A study of the means by which Italian Renaissance artists and writers managed to express criticism of the religious and political status quo in relatively safe ways.
A study of the means by which Italian Renaissance artists and writers were able to express their dissatisfaction with the religious and political status quo in relatively safe ways.
A study of how a festive company, the Compagnia della Cazzuola, founded along with two other festive companies, the Companies of the Diamante and Broncone, in the fall of 1512, used a clever manipulation of the hidden meanings of... more
A study of how a festive company, the Compagnia della Cazzuola, founded along with two other festive companies, the Companies of the Diamante and Broncone, in the fall of 1512, used a clever manipulation of the hidden meanings of classical myths to express opposition to the Medici regime, newly reestablished in the city after 18 years of republican rule.
Vasari's well-known story of Giotto drawing a perfect circle for a papal courtier is read not in terms of historical veracity, but rather in terms of Vasari's own interests and aims, as an active member of several 16th-century court... more
Vasari's well-known story of Giotto drawing a perfect circle for a papal courtier is read not in terms of historical veracity, but rather in terms of Vasari's own interests and aims, as an active member of several 16th-century court cultures. Personally familiar with contemporary notions of social competition and conspicuous performativity, Vasari frames his story in a way that casts a painter as a live, visual entertainer able to provide bravura entertainment. Drawing on period sources and recent scholarship, this piece thus positions Vasari's anecdote not as empirical history but as a consciously constructed literary creation informed by standards and ideals of his own day.
Paper at RSA - Chicago, April 1, 2018. In both written and visual sources, Giorgio Vasari deliberately hid the collective body of artists producing the great masterpieces of his time behind the names and faces of singular masters. Ever... more
Paper at RSA - Chicago, April 1, 2018. In both written and visual sources, Giorgio Vasari deliberately hid the collective body of artists producing the great masterpieces of his time behind the names and faces of singular masters. Ever since his ‘Le Vite de’ piu eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori’ (1550/1568) art history has mainly focused on famous individuals. Despite a recent increase of interest in several individual less well-known painters of the Florentine Cinquecento, the way artists formed a strong network and collaborated with the known masters still remains elusive. Based on archival research with a focus on the assistants in Vasari’s workshop in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, this paper aims to provide important new insights in those ‘compagni’, ‘creati’, and ‘garzoni’ that did not end up in Vasari’s Vite but played a pivotal role in the production of his works of art.
