The Italian Renaissance (18 page)
Read The Italian Renaissance Online
Authors: Peter Burke
1
On problems raised by this method, Burke, ‘Prosopografie van der Renaissance’.
2
For the composition of this group, see the names marked with an asterisk in the Index. No references will be given for information about individual artists derived from the Thieme–Becker
Allgemeines Lexicon
; about humanists from Cosenza’s
Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary
; or about musicians from Grove’s
New Dictionary of Music
. Nor will page references be given for Vasari’s
Lives
, since the lives are short and the editions are many.
3
Ettlinger, ‘Emergence of the Italian architect’. Cf. Pevsner, ‘The term “architect”’; Ackerman, ‘
Ars sine scientia nihil est
’; Murray, ‘Italian Renaissance architect’.
4
Nochlin, ‘Why have there been no great women artists?’; Greer,
Obstacle Race
; Parker and Pollock,
Old Mistresses
.
5
Tietze-Conrat, ‘Marietta, fille du Tintoret’, attempted some identifications.
6
Niccoli,
Rinascimento al femminile
; Jacobs,
Defining the Renaissance Virtuosa
.
7
Cox,
Women’s Writing in Italy
, p. xiii.
8
Pesenti, ‘Alessandra Scala’; King, ‘Thwarted ambitions’; Jardine, ‘Isotta Nogarola’ and ‘Myth of the learned lady’; Cox,
Women’s Writing in Italy
, pp. 2–17.
9
Lowe,
Nuns’ Chronicles
.
10
Tuscany had 10 per cent of the population and 26 per cent of the elite; the Veneto, 20 and 23 per cent; the States of the Church, 15 and 18 per cent; Lombardy, 10 and 11 per cent. On the other hand, south Italy had 30 per cent of the population and 7 per cent of the elite; Piedmont, 10 and 1.5 per cent; Liguria, 5 and 1 per cent. For statistics on writers alone, Bec, ‘Lo statuto socio-professionale’, p. 247.
11
Tuscany, 60 per cent visual (95 to 62); the Veneto, 55 per cent (75 to 62); Lombardy, 70 per cent (45 to 19); south Italy, 58 per cent non-visual (24 to 17); while the Genoese had four humanists to one artist.
12
Urbino had a population of less than 5,000, but it included the historian Polidore Vergil, the mathematician Commandino, the composers M. A. Cavazzoni and his son Girolamo, and the painters Genga, Santi and Raphael. The architect Bramante was born nearby.
13
Hall,
Rome.
14
Bridgman,
Vie musicale
, ch. 7.
15
The known fathers of painters, sculptors and architects include 96 artisans and shopkeepers compared to 40 nobles, professional men or merchants. The known fathers of writers, humanists and scientists include 7 artisans and shopkeepers compared to 95 nobles, professional men and merchants. Cf. Bec, ‘Lo statuto socio-professionale’, pp. 248–9.
16
Tagliaferro and Aikema,
Le botteghe di Tiziano
.
17
Galton,
Hereditary Genius
.
18
Gaye,
Carteggio inedito d’artisti
, vol. 2, pp. 43ff.
19
However, the life of Brunelleschi attributed to Manetti and written some sixty years closer to the events records that Filippo’s father made no objection, ‘as he was a man of discernment’.
20
Condivi,
Vita di Michelangelo Buonarroti
, p. 24.
21
On Campano, D’Amico,
Renaissance Humanism
, pp. 14–15.
22
The story is told by Ghiberti,
Commentari
, p. 32, followed by Vasari.
23
Frey,
Il libro de Antonio Billi
, pp. 21–2.
24
Kris and Kurz,
Legend, Myth and Magic
, ch. 2. Cf. Barolsky,
Why Mona Lisa Smiles
.
25
Puppi,
Andrea Palladio
, ch. 1.
26
On workshop training, Thomas,
Painter’s Practice
; Welch,
Art and Society
, pp. 79–102; Ames-Lewis,
Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy
, pp. 35–46. Cf. Ames-Lewis,
Intellectual Life
.
27
Cennini,
Libro dell’arte
, p. 65. Cf. Cole,
Renaissance Artist at Work
, ch. 2; on Florence, Wackernagel,
World of the Florentine Renaissance Artist
, ch. 12, and Thomas,
Painter’s Practice
; on Venice, Tietze, ‘Master and workshop’.
28
Goldthwaite, ‘Schools and teachers’.
29
Talvacchia, ‘Raphael’s workshop’; Wallace, ‘Michelangelo’s assistants’.
30
Gasparino Barzizza, quoted by Baxandall, ‘Guarino, Pisanello and Manuel Chrysoloras’, p. 183n. On drawings, Ames-Lewis,
Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy
, ch. 4, and Ames-Lewis and Wright,
Drawing in the Italian Renaissance Workshop
.
31
Prager and Scaglia,
Brunelleschi
, pp. 65ff.
32
Kagan, ‘Universities in Italy’; Black, ‘Italian Renaissance education’; Grendler,
Schooling in Renaissance Italy
and
Universities of the Italian Renaissance
; Belloni and Drusi,
Umanesimo ed educazione.
33
Since this book first appeared, there has been something of a boom in the history of universities in Italy and elsewhere, thanks to Verde,
Studio fiorentino
; Schmitt, ‘Philosophy and science’; Denley, ‘Recent studies on Italian universities’ and ‘Social function of Italian Renaissance universities’; Kagan, ‘Universities in Italy’; and the synthesis by Grendler,
Universities of the Italian Renaissance
. On Padua, Giard, ‘Histoire de l’université’.
34
Rashdall,
Universities of Europe
, vol. 2, p. 54.
35
Kearney,
Scholars and Gentlemen
; Kristeller,
Renaissance Thought
, ch. 1; Denley, ‘Social function of Italian Renaissance universities’; Grendler,
Universities of the Italian Renaissance
, pp. 199–248.
36
Martines,
Social World
, p. 117.
37
Ackerman , ‘Architectural practice’.
38
Bridgman,
Vie musicale
, ch. 4.
39
Ghiberti,
Commentari
, p. 2.
40
Alberti,
On Painting; and On Sculpture
, bk 3, pp. 94ff.
41
Filarete,
Treatise on Architecture
, bk 15, p. 198.
42
Gauricus,
De sculptura
, pp. 52ff.
43
Pevsner,
Academies of Art
, ch. 1, gives the traditional view. Vasari’s famous account of Bertoldo’s academy has been questioned by Chastel,
Art et humanisme
, pp. 19ff. Cf. Elam, ‘Lorenzo de’Medici’s sculpture garden’.
44
Frey,
Il libro de Antonio Billi
, p. 31.
45
Cèndali,
Giuliano e Benedetto da Maiano
, pp. 182ff.; Bec,
Marchands écrivains
; cf. Bec,
Livres des florentins
.
46
Coor,
Neroccio de’Landi
, p. 107.
47
Fumagalli,
Leonardo
; Reti, ‘Two unpublished manuscripts’, pp. 81ff.
48
Petrucci,
La scrittura
.
49
Rossi,
Dalle botteghe alle accademie
; Dempsey, ‘Some observations’; Bolland, ‘From the workshop to the academy’.
50
Boase,
Giorgio Vasari
; Rubin,
Giorgio Vasari
, pp. 72–3.
51
Palmieri,
Vita civile
, bk 1, p. 43.
52
Poliziano,
Panepistemon
; Summers,
Michelangelo
, ch. 17.
53
Only seven arts are distinguished here: painter, sculptor, architect, writer, humanist, scientist and composer, a classification which tends to play down the many-sidedness of the elite rather than exaggerate it. The eighteen men who practised three arts or more are Alberti, Aquilano, Bramante, Brunelleschi, Filarete, Ghiberti, Giocondo, Francesco di Giorgio, Leonardo, Ligorio, Mazzoni, Michelangelo, Alessandro Piccolomini, Serlio, Tebaldeo, Vasari, Vecchietta and Zenale.
54
Santillana, ‘Paolo Toscanelli and his friends’.
55
Cole,
Renaissance Artist at Work
; Thomas,
Painter’s Practice
and ‘Workshop as the space’; Welch,
Art and Society
, pp. 79–101; Comanducci, ‘Il concetto di “artista”’ and ‘Organizazzione produttiva’; Tagliaferro and Aikema,
Le botteghe di Tiziano
.
56
Chambers,
Patrons and Artists
, nos. 7, 11, 15.
57
Marabottini, ‘Collaboratori’; Burke, ‘Italian artist’.
58
On the persistence of the family workshop in Venice, Rosand,
Painting in Cinquecento Venice
, pp. 7ff.; Tagliaferro and Aikema,
Le botteghe di Tiziano
, pp. 152–91.
59
Tietze, ‘Master and workshop’; cf. Fraenkel,
Signature, genèse d’un signe
; Matthew, ‘Painter’s presence’.
60
Procacci, ‘Compagnie di pittori’.
61
Schulz,
Sculpture of Bernardo Rossellino
, p. 11; Caplow, ‘Sculptors’ partnerships’; Sheard and Paoletti,
Collaboration in Italian Renaissance Art
. On the quarries, Klapisch-Zuber,
Maîtres du marbre
; Chambers,
Patrons and Artists
, no. 2.
62
Wyrobisz, ‘Attività edilizia a Venezia’.
63
Manetti,
Vita di Brunelleschi
, p. 77.
64
Ricci,
Tempio malatestiano
, pp. 588ff.; Wittkower,
Architectural Principles
, pp. 29ff; Chambers,
Patrons and Artists
, pp. 181–3.
65
Saalman, ‘Filippo Brunelleschi’.
66
Lane,
Venetian Ships and Shipbuilders
; Concina,
Arsenale della Repubblica di Venezia
, pp. 108ff.
67
MacKenney, ‘Arti e stato a Venezia’, ‘Guilds and guildsmen’ and
Tradesmen and Traders
; Motta, ‘Università dei pittori’.
68
Gaye,
Carteggio inedito d’artisti
, vol. 2, pp. 43ff.
69
Conti, ‘Evoluzione dell artista’, pp. 151ff.
70
Dürer,
Schriftlicher Nachlass
, vol. 1, pp. 41ff.
71
Muraro, ‘Statutes of the Venetian
Arti
’.
72
Lord,
Singer of Tales
; Bronzini,
Tradizione di stile aedico
; Burke, ‘Learned culture and popular culture’ and ‘Oral culture and print culture’.
73
Vespasiano da Bisticci,
Vite di uomini illustri
, especially the life of Cosimo de’Medici; De la Mare, ‘Vespasiano da Bisticci’; Martini,
Bottega di un cartolaio fiorentino
; Petrucci, ‘Libro manoscritto’; Richardson,
Manuscript Culture
.
74
Lowry,
World of Aldus Manutius
, esp. ch. 1; Zeidberg and Superbi,
Aldus Manutius and Renaissance Culture
; Tenenti, ‘Luc’Antonio Giunti’.
75
Branca,
Poliziano e l’umanesimo della parola
; Petrucci, ‘Biblioteche antiche’.
76
Trovato,
Con ogni diligenza
; Grafton,
Culture of Correction
.
77
Bareggi,
Mestiere di scrivere
; Larivaille,
Pietro Aretino
; Grendler,
Critics of the Italian World
and ‘Francesco Sansovino’.
78
Quondam, ‘Mercanzia d’honore’.
79
Bridgman,
Vie musicale
, ch. 2.
80
Martines,
Social World
, p. 97.
81
Of 103 humanists in the elite, 14 may be classified as extremely sedentary, 29 as fairly sedentary, 12 as fairly mobile, and 46 as extremely mobile, with two individuals unknown. On transient foreign humanists in Venice, King,
Venetian Humanism
, pp. 220ff.
82
Wittkower, ‘Individualism in art and artists’; Wittkower and Wittkower,
Born under Saturn
; Kempers,
Painting, Power and Patronage
.
On problems raised by this method, Burke, ‘Prosopografie van der Renaissance’.
2
For the composition of this group, see the names marked with an asterisk in the Index. No references will be given for information about individual artists derived from the Thieme–Becker
Allgemeines Lexicon
; about humanists from Cosenza’s
Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary
; or about musicians from Grove’s
New Dictionary of Music
. Nor will page references be given for Vasari’s
Lives
, since the lives are short and the editions are many.
3
Ettlinger, ‘Emergence of the Italian architect’. Cf. Pevsner, ‘The term “architect”’; Ackerman, ‘
Ars sine scientia nihil est
’; Murray, ‘Italian Renaissance architect’.
4
Nochlin, ‘Why have there been no great women artists?’; Greer,
Obstacle Race
; Parker and Pollock,
Old Mistresses
.
5
Tietze-Conrat, ‘Marietta, fille du Tintoret’, attempted some identifications.
6
Niccoli,
Rinascimento al femminile
; Jacobs,
Defining the Renaissance Virtuosa
.
7
Cox,
Women’s Writing in Italy
, p. xiii.
8
Pesenti, ‘Alessandra Scala’; King, ‘Thwarted ambitions’; Jardine, ‘Isotta Nogarola’ and ‘Myth of the learned lady’; Cox,
Women’s Writing in Italy
, pp. 2–17.
9
Lowe,
Nuns’ Chronicles
.
10
Tuscany had 10 per cent of the population and 26 per cent of the elite; the Veneto, 20 and 23 per cent; the States of the Church, 15 and 18 per cent; Lombardy, 10 and 11 per cent. On the other hand, south Italy had 30 per cent of the population and 7 per cent of the elite; Piedmont, 10 and 1.5 per cent; Liguria, 5 and 1 per cent. For statistics on writers alone, Bec, ‘Lo statuto socio-professionale’, p. 247.
11
Tuscany, 60 per cent visual (95 to 62); the Veneto, 55 per cent (75 to 62); Lombardy, 70 per cent (45 to 19); south Italy, 58 per cent non-visual (24 to 17); while the Genoese had four humanists to one artist.
12
Urbino had a population of less than 5,000, but it included the historian Polidore Vergil, the mathematician Commandino, the composers M. A. Cavazzoni and his son Girolamo, and the painters Genga, Santi and Raphael. The architect Bramante was born nearby.
13
Hall,
Rome.
14
Bridgman,
Vie musicale
, ch. 7.
15
The known fathers of painters, sculptors and architects include 96 artisans and shopkeepers compared to 40 nobles, professional men or merchants. The known fathers of writers, humanists and scientists include 7 artisans and shopkeepers compared to 95 nobles, professional men and merchants. Cf. Bec, ‘Lo statuto socio-professionale’, pp. 248–9.
16
Tagliaferro and Aikema,
Le botteghe di Tiziano
.
17
Galton,
Hereditary Genius
.
18
Gaye,
Carteggio inedito d’artisti
, vol. 2, pp. 43ff.
19
However, the life of Brunelleschi attributed to Manetti and written some sixty years closer to the events records that Filippo’s father made no objection, ‘as he was a man of discernment’.
20
Condivi,
Vita di Michelangelo Buonarroti
, p. 24.
21
On Campano, D’Amico,
Renaissance Humanism
, pp. 14–15.
22
The story is told by Ghiberti,
Commentari
, p. 32, followed by Vasari.
23
Frey,
Il libro de Antonio Billi
, pp. 21–2.
24
Kris and Kurz,
Legend, Myth and Magic
, ch. 2. Cf. Barolsky,
Why Mona Lisa Smiles
.
25
Puppi,
Andrea Palladio
, ch. 1.
26
On workshop training, Thomas,
Painter’s Practice
; Welch,
Art and Society
, pp. 79–102; Ames-Lewis,
Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy
, pp. 35–46. Cf. Ames-Lewis,
Intellectual Life
.
27
Cennini,
Libro dell’arte
, p. 65. Cf. Cole,
Renaissance Artist at Work
, ch. 2; on Florence, Wackernagel,
World of the Florentine Renaissance Artist
, ch. 12, and Thomas,
Painter’s Practice
; on Venice, Tietze, ‘Master and workshop’.
28
Goldthwaite, ‘Schools and teachers’.
29
Talvacchia, ‘Raphael’s workshop’; Wallace, ‘Michelangelo’s assistants’.
30
Gasparino Barzizza, quoted by Baxandall, ‘Guarino, Pisanello and Manuel Chrysoloras’, p. 183n. On drawings, Ames-Lewis,
Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy
, ch. 4, and Ames-Lewis and Wright,
Drawing in the Italian Renaissance Workshop
.
31
Prager and Scaglia,
Brunelleschi
, pp. 65ff.
32
Kagan, ‘Universities in Italy’; Black, ‘Italian Renaissance education’; Grendler,
Schooling in Renaissance Italy
and
Universities of the Italian Renaissance
; Belloni and Drusi,
Umanesimo ed educazione.
33
Since this book first appeared, there has been something of a boom in the history of universities in Italy and elsewhere, thanks to Verde,
Studio fiorentino
; Schmitt, ‘Philosophy and science’; Denley, ‘Recent studies on Italian universities’ and ‘Social function of Italian Renaissance universities’; Kagan, ‘Universities in Italy’; and the synthesis by Grendler,
Universities of the Italian Renaissance
. On Padua, Giard, ‘Histoire de l’université’.
34
Rashdall,
Universities of Europe
, vol. 2, p. 54.
35
Kearney,
Scholars and Gentlemen
; Kristeller,
Renaissance Thought
, ch. 1; Denley, ‘Social function of Italian Renaissance universities’; Grendler,
Universities of the Italian Renaissance
, pp. 199–248.
36
Martines,
Social World
, p. 117.
37
Ackerman , ‘Architectural practice’.
38
Bridgman,
Vie musicale
, ch. 4.
39
Ghiberti,
Commentari
, p. 2.
40
Alberti,
On Painting; and On Sculpture
, bk 3, pp. 94ff.
41
Filarete,
Treatise on Architecture
, bk 15, p. 198.
42
Gauricus,
De sculptura
, pp. 52ff.
43
Pevsner,
Academies of Art
, ch. 1, gives the traditional view. Vasari’s famous account of Bertoldo’s academy has been questioned by Chastel,
Art et humanisme
, pp. 19ff. Cf. Elam, ‘Lorenzo de’Medici’s sculpture garden’.
44
Frey,
Il libro de Antonio Billi
, p. 31.
45
Cèndali,
Giuliano e Benedetto da Maiano
, pp. 182ff.; Bec,
Marchands écrivains
; cf. Bec,
Livres des florentins
.
46
Coor,
Neroccio de’Landi
, p. 107.
47
Fumagalli,
Leonardo
; Reti, ‘Two unpublished manuscripts’, pp. 81ff.
48
Petrucci,
La scrittura
.
49
Rossi,
Dalle botteghe alle accademie
; Dempsey, ‘Some observations’; Bolland, ‘From the workshop to the academy’.
50
Boase,
Giorgio Vasari
; Rubin,
Giorgio Vasari
, pp. 72–3.
51
Palmieri,
Vita civile
, bk 1, p. 43.
52
Poliziano,
Panepistemon
; Summers,
Michelangelo
, ch. 17.
53
Only seven arts are distinguished here: painter, sculptor, architect, writer, humanist, scientist and composer, a classification which tends to play down the many-sidedness of the elite rather than exaggerate it. The eighteen men who practised three arts or more are Alberti, Aquilano, Bramante, Brunelleschi, Filarete, Ghiberti, Giocondo, Francesco di Giorgio, Leonardo, Ligorio, Mazzoni, Michelangelo, Alessandro Piccolomini, Serlio, Tebaldeo, Vasari, Vecchietta and Zenale.
54
Santillana, ‘Paolo Toscanelli and his friends’.
55
Cole,
Renaissance Artist at Work
; Thomas,
Painter’s Practice
and ‘Workshop as the space’; Welch,
Art and Society
, pp. 79–101; Comanducci, ‘Il concetto di “artista”’ and ‘Organizazzione produttiva’; Tagliaferro and Aikema,
Le botteghe di Tiziano
.
56
Chambers,
Patrons and Artists
, nos. 7, 11, 15.
57
Marabottini, ‘Collaboratori’; Burke, ‘Italian artist’.
58
On the persistence of the family workshop in Venice, Rosand,
Painting in Cinquecento Venice
, pp. 7ff.; Tagliaferro and Aikema,
Le botteghe di Tiziano
, pp. 152–91.
59
Tietze, ‘Master and workshop’; cf. Fraenkel,
Signature, genèse d’un signe
; Matthew, ‘Painter’s presence’.
60
Procacci, ‘Compagnie di pittori’.
61
Schulz,
Sculpture of Bernardo Rossellino
, p. 11; Caplow, ‘Sculptors’ partnerships’; Sheard and Paoletti,
Collaboration in Italian Renaissance Art
. On the quarries, Klapisch-Zuber,
Maîtres du marbre
; Chambers,
Patrons and Artists
, no. 2.
62
Wyrobisz, ‘Attività edilizia a Venezia’.
63
Manetti,
Vita di Brunelleschi
, p. 77.
64
Ricci,
Tempio malatestiano
, pp. 588ff.; Wittkower,
Architectural Principles
, pp. 29ff; Chambers,
Patrons and Artists
, pp. 181–3.
65
Saalman, ‘Filippo Brunelleschi’.
66
Lane,
Venetian Ships and Shipbuilders
; Concina,
Arsenale della Repubblica di Venezia
, pp. 108ff.
67
MacKenney, ‘Arti e stato a Venezia’, ‘Guilds and guildsmen’ and
Tradesmen and Traders
; Motta, ‘Università dei pittori’.
68
Gaye,
Carteggio inedito d’artisti
, vol. 2, pp. 43ff.
69
Conti, ‘Evoluzione dell artista’, pp. 151ff.
70
Dürer,
Schriftlicher Nachlass
, vol. 1, pp. 41ff.
71
Muraro, ‘Statutes of the Venetian
Arti
’.
72
Lord,
Singer of Tales
; Bronzini,
Tradizione di stile aedico
; Burke, ‘Learned culture and popular culture’ and ‘Oral culture and print culture’.
73
Vespasiano da Bisticci,
Vite di uomini illustri
, especially the life of Cosimo de’Medici; De la Mare, ‘Vespasiano da Bisticci’; Martini,
Bottega di un cartolaio fiorentino
; Petrucci, ‘Libro manoscritto’; Richardson,
Manuscript Culture
.
74
Lowry,
World of Aldus Manutius
, esp. ch. 1; Zeidberg and Superbi,
Aldus Manutius and Renaissance Culture
; Tenenti, ‘Luc’Antonio Giunti’.
75
Branca,
Poliziano e l’umanesimo della parola
; Petrucci, ‘Biblioteche antiche’.
76
Trovato,
Con ogni diligenza
; Grafton,
Culture of Correction
.
77
Bareggi,
Mestiere di scrivere
; Larivaille,
Pietro Aretino
; Grendler,
Critics of the Italian World
and ‘Francesco Sansovino’.
78
Quondam, ‘Mercanzia d’honore’.
79
Bridgman,
Vie musicale
, ch. 2.
80
Martines,
Social World
, p. 97.
81
Of 103 humanists in the elite, 14 may be classified as extremely sedentary, 29 as fairly sedentary, 12 as fairly mobile, and 46 as extremely mobile, with two individuals unknown. On transient foreign humanists in Venice, King,
Venetian Humanism
, pp. 220ff.
82
Wittkower, ‘Individualism in art and artists’; Wittkower and Wittkower,
Born under Saturn
; Kempers,
Painting, Power and Patronage
.
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