The Studiolo Of Urbino

The "studiolo" of Federico da Montefeltro in Urbino, the highlight of the Ducal Palace, is the most complete surviving example of an early Renaissance study. Its decorations (dated 1476) consist of a coffered ceiling, of inlaid panels depicting with impressice illusionism a fully-furnished "studiolo" interior, and of a painted frieze of 28 portraits of famous men. The latter have recently been re-assembled in the room (14 of them photographically, since their originals remain in the Louvre), for the first time since their dispersal in 1632. Much has been written on the decorations, but scholars have never attempted to analyse the various parts as an interacting whole, in order to establish whether they embody an iconographic programme. Such an investigation constitutes the main aim of the monograph. After an introduction on the cultural background, the various reconstructions of the painted frieze are critically surveyed to show why, in spite of continuing controversy, the arrangement proposed by Rotondi in 1973 (which the "Soprintendenza" of Urbino has followed) should be treated as definitive. The monograph also deals with the Gubbio "studiolo", a derivative of the Urbino one (its woodwork is in the Metropolitan Museum). A thourough re-examination of the question of the reconstruction leads to the view that, contrary to common assumption, the "Liberal Arts" attributed to Justus of Ghent were not part of the original decorations. Both "studioli" are richly illustrated; specially taken colour photographs of the famous men in situ are also included in the volume

The Renaissance studiolo was a space devoted in theory to private reading. The most famous studiolo of all was that of Isabella d'Este, marchioness of Mantua. This work explores the function of the mythological image within a Renaissance culture of collectors.

The studioli of the ducal palaces at Urbino and Gubbio, Italy, demonstrate architecture's capacity to transact between the mental and physical realms of human experience. Constructed between 1474 and 1483 for the military captain Federico da Montefeltro and his young motherless son, the studioli may be described as treasuries of emblems: they contain not things but images of things, rendered with remarkable perspectival exactitude. These small, image-filled chambers reflect how architecture and its ornament equipped a quattrocento mind with metaphors for wisdom and methods for statecraft and intellectual activity. Drawing on the densely layered imagery in the studioli and text sources readily available to the Urbino court, Robert Kirkbride examines the position of the studioli in the Western tradition of the memory arts, considering how architecture bridged the mathematical arts, which lent themselves to mechanical pursuits, and the art of rhetoric, a discipline central to memory and eloquence. As subtle ramifications of material and mental craft, the studioli provided ideal methods for education and prudent governance, extending an ancient legacy of open-ended models that were conceived to activate the imagination and exercise the memory. At the time of their construction, the studioli represented the leading edge of technologies of visual representation and offer a case study of how contemporary advances in interactive technologies reactivate and transform ancient metaphors for thought and learning.

This rich history of marquetry is presented in cintext by one of its most ardent and taslented proponents - Silas Kopf. A distinguished cabinetmaker for more than thirty years, Kopf identifies the origins and influences of numerous decorative arts and architectural elements taht have and continue to have an impact on his own work. AUTHOR: Forword by Glenn Adamson, Head of Graduate Studies abd Deputy Head of Research, Victoria ALbert Museum, London. 320 colour illustrations

This book examines the ways in which spaces and places of solitude were conceived of, imagined, and represented in the late medieval and early modern periods. It explores the spatial, material, and affective dimensions of solitude, which have so far received only scant scholarly attention.