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Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) was the king of Macedon and one of the greatest military commanders in the ancient world. Before his death at the age of thirty-three, Alexander had conquered Greece, the Persian Empire, and northern India. Alexander provided a model of a secular ruler for leaders in medieval and Renaissance Europe. Furthermore, with the revival of antique culture during the Renaissance, the life of Alexander became a favourite classical subject in art and literature. My thesis seeks to examine the artistic interest in the life of Alexander during the Italian Renaissance. During the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, artists portrayed episodes from the life of Alexander for elite patrons, who commissioned monumental frescoes and panel-paintings, along with pieces of maiolica pottery, tapestry and sculpture for use in the rituals of court life. While Alexander represented a model of secular authority for the patron, he was also intrinsically linked with art. Alexander's court artists, particularly Apelles, had a legacy that was eagerly emulated by modern artists. This thesis begins by tracing the long literary tradition of Alexander. Accounts by ancient authors, medieval romances, and new humanist texts all informed the production of images of the ancient king. I will explore the earliest representations of Alexander influenced by the humanist themes of uomini famosi and Petrarch's I Trionfi, followed by the reception and the appeal of portraits of Alexander created by Andrea del Verrocchio, Valerio Belli, and Giulio Romano. I will argue that, based on evidence in the form of drawings, Raphael had life-long artistic interest in Alexander, and many of his designs were adapted by other artists, including a fresco by Sodoma at the Villa Farnesina, and finely decorated maiolica pottery. Finally, I will consider the monumental cycles of frescoes executed by artists for patrons, who had a profound personal connection to the ancient monarch. While the artistic interest in the life of Alexander seems to derive from the fact that he was an all'antica subject, as I will demonstrate throughout this thesis, this interest took many forms for patrons, artists, and viewers. / Thesis (Ph.D, Art History) -- Queen's University, 2013-04-17 11:47:31.549

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Book Summary:Diplomacy has never been a politically neutral field of historical research, even when it was confined to merely reconstructing the context of wars and revolutions. Since the nineteenth century, Renaissance Italy has been at the forefront of scholarship on diplomacy; today, with increasing awareness of the long history of the subject as well as a broader spectrum of case studies, the study of Italian diplomacy has become sophisticated and highly articulated, offering scholars many new directions for further exploration. During the period c. 1350–c. 1520 covered by the present volume, diplomatic sources became extremely rich and abundant. This sourcebook presents a selection of primary materials, both published and unpublished, which are mostly unavailable to English readers: a broad range of diplomatic sources, thematically organized, are introduced, translated, and annotated by an international team of leading scholars of the Italian Renaissance. The aim of this volume is to illustrate the richness of diplomatic documents both for the study of diplomacy itself as well as for other areas of historical investigation, such as gender and sexuality, crime and justice, art and leisure, and medicine.

This dissertation offers a comparative study of two key figures of the Italian Renaissance, the ambassador and the courtesan, and the place of their bodies in relation to the Renaissance body politic. In studying myriad textual spaces of the body natural within writings by and about these two seemingly opposite figures, I find that these spaces range from the material to the metaphorical. In the Renaissance material spaces were increasingly allocated to both figures, urban confinement for the prostitute, and the establishment of the embassy for the ambassador. Metaphorically, the prostitute becomes the "body" of the state, while the ambassador personifies its "mind". My dissertation proves that by allocating such material and metaphorical spaces to these figures, the early modern state effectively denies them the possibility of ownership over their own bodies. This ownership, however, is rhetorically reclaimed, I argue, through the bodies of their own texts. / Romance Languages and Literatures

Lorenzo Ghiberti's east door of the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence, long famed as the Gates of Paradise, displays Old Testament stories in sculptural relief on ten gilded bronze panels. Stressing the significance of the Gates of Paradise as a public monument imbedded in the fabric of Florentine society will enhance our understanding of the cultural use of the door within its built environment. Consideration of its context could in turn clarify the motivation behind the choices for the iconographical program. Previous studies of the Gates of Paradise tend to isolate each narrative panel rather than examining the Gates as one door made up of ten unified panels (including decorative framing). As a result, the Gates of Paradise have rarely been looked at in terms of architectural function or context. The approach of the present study focuses on the Gates of Paradise as a significant architectural feature of Florence's built environment, as a feature that functioned as a centerpiece for the Baptistery and the Cathedral complex, and as a setting for the many spectacles that took place in that environment. This investigation aims to define the inseparable religious and civic functioning of the Gates of Paradise and to identify connections between specific function and the iconographical program. The research examines in depth the imagery of the Gates of Paradise, scrutinizing the function of the Gates within its physical setting, in the ceremonies of baptism, and in the regular rituals of the Florentine liturgical calendar. This hitherto-unexamined analysis of the Florentine liturgical ritual utilizes Medieval and Renaissance service books such as the Ritus in ecclesia servandi, Mores et consuetudines canonice florentine, Missal Ms. Edili 107 (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana), and the Missale romanum Mediolani, 1474. The examination of the Gates' function offers illumination of the possible meaning(s) conveyed by the choice of biblical narratives that make up the program. Research suggests that the iconographical program for the Gates of Paradise connects predominantly to its major function as the principal ritual entrance for the Baptistery. The program reiterates the liturgy for the season leading up to the Church's traditional celebratory period of baptism and the baptismal liturgy. While most days throughout the year the south portal was used for the daily baptismal ceremony, this special baptism-related use of the Gates reinforce the liturgy of the season which teaches and emphasizes the significance of the sacrament of baptism and the role of the Church in salvation.

Several early Italian Renaissance sacred images underwent significant restorations shortly after their completion, despite the fact that the paintings had suffered no apparent damage. Paintings that were completed in the mid-to-late 1200s were restored only 30-40 years later. This dissertation explores the motivation behind the premature restorations of these intact and newly-created sacred images. As religious artworks, these objects were expected to move their viewers spiritually and to work as devotional intermediaries between the viewer and the sacred figures represented in the image. Some scholars contend that these paintings were prematurely restored in an effort to align the images with contemporary conceptions of style. Based on a scholarly analysis of historical and analytical literature, and close examination of the objects, this dissertation asserts a more compelling and nuanced motive for the restoration of these sacred images: these restorations were prompted by a desire to increase their spiritual efficacy by forging an empathic connection with viewers. The selective restorations primarily focused on repainting the faces and hands of important figures, with little or no repainting devoted to drapery, background or supporting figures. Repainting figures’ faces and hands enabled viewers to connect emotionally with these painted intermediaries and to create a greater empathic bond. I examine the motivation for artists to restore images prematurely and selectively within several contextual frameworks: the impact of viewers’ empathic connection with images is rooted in art historical and rhetorical theory and supported by current brain research; the appeal of early Italian Renaissance vernacular culture created a receptive environment for empathic connections to literature, poetry, devotional music and imagery; and early art historical writings on empathy. Chapter One examines the history of early Italian Renaissance restoration practices. Chapter Two explores how the art of Duccio di Buoninsegna and Giotto di Bondone motivated the selective repainting of devotional images. Chapters Three and Four present case studies of early Italian Renaissance sacred images that were prematurely repainted and reframed. Specific works examined include Coppo di Marcovaldo’s Madonna del Bordone, 1261, Guido da Siena’s Maestà, ca. 1270, and Taddeo Gaddi’s Madonna and Child with Four Saints, ca. 1340-45.

The subject of this diploma thesis is Cellini's literary work The Autobiography. Firstly, his profile is introduced within the cultural and historical context as well as the events that mostly influenced his artistic career. Secondly, other prominent biographers of his era are introduced and the most important issues of The Life as well as Cellini himself, as a unique exponent of Italian Cinquecento, are analyzed. In the next chapter The Life is confronted with The Lives of the Artists written by Giorgio Vasari, especially with the life of Michelangelo Buonarroti who was Cellini's lifelong teacher. The final chapter is dedicated to the Renaissance concept of an artist regarded as a god. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This book reviewed rejects recent scholarship that has minimized the significance of the Italian Renaissance. Instead, it argues that the cities of Florence, Venice, and Milan enjoyed a distinct period of precocity over the rest of Europe between roughly 130--1500.