This dissertation explores the primary sites of collecting and display commissioned by Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (r. 1564-87). These sites ─ Francesco's studiolo in the Palazzo Vecchio and the nearby Uffizi Gallery ─ established precedents for the physical layout of newly emerging museums in early modern Europe, as scholars have suggested. But, as this dissertation asserts, Francesco's communication of authority through these sites significantly contributed to the changing expectations in the 16th century of a ruler's proper engagement with culture. Displaying objects connoting knowledge, taste, and wealth, these sites demonstrated Francesco's privileged access to such objects and his mastery over the scientific processes involved in their creation. Emphasizing the prince's knowledge, this approach contrasted with earlier rulers' reliance on images of direct military power and laid the groundwork for the merging of personal and private space that would come to characterize the full expression of absolutism across Europe. Chapter One examines the multi-faceted assertions of authority in Francesco's portraits, a strategy reflecting his embrace of images and spaces to communicate personal and political identity. Chapter Two addresses his private studiolo, which represented Francesco's participation in scientific, contemplative, and collecting activities among ruling elites. Chapter Three examines the subtle but profound shift in the meaning of the collection when, in 1583, Francesco created the Galleria degli Uffizi, a significant contribution in the history of European museums. Established independent of the prince's residence, the new museum represented Francesco's most powerful expression of cultural politics, as dignitaries visited the impressively decorated gallery and experienced first-hand its political assertions. The dissertation concludes by examining the impact of Francesco's museological precedents on other Italian rulers. Sites in Florence and Mantua demonstrate the continued attractiveness of Francesco's cultural expressions of authority to 17th-century rulers, as new expectations of a ruler's engagement with the arts emerge. Princely galleries become an increasingly common demonstration of authority, with many examples emulating the Uffizi's design. The conclusion affirms Francesco's legacy in binding the demonstration of artistic and scientific knowledge to political authority in the early Seicento.

No description available.

Diese Arbeit geht der Frage nach den bildungstheoretischen Absichten der Sammlungspraktiken zweier außerordentlicher Kunstkennerinnen und -sammlerinnen der Renaissance nach, Isabella d''Este und Margarethe von Österreich. Ihre Sammlungen formten einen neuen Wissenstypus, indem sie mittels Strukturierung und Visualisierung deutende Ordnungen der Welt erstellten. In den Studioli von Isabella d''Este und von Margarethe von Österreich, die zu Marksteinen einer Entwicklung wurden, die in Nordeuropa erst in der zweiten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts zu ihrer Entfaltung kam, dienen Kunstverständnis, Kunstförderung und Kunsterwerb der höfischen Selbstdarstellung. Mit ihrer Ausstattung repräsentieren sie darüber hinaus die Frühform eines Sammlungsraumes, in dem zukunftsweisende Bildungsprozesse stattfinden. Die vorliegende Arbeit versteht sich somit als Rekonstruktion und Analyse eines impliziten Bildungsprogramms. / The study compares the history of two Renaissance collections, the "studiolo" of Isabella d’Este (1474-1539) and the "petit cabinet" of Margaret of Austria (1480-1530), two extraordinary art experts and collectors sixteenth century. They modelled a new type of knowledge by their method of acquisition as they created an interpretative classification of the world through the use of structure and visualisation. The work focuses on the concepts of knowledge inscribed into the visual structure of those two collections and the pedagogical approaches they enacted. Isabella d’Este’s and Margaret of Austria’s collection rooms became a landmark in a development, which only came into being in northern Europe in the second half of the sixteenth century. This is, in part, due to the fact that the understanding, promotion and acquisition of art became an important aspect of courtly self representation. Furthermore, their collection represents an early form of collection space which created the foundation for future educational processes. Therefore, this work is aims to be a historiography of an educational process as well as the reconstruction and analysis of an implicit pedagogical program. Following an interdisciplinary approach, the research is designed to systematically and historically reconstruct the order, production and representation of knowledge within its social context. The comparative approach aims to grasp the specific pedagogical perspective of each collection. Furthermore it focuses on parallels of their concern of transformation and the functionality of such extraordinary collection activities. Analytical categories such as space, time and hierarchies are used in the analysis of the primary sources. In this way, the collections and corresponding materials will be analysed in order to explain how the implicit educational program can be understood as a forerunner of an educational theory.

This investigation of the studioli, small contemplation chambers in the ducal palaces of Urbino and Gubbio, considers their position in the western tradition of the memory arts. Drawing upon select images in the studioli, as well as text sources readily available to Duke Federico da Montefeltro (1422--82) and the members of his court, this inquiry examines how the discipline of architecture equipped the late quattrocento mind with a bridge between the mathematical arts, which lend themselves to mechanical practices, and the art of rhetoric, a discipline central to the cultivation of memory and eloquence. As ramifications of material and mental craft, the studioli offered the Urbino court models for education and prudent governance.

No description available.

No description available.