Evelyn S. Welch

"Focuses primarliy on the social and historical context in which art was made and used"--Bibliographic essay (p. 326).

Art in Renaissance Italy, 1350-1500

Professor of Renaissance Studies Evelyn Welch

Lecturer Evelyn Welch

Shopping was as important in the Renaissance as it is in the 21st century. This book breaks new ground in the area of Renaissance material culture, focussing on the marketplace in its various aspects, ranging from middle-class to courtly consumption and from the provision of foodstuffs to the acquisition of antiquities and holy relics. It asks how men and women of different social classes went out into the streets, squares and shops to buy the goods they needed and wanted on a daily or on a once-in-a-lifetime basis during the Renaissance period. Drawing on a detailed mixture of archival, literary and visual sources, she exposes the fears, anxieties and social possibilities of the Renaissance marketplace. Thereafter, Welch looks at the impact these attitudes had on the developing urban spaces of Renaissance cities, before turning to more transient forms of sales such as fairs, auctions and lotteries. In the third section, she examines the consumers themselves, asking how the mental, verbal and visual images of the market shaped the business of buying and selling. Finally, the book explores two seemingly very different types of commodities - antiquities and indulgences, both of which posed dramatic challenges to contemporary notions of market value and to the concept of commodification itself.

Consumer Cultures in Italy 1400-1600

Shopping in the Renaissance

Between the 'Black Death' in the mid-fourteenth century and the French invasions at the end of the fifteenth, artists such as Masaccio, Donatello, Fra Angelico, and Leonardo, working in the kingdoms, princedoms, and republics of the Italian peninsula, created some of the most influential andexciting works in a variety of artistic fields. Yet the traditional story of the Renaissance has been dramatically revised in the light of new scholarship, and new issues have greatly enriched our understanding of the period. Emphasis has been placed on recreating the experience of contemporary Italians - the patrons who commissioned the works,the members of the public who viewed them, and the artists who produced them. In this book Evelyn Welch presents a fresh picture of the Italian Renaissance. Giving equal weight to the Italian regions outside Florence, she discusses a wide range of works, from paintings to coins, and from sculptures to tapestries, examines the issues of materials, workshop practises, andartist-patron relationships, and explores the ways in which visual imagery related to contemporary sexual, social and political behaviour.

Art and Society in Italy, 1350-1500

Christian Levett

King's College London, 2 March - 28 April 2018

The Classical Now

Milan was one of the largest and most important cities in Renaissance Italy. Controlled by the Visconti and Sforza dynasties from 1277 until 1500, its rulers were generous patrons of the arts, responsible for commissioning major monuments throughout the city and for supporting artists such as Giovanni di Balduccio, Filarete, Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci. But the city was much more than its dukes. Milan had a distinct civic identity, one that was expressed, above all, through its neighbourhood, religious and charitable associations. This book moves beyond standard interpretations of ducal patronage to explore the often overlooked city itself, showing how the allegiances of the town hall and the parish related to those of the servants and aristocrats who frequented the Visconti and Sforza court. In this original and stimulating interdisciplinary study, Evelyn Welch illustrates the ways in which the myths of Visconti and Sforza supremacy were created. Newly discovered material for major projects such as the cathedral, hospital and castle of Milan permits a greater understanding of the political, economic and architectural forces that shaped these extraordinary buildings. The book also explores the wider social networks of the artists themselves. Leonardo da Vinci, for example, is de-mythologised: far from being an isolated, highly prized court artist, he spent his almost eighteen years in the city working within the wider Milanese community of painters, sculptors, goldsmiths and embroiderers. The broad perspective of the book ensures that any future study of the Renaissance will have to re-evaluate the place of Milan in Italian cultural history.

Art and Authority in Renaissance Milan

James Edric Shaw

A study of the Speziale al Giglio apothecary shop in fifteenth-century Florence, Italy.

Making and Marketing Medicine in Renaissance Florence

Stephen John Campbell

Many artists in Renaissance Europe worked for rulers who maintained courts, yet not all of them can be accurately called "court artists." The essays featured in Artists at Court explore the experiences and artistic works of artists for whom princely service was a crucial step in their career. The contributors to this volume examine the court artist's working conditions in administrative and ceremonial capacities and how the artists' royal clients may have influenced perceptions of the artist's role and of art itself. They discuss famous artists such as Raphael, Leonardo, Claus Sluter, and Albrecht Dürer, as well as the lesser-known creators of impressive works produced for famous patrons, including the poet Petrarch, the Dukes of Savoy, and the Bentivoglio rulers of Bologna. Their examination raises questions such as: How did the artist's terms of employment compare with those of other court functionaries? To what extent did court employment correspond with the elevated characterizations of art and artists that began appearing in art treatises by Filarete, Leonardo, and Vasari, among others? A fascinating volume that challenges the traditional dichotomy between the alleged freedom of artists working under early capitalism and the supposed subordination of "craftsmen" working for autocratic rulers, Artists at Court probes the truth behind alternately romantic and oppressed conceptions of the Renaissance artist.

Evelyn S. Welch

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