The Court Cities of Northern Italy Milan, Parma, Piacenza, Mantua, Ferrara, Bologna, Urbino, Pesaro, and Rimini

This volume examines the painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and architecture produced in nine important court cities of Italy during the course of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Although each chapter represents a separate study of a particular geographical locale, many common themes emerge. This volume gives a multifaceted consideration of the art created for princes, prelates, confraternities, and civic authorities – works displayed in public squares, private palaces, churches, and town halls. Including six essays specially commissioned that explore the interaction of artists and their civic and/or courtly patrons within the context of prevailing cultural, political, and religious circumstances, The Court Cities of Northern Italy provides a rich supplement to traditional accounts of the artistic heritage of the Italian Renaissance, which has traditionally focused on the Florentine, Venetian, and Roman traditions. The book includes 35 color plates and 221 black and white illustrations.

Introduction Charles M. Rosenberg; 1. Patrons, artists, and audiences in Renaissance Milan, 1300-1600 Evelyn Welch; 2. Center and periphery: art patronage in Renaissance Piacenza and Parma Giuseppe Bertini; 3. The art of diplomacy: Mantua and the Gonzaga, 1328-1630 Molly Bourne; 4. Estense patronage and the construction of the Ferrarese Renaissance, c. 1395-1595 Anthony Colantuono; 5. Art, patronage, and civic identities in Renaissance Bologna David J. Drogin; 6. Art patronage in Renaissance Urbino, Pesaro, and Rimini, c. 1400-1550 Mary Hollingsworth.

The Court Cities of Northern Italy examines the painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and architecture produced in nine important court cities of Italy during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. The six essays, specially commissioned for this volume, explore the interaction of artists and their civic and/or courtly patrons.

Charles Rosenberg is Professor of Art History at the University of Notre Dame. A recipient of an NEH Rome Prize Fellowship and an I Tatti NEH Fellowship, he is the author of The Este Monuments and Urban Development in Renaissance Ferrara and editor of Art and Politics in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Italy, 1250–1515.

This volume examines the painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and architecture produced in nine important court cities of Italy during the course of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Although each chapter represents a separate study of a particular geographical locale, many common themes emerge. This volume gives a multifaceted consideration of the art created for princes, prelates, confraternities, and civic authorities – works displayed in public squares, private palaces, churches, and town halls. Including six essays specially commissioned that explore the interaction of artists and their civic and/or courtly patrons within the context of prevailing cultural, political, and religious circumstances, The Court Cities of Northern Italy provides a rich supplement to traditional accounts of the artistic heritage of the Italian Renaissance, which has traditionally focused on the Florentine, Venetian, and Roman traditions. The book includes 35 color plates and 221 black and white illustrations.