Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-183).

Diss.--Philosophisch-historischen Fakultät--Bern--Université de Berne, 1997. / Bibliogr. p. 289-310.

This study analyzes the once great medieval Tuscan capital of Lucca's struggle for survival at the beginning of the fifteenth century. This was the age of the rise of regional states in Italy, and the expansionistic aims of Milan, Florence and others were a constant challenge to city-states such as Lucca which desired a political and cultural status quo. Yet, it was a challenge that was successfully met; unlike Pisa, Siena, Perugia, and various other major Tuscan cities, Lucca did not succumb to Milanese or Florentine aggression in the early Quattrocento. Why it did not is a major topic of discussion here. One of the means in which the Lucchese faced the new political and military realities of the time was the establishment of a monarchial system of government in the signoria of Paolo Guinigi (r. 1400-1430). The Guinigi Signoria was not characterized by the use of intimidation and violence, but rather by clientage, kinship and neighborhood bonds, marriage alliances, and the general consent of the people. Paolo garnered the consent of the people at first because his wealth allowed him to protect Lucca and its contado to a greater extent than would have been possible otherwise, and because of his family's long ties with the powerful Visconti of Milan; he held it later because he provided the city-state with capable leadership. This study extends the evidence of recent scholars that every Italian Renaissance city was unique based on its particular geography, alliances, civic wealth, and a number of other factors. Lucca in the period of Paolo Guinigi, a monarchy in the setting of one of the traditionally most republican cities of Italy, provides a most interesting example. “Civic humanism,” for example, has a decidedly different slant in Lucca than elsewhere, and is best exemplified in the figure of Giovanni Sercambi. This study also provides new perspectives from which to view Florence and Milan during the period of “crisis” at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and thus contributes to the mass of scholarship concerning the Baron thesis.

The phenomenal expansion of church building during the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries can be noted in Lucca as elsewhere. The power of the Benedictine Order and the Bishopric, the increase in wealth because of the silk industry as well as a prime position on the trade route between Italy and North Europe, and rivalries with Florence and Pisa, all promoted a flourishing of the arts in Lucca during the Romanesque period. An attempt has been made in this paper to draw attention to the architectural background in Lucca during the Romanesque period. The architecture appears to be divided into two phases. The first phase demonstrates a classic simplicity that appears to relate to the Early Christian basilical church with the possible intrusion of Lombard ideas. The second phase demonstrates a noticeable change in the facade which becomes a decorative screen with blind arcading, doors and windows with splayed arches and free standing galleries with carving or intarsia in the structural components. The structural and decorative aspects of the facade appear to have been adopted from the school of architecture at Pisa but at Lucca they are stamped with a local exuberance which has a lively and plastic quality not seen at Pisa. There is an underlying classical tradition which appears to be a fundamental characteristic of Tuscan architecture. The use of arcading, intarsia and sculpture, all of classical heritage when adopted at Lucca, seem to find closer parallels in the Eastern tradition. Super-imposed levels of arches are used in Lombard and Saracenic architecture and appear at Lucca as a reflection of the facade of the cathedral at Pisa. The spandrel intarsia decoration varies from that at Pisa and seems to reflect the designs of Byzantine and Saracenic textiles, on the other hand, the columnar intarsia at Lucca appears to have parallels in the architectural decoration adopted by the Normans after their defeat of the Arabs in Sicily. The carved relief of the columns finds still other parallels in Lombard, Byzantine and Saracenic work. The decoration of the facades of San Martino and San Michele at Lucca indicates, however, that if the concept was of Eastern origin there was no direct adoption of any particular prototype but interpretation perhaps even second hand interpretation which resulted in a mode of expression that remained unique to Lucca. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

Zugl.: Salzburg, Univ., Diss., 2005

The thesis "The Second Roman Ride of the Charles the Fourth" tries to cover the whole campaign of the Emperor Charles IV. between years 1368 and 1369. Also, thesis follows the basic questions related to the issues of the royal court during the journey. The first of those questions is about accompaniment of the Emperor Charles IV. on his journey across the Italian territory and how the court was transformed during the ride to Rome and back. The second question points out the effort to build the court of the Elizabeth of Pomerania, who was crucial person of the second Roman ride where she did not travel alongside the emperor. The last question attempts to describe the undergirding of the court during the campaign in italian cities - how the emperor and his court was accepted and welcomed, accommodated, supllied and gifted.