Containing over forty portraits, the frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the cappella maggiore of S. Maria Novella provide the opportunity to investigate the function and context of Quattrocento portraiture. Burkhart’s famous notion of Renaissance “individualism,” usually seen as a sufficient explanation for the rise of this genre, is rejected in favour of corporate, especially family, motivations and modes of address. This necessitates an examination of consorterial traditions and patterns of patronage which are registered in the Tornaquinci chapel and enabled the acquisition of patronage rights to the chapel by the entire consorteria in October 1486. A biography is also supplied of Giovanni Tornabuoni, the man who paid for the decoration of this, his family monument, and closely supervised its progress.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Berkely, 1987. / Illustrations of the original dissertation are not included. Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-294).

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No description available.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the patronage of Piero de’ Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. My aim is to discuss and place the patronage in the complex field of the renaissance as an active conjugal partnership between the two. The study is divided in three main chapters, the introduction part where an overview of the main issues in the field of renaissance patronage and a background of the people involved; one chapter where the two religious rooms are introduced and the specific patronage described; and finally a chapter where the different procedures are discussed, compared and combined into one joint conjugal patronage for the both of them. The evidence uncovered supporting the conjugal patronage is partly the similarities between the altar paintings in the rooms. They are both made of Fra Filipo Lippi and both are portraying the Adoration of Infant Jesus. The presence of the coat of arms of both the noble houses at the Camaldoli adoration and a series of lettres between Piero and one of his painters, Benezzo Gozzoli.

This study looks at artists’ careers as paths defined by their relative position in a dynamic professional network where innovation and creativity are highly regarded. Today, the theoretical and empirical study of networks has demonstrated that in some professions the individuals’ position in the network can facilitate or constrain their success. In studies about diffusion of information, for instance, some authors have found that individuals connected to a greater variety of sources are more creative and perform better. I explored this idea by looking at a network of visual artists and art institutions in Miami, and found a positive correlation between position and success, though, not explained by variety exclusively. In the network, artistic success is a function of connecting both across artistic categories and a hierarchical system; therefore, in an art world, creativity and innovation are mediated by key members, who distribute information and resources through affiliation, prominence and brokerage. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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This investigation accepts that art is a term of western culture and that advertising is a creation of an historical and social process firmly linked to the economies of western industrialised nations. A cultural niche theory of the visual arts is employed to define the various visual art forms and it is in this context that the development of the notion of fine art, which had its origins during the Renaissance, is investigated with a view to how this led to the commodification of art. The phenomenon of art as a commodity accelerated throughout the nineteenth century and was moulded by the same political, cultural, social, economic and technological forces that gave rise to advertising when, during the second half of the century, the capitalist system of production became geared towards mass production of products for consumption. This was also the period of significant European colonial expansion in southern Afiica and consequently the development of both art and advertising in the region was cast in a colonial, European mould, the effects of which are investigated throughout this research project. This body of research also seeks to explain how the meaning and the value of the art object and its reproduced image, changed and became exchangeable as technology developed. Significantly this occurred at a time when the needs of advertising shifted from a simple system of proclamation and announcement on the periphery of the national economy during the nineteenth century to become a sophisticated system of communication which acts as an influential social institution at the end of this millennium. That this appears to have occurred at a time when the influence of fine art began to decline as a cultural force is significant as it is in this context that advertising has become a primary carrier of meaning in society. This research project works within this paradigm to investigate the history and motives of business support for the arts, particularly the visual arts, in the form of sponsorship with particular reference to a culturally diverse and politically dynamic South Africa. In addition, specific rhetorical devices that advertising employs, as a strategic tool of marketing, to appropriate and (ex)change meaning from the value laden visual art object is investigated with reference to contemporary advertising in South Africa. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal,1998.

Sir John Soane (1753--1837) is an intriguing character. This architect has transformed his London House into a Museum. The only thing we have left of him is the House and three Descriptions of it. I will not try to put apart what Sir John Soane has done in his House but see what he has done. Soane invites us in the House, lets you visit it and be lost. Once you have dived, accepted the invitation, you have found a house full of art objects gathered to teach architecture. Art and architecture meet. The experience is haunting. Through it the architect rediscovers the story of objects to identify, the everyday story he builds. The experience of the House is a mirroring of Soane's mind. The House which makes the architect understand his projection upon others. The amplitude and generosity of his vision becomes history.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Melbourne, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (vol. 2, leaves [2]-26).