of Humanist Latin Poetry. It shows how humanist poets negotiated different claims on behalf of others and themselves in their work, acting both as "spin doctors" and "new Romans", while also undermining competing claims to this same idealized past. By so doing this book not only offers a new understanding of several aspects of the Renaissance that are usually considered separately, but ultimately allows us to understand Renaissance culture as a constant negotiation between appropriating and contesting the idea and ideal of "Rome."

It is the opportunity of a lifetime, all she has ever dreamed of, the chance for Lucrezia Sims to study art restoration at the Palazzo Moretti in Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance. But even before she gets there, her life is devastated by the sudden separation of her parents. And once she arrives in Florence, she soon becomes the suspect in a violent crime, and betrayed by the one woman she had come to trust, whilst at the same time believing herself to be the victim of an odious assault. Her father, Jeffrey, who flies to be by her side, is himself soon a murder suspect as the full extent of the criminal network headed by Tommaso Rialo becomes shockingly clear.Jeffery must find a new sense of purpose as he works alongside ex-intelligence officer Marco di Luca, frustrated by a population in thrall to the criminal magnate and ignored by a police officer too scared or too corrupt to act against him. Together, they pull apart the threads of a sophisticated network of forgery and money laundering, risking their very lives to uncover the truth.Alongside this dark mystery, we are shown some of the lesser known beauties that Florence possesses, celebrating its women artists, those involved in the conservation and restoration of its many treasures and the Mannerist artists, who advanced art beyond the epoch of the High Renaissance.And we celebrate the life of Eleanora di Toledo, wife of Cosimo the First, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Their life long fidelity was unusual for their time, as was Eleanora's determination to emerge from the shadow of her husband and be recognised in her own right. Her story has echoes of that of Lucrezia, as past and present mirror each other.

Mussolini&’s bold claims upon the monuments and rhetoric of ancient Rome have been the subject of a number of recent books. D. Medina Lasansky shows us a much less familiar side of the cultural politics of Italian Fascism, tracing its wide-ranging efforts to adapt the nation&’s medieval and Renaissance heritage to satisfy the regime&’s programs of national regeneration. Anyone acquainted with the beauties of Tuscany will be surprised to learn that architects, planners, and administrators working within Fascist programs fabricated much of what today&’s tourists admire as authentic. Public squares, town halls, palaces, gardens, and civic rituals (including the famed Palio of Siena) were all &“restored&” to suit a vision of the past shaped by Fascist notions of virile power, social order, and national achievement in the arts. Ultimately, Lasansky forces readers to question long-standing assumptions about the Renaissance even as she expands the parameters of what constitutes Fascist culture. The arguments in The Renaissance Perfected are based in fresh archival evidence and a rich collection of illustrations, many reproduced for the first time, ranging from photographs and architectural drawings to tourist posters and film stills. Lasansky&’s groundbreaking book will be essential reading for students of medieval, Renaissance, and twentieth-century Italy as well as all those concerned with visual culture, architectural preservation, heritage studies, and tourism studies.

The last two decades have transformed the field of Renaissance studies, and Reconceiving the Renaissance: A Critical Reader maps this difficult terrain. Attending to the breadth of fresh approaches, the volume offers a theoretical overview of current thinking about the period.Collecting in one volume the classic and cutting-edge statements which define early modern scholarship as it is now practised, this book is a one-stop indispensable resource for undergraduates and beginning postgraduates alike. Through a rich array of arguments by the world's leading experts, the Renaissance emerges wonderfully invigorated, while the suggestive shorter extracts, topical questions and engaged editorial introductions give students the wherewithal and encouragement to do somereconceiving themselves.