Luxury Arts of the Renaissance
Oct 2005 · Getty Publications
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280
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About this ebook
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.
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.
Ratings and reviews
4.6
8 reviews
Joanne Pateman
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June 19, 2020
Beautiful images of Renaissance history.
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