15th Century Patronage of the Visual Arts

Alison Cole's Virtue and Magnificence is an efficient survey of fifteenth-century patronage of the visual arts at the courts of Naples, Milan, Ferrara, Urbino, and Mantua. This is not a scholarly work--it presents what is known rather than new information or theories (and it is not annotated). But it is carefully organized to demonstrate the complementary nature of the qualities named in its title--the virt�, or special talent, of the artist and princely magnificentia. Most importantly, however, Cole clarifies the motives behind such patronage and its role in the system of relations among states--from Italian city-states to the Holy Roman Empire. She demonstrates how, along with military, dynastic, and diplomatic connections and the sharing of humanist learning, patronage of the arts served to place the rulers of small states on a level approximating that of higher-ranking rulers of more substantial states. In her account the problems of the artist tak

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Category: Arts - 1