Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
Bayer, Andrea, ed., with essays by Andrea Bayer, Beverly Louise Brown, Nancy Edwards, Everett Fahy, Deborah L. Krohn, Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, Luke Syson, Dora Thornton, James Grantham Turner, and Linda Wolk-Simon, and with contributions by Sarah Cartwright, Andreas Henning, Jessie McNab, J. Kenneth Moore, Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, Wendy Thompson, and Jeremy Warren (2008)
This title is out of print.
Book of the Year Award (ForeWord) in Art, Finalist (2008)
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Many famous Italian Renaissance artworks were made to celebrate love and marriage. They were the pinnacles of a tradition—dating from the early Renaissance—of commemorating betrothal, marriage, and the birth of a child by commissioning extraordinary objects or exchanging them as gifts. This important volume is the first to examine the entire range of works to which Renaissance rituals of love and marriage gave rise and makes a major contribution to our understanding of Renaissance art in its broader cultural context. Some 140 works of art, dating from about 1400 to 1600, are discussed by a distinguished group of scholars and are reproduced in full color.
Marriage and childbirth gifts are the point of departure. These range from maiolica, glassware, and jewelry to birth trays, musical instruments, and nuptial portraits. Bonds of love of another sort were represented in erotic drawings and prints. From these precedents, an increasingly inventive approach to subjects of love and marriage culminated in paintings by some of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, including Giulio Romano, Lorenzo Lotto, and Titian.
Director's Foreword
Acknowledgments
Lenders to the Exhibition
Contributors to the Catalogue
Introduction: Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
Andrea Bayer
Marriage as a Key to Understanding the Past
Deborah L. Krohn
The Marriage Portrait in the Renaissance, or Some Women Named Ginevra
Everett Fahy
Wives, Lovers, and Art in Italian Renaissance Courts
Jacqueline Marie Musacchio
"Rapture to the Greedy Eyes": Profane Love in the Renaissance
Linda Wolk-Simon
Catalogue
Commemorating Betrothal, Marriage, and Childbirth
Rites of Passage: Art Objects to Celebrate Betrothal, Marriage, and the Family
Deborah L. Krohn
Catalogue Numbers 1–86
Majolica of Love and Marriage
Belle Donne, Facing Couples, and Fede
The Cruelty of Love—Amor Crudel
Marriage Glassware
Gifts and Furnishings for the Home
Cassone Panels and Chests
Manuscripts and Books and the Rituals of Love and Marriage
Childbirth and Family
Profane Love
Profane Love: The Challenge of Sexuality
James Grantham Turner
Catalogue Numbers 87–117
Paintings
Drawings
Books and Prints
Maiolica
Bronzes
Accessories
The Paintings of Love and Marriage
From Cassone to Poesia: Paintings of Love and Marriage
Andrea Bayer
Picturing the Perfect Marriage: The Equilibrium of Sense and Sensibility in Titian's Sacred and Profane Love
Beverly Louise Brown
Belle: Picturing Beautiful Women
Luke Syson
Catalogue Numbers 118–153
Betrothal and Marriage
Family
Widows
The Camera: Spalliere and Other Paintings
Illustrious Women
Belle Donne
Mythologies and Allegories
Bibliography
Index
Photograph Credits
Andrea Bayer is Curator in the Department of European Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.