Art and Love in Renaissance Italy (Fashion Studies) - Hardcover

"A major contribution to our understanding of Renaissance art in its broader culturual context. . . . Highly informative, bringing together a wide range of objects and images as a way to better understand the ritual of love and family life in all stages and those involved in them. . . . A must-have for anyone interested in Renaissance art and private life."-Katherine A. McIver, Renaissance Quarterly -- Katherine A. McIver * Renaissance Quarterly * Selected as a finalist for the 2010 Alfred H. Barr Jr., Award given by the College Art Association -- Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award * College Art Association *

With contributions by Sarah Cartwright, Jessie McNab, J. Kenneth Moore, Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, Wendy Thompson, and Jeremy Warren 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.