Bronzino: Renaissance Painter as Poet by Deborah Parker
Review by: Arthur J. Di Furia
The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 194-195
Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal
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194
XXXIV/1
Sixteenth Century Journal
(2003)
at dismantling
All told, Knutson
ismuch more
effective
a
that together
the companies
The evidence
ing
replacement.
not concrete. Nor
is it clear what
it means
tive but certainly
the guilds were
than produc
existing narratives
behaved
like a guild is sugges
to behave
like a guild at a time
enormous
at plays
have looked
Indeed, Knutson
pressure.
might
to explore
and others
the playwrights'
disparate
in its method
and findings,
and their values. Nonetheless,
guildsmen,
Playing
on those
in Shakespeare's Time should have significant
and Commerce
writing
impact
when
by Shakespeare,
views of guilds,
Companies
material
histories
the drama
under
Dekker,
Francis
Beaumont,
on our
and Jacobean
drama, even if its influence
readings of
Knutson
of sharp
less. Though
the notion
something
torpedoes
to preserve
is careful
the fact of competition
among
companies.
a troupe
for example,
their competitors'
have sug
successes,
might
of Elizabethan
to be
promises
commercial
rivalry, she
on
to capitalize
a
a playwright
to
subject or genre. What
particular
gested
to do with
such basic choices,
reflects additional
however,
Seeking
or collaborators
the writer
personal,
ideological,
chose
and
literary
as a
revenge play" to answer
John Marston's^4nion/o
plays
"two-part
"humor
into the category
Hamlet,
plays," or insisting Jonson's Poetaster
lumping Twelfth Night
Satiromastix
their audiences'
"taste for the
and Dekker's
different
equally
exploit
strikingly
at a certain
the
existence
time
and
atrics" might
the
fact
of
However,
plays'
place.
explain
concerns.
Characterizing
sense of
and adds little to our efforts to make
such categorizing
discounts
their idiosyncrasies
to
to
outcome
is
attention
redirect
of Knutson's
careful research,
them. A surprising
then,
as a legitimate
basis
from
rather
than
commercial
and
theatrical
concerns,
content,
poetics
cross talk.
to explore
which
dramatic
Bronzino:
Press,
University
as Poet.
Painter
Renaissance
2000.
233
by: Arthur
J. Di
and Design
Reviewed
Deborah
ISBN
pp. $55.00.
Parker.
Cambridge
Cambridge:
0521781663.
Furia, University
of Delaware/Moore
College
of Art
more
wrote
Bronzino
than three
(1503-72)
painter Agnolo
to
such profuse
painter
expect
literary output
by an important
attract at least a fair amount
this has hardly been
the case.
attention.
of scholarly
However,
is a long overdue
first on this lesser-known
Parker's book
Deborah
aspect of the painter's
Florentine
hundred
poems.
creativity.
In her
Cinquecento
One would
introduction,
Parker
painted
portraits; his meticulously
are ultimately
"unknowable."
who
Bronzino
elusiveness,
s poetry, which
frames
her
surfaces
s
the intractability
of Bronzino
study by noting
are their focus rather than his doll-faced
sitters,
to Parker,
similar can be
something
According
as aworld
Mindful
she describes
of "evasive
representation."
to clarify the meanings
She also hopes
of his paintings.
she aims
of his poems
her book will
and demonstrate
said of
of this
their usefulness
establish
their literary merit
and
analyses
further
studies.
of
for
lines
suggest
inquiry
a
to Bronzino's
with
the book's first half exclusively
Parker dedicates
poetry, beginning
are burlesque
in the anti-Petrarchan
mode
poems
practiced most
chapter on his capitoli.These
for
Berni. Nothing
is sacred in these
scabrous
of Bronzino's
sophisticated,
and pornographic
sociopolitical
parodies
famously
by Francesco
Parker
shows evidence
conceal
irreverent
of Bronzino's
the lyric poetry
in
the
mainstream
participates
canzionere, which
literary
current
Parker
satiric
wit;
analyzes
of Petrarchism
verses,
double
eroticism.
turn
at every
triple entendres
contrast
In direct
is
and
and
in chapter 2. Here, Bronzino
it and
instead of satirizing
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Book Reviews
maintains
order
social
Bronzino's
canzionere
265 poems,
of subverting
it. Comprised
of an impressive
a "Who's Who"
sonnet exchanges
encomiastic
of Flor
with
Benedetto
In Parker's view,
the canzio
Varchi
and Laura Battiferri.
instead
contains
entine
literati, especially
for
nere's recurring
themes?praise
on Pontormo's
meditations
death?all
in a ruthless
ship
world.
and
political,
their contents,
contextualize
scene. Throughout
her
embedded
within
and
locate
him
like this prepare
Chapters
of friends,
and
praise for the Medici,
theme of the solace of friend
the unifying
the reader
3 and 4 address
how
Unsurprisingly,
respectively.
Bronzino
when
wishes
for wicked,
critical,
in the thick
Parker
chapters,
literary analysis. For
are analogous
of Petrarch
appropriations
observations
vehicle
fall under
is thorough
in these chapters
and
poetry
analysis of Bronzino's
ear for
Flor
and
she
knows
her
wordplay
sixteenth-century
enables her to interpret Bronzino's
poems,
literary history. This
these
erary
ings,
model
Her
the achievements
has a sensitive
Parker
engaging.
entine
social,
195
instance,
to his
for
of Florence's
lit
mid-Cinquecento
to comments
of painting
2 she suggests
that Bronzino's
limits her discussion
in chapter
of Michelangelesque
use
the book's
second
motifs.
Passing
half.
Bronzino's
we
discuss art, and the poetics
of his paint
poems
in chapter
3 that Petrarch
is the appropriate
the arts or individual
artists, and the capitolo is his
on the
Parker's
thoughts
pitfalls of his profession.
learn
to praise
or humorous
to demonstrate
are deft
of
panegyrics
pastiches
the
from Bronzino's
derived
by Shearman,
pleasure
on his audience's
to recognize
refractions"
like these. After
poems
depends
ability
"myriad
raison d'?tre; now
it is the book's
that Parker has shown us the
this, chapter 4 feels as though
on painting, we are
to his thoughts
and its extension
poetry
duality of Bronzino's
properly
erudition
enables
Petrarch.
Influenced
to
prepared
much-debated
see
her
its visualization.
Allegory
of Venus
that Bronzino's
she
states
Thus,
she
that
refutes
asserts
its "profound
at length?makes
it a
and
conclusive
sense
of the
interpretations
of equivocation"
which?
to his
analog
confounding
and
convincingly
painted
this chapter by demonstrating,
all too briefly,
capitolo, "II piato." She concludes
exists in his other paintings.
reviews
have
criticized
Parker's
inattention
Early
Parker
argues
not
paintings. While
upon
ing more
unfounded,
this is a bit unfair;
art historians
will
find
that ambiguity
to Bronzino's
themselves
want
more
this chapter, and her discussion
is ultimately
of the paintings
But Parker does indeed keep
(as the lack of colorplates
confirms).
suggestive
to show us that Bronzino's
her promise
poetry might
help us interpret his paintings.
A few more words
of warning
these
lines:
Parker's
contextual
sometimes
along
emphasis
finishing
than detailed
on some of the
her writing
and readers may
feel rushed where
she touches
diffuse,
never leads to a sustained discussion
."The title's echo of Horace
of the
"big questions
to Bronzino,
scattered
Parker also uses the term "Man
ory as it pertains
suggestions.
only
as if it were
nerism"
when
could be farther from the truth at present.
uncontested,
nothing
makes
field's
cannot expect
a book
that shoots such awide
literature
gap in the existing
and
scholars
should not let these quibbles
them from
everything,
Cinquecento
keep
this important
an
book.
reasoned
Finally, we have carefully
poetry,
insights on Bronzino's
a poet, and sound
as
a
of
his
life
for
in
about
his
understanding
suggestions
thinking
artistry
more
holistic
light.
However,
we
to do
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