Francesco II Gonzaga: The Soldier-Prince as Patron
Molly Bourne
700 pages | 79 illus. | ISBN 978-88-7870-325-4
Bulzoni Editore 2008 | 55 Euros
Molly Bourne provides the first comprehensive study of the artistic
patronage of Francesco II Gonzaga, Fourth Marquis of Mantua from 1484 to
1519. Although it was during his reign that the Gonzaga court confirmed
its position as one of the great cultural centers of Renaissance Italy,
Francesco’s celebrated consort, Isabella d’Este, has received virtually
full credit for this achievement. Obscured by the long cultural shadow
cast by his wife, Mantua’s fourth marquis has traditionally been
portrayed as a professional soldier and avid breeder of horses who was
uninterested in the arts. Bourne challenges this profile, using archival
evidence to reconstruct Francesco’s numerous commissions for sacred and
secular works of art, few of which survive today but that included
religious and residential architecture, paintings, sculpture, and the
decorative arts, demonstrating that artistic patronage in Renaissance
Mantua was, in fact, an enterprise shared between both rulers. The
author’s analysis is complemented by two documentary appendices, one
making available the complete text of the previously-unpublished
funerary oration delivered by Francesco Vigilio upon the marquis’s death
in 1519, and the other providing transcriptions of nearly 400 documents,
many of which are published for the first time.
CONTENTS
Part I – The Formation of the Soldier-Prince as Patron
Ch. 1 – The Political Career and Cultural Network of Francesco II
Ch. 2 – “Victory” as Propaganda: The Battle of Fornovo and Its Artistic
Aftermath
Part II – Projecting the Image of the Soldier-Prince: Francesco II’s
Residential Building Projects
Ch. 3 – The Country Palace and Hunting Park at Marmirolo
Ch. 4 – The Country Palace at Gonzaga and the Convent of Santa Maria dei
Miracoli
Ch. 5 – Poggio Reale and the Creation of a Lakeside Pleasure Villa
Ch. 6 – The Palazzo San Sebastiano in Mantua
Part III – The Soldier-Prince as Consort: Three Case Studies of the
Patronage of Francesco II and Isabella d’Este
Ch. 7 – Maps as Palace Decoration in Renaissance Mantua
Ch. 8 – The Projects for the Tomb and the Biographies of the Blessed
Osanna Andreasi
Ch. 9 – The Camerini of Isabella and Francesco II
Epilogue: Images of Francesco II
Appendices
1. Francesco Vigilio’s Funerary Oration for Francesco II
2. Documents
Bibliography
Illustrations
Photograph Credits
Index
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Conference
'Mal'occhio': Looking Awry at the Renaissance
Saturday, 29 November 2008
09.30 - 18.00 (tbc), Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, Courtauld Institute
of Art (with registration from 09.00)
Speaker(s): Jill Burke (University of Edinburgh), Christopher Heuer
(Princeton University), Robert Maniura (Birkbeck College, University of
London), Alex Nagel (Institute of Fine Arts, New York University), Alina
Payne (Harvard University and Max Planck Institute, Rome), Ulrich
Pfisterer (Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich), Francisco
Prado-Vilar (Universidad Complutense, Madrid), Rebecca Zorach
(University of Chicago)
Ticket/entry details: £15 (£10 concessions). Please send a cheque made
payable to ‘Courtauld Institute of Art’ to: Research Forum Events
Co-ordinator, Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum, Somerset House,
Strand, London WC2R 0RN, clearly stating that you wish to book for the
‘Mal’Occhio: Looking Awry at the Renaissance conference’. For credit
card bookings call 020 7848 2785/2909. For further information, send an
e-mail to [log in to unmask]
Organised by: Patricia Rubin (Courtauld) and Maria Loh (UCL) in
collaboration with the Oxford Art Journal
Further information: In art history, the Vasarian paradigm of perfection
has dominated the study of the centuries grouped under the concept of
rinascita, or, since the nineteenth century, the period term
Renaissance. The idealising view of the Renaissance has been challenged
by scholars working in the wake of writers such as Aby Warburg and
Michel Foucault and this conference aims to continue questioning the
humanist construct of the “civilisation of the Renaissance”. It will do
so in part by examining alternative temporalities – models of time
(anachronism, archaism, Nachleben) that disrupt familiar
categorisations. It will consider what is at stake in the “Renaissance”
as a period label and how it has been positioned against the “Early
Modern”: should modernity be unmasked? Looking at the overlooked, the
in-between, and the repressed, the papers presented will consider the
discrepancies, disjunctions, and interferences that disrupt master
narratives and destabilise comforting perspectives on specific artists
or works of art. Reflecting upon concepts of time, space, and memory in
the material histories of the period, some of the issues to be addressed
include: What use can we make of period labels? Are certain materials
still excluded from the culture of the Renaissance? How can we rethink
artistic experience within the spatio-temporal reconfiguration of the
“Old” World and “New” World? Have new hierarchies been instituted in the
study of “Renaissance” art? If so what are they and what critical paths
can we take?
This conference organised in collaboration with the Oxford Art Journal
will result in a special issue of the Journal.
http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/calendar.shtml
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monday 6th October, 5.30pm – Elizabeth Goldring, ‘Paintings and
Sculpture at Leicester House, London, c. 1588’ (Seminar in the History
of Collecting), Lecture Theatre, The Wallace Collection. Booking
required: contact [log in to unmask]
Thursday 16th October, 5pm - Beverly Brown, 'The bride's jewellery:
Lorenzo Lotto's wedding portrait of Marsilio and Faustina Cassotti'
(Late-Medieval & Early-Modern Italy Seminar), 3rd Floor Seminar Room,
IHR, Senate House.
Wedneday 5th November, 6.30pm - Luke Syson, 'Beautiful Women: Poetry,
Marriage and Sex', Sainsbury Wing Lecture Theatre, National Gallery.
Booking required
(http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/what/events/lectures.htm).
Friday November 7th, 10.30am-5pm - 'The Victoria & Albert Museum's
Medieval and Renaissance Gallery Project: A Student Study Day', Loggia
Seminar Room, V&A. Postgraduate students interested in attending this
event should contact [log in to unmask] to register
and for further details.
Thursday 13th November, 5pm - Serena Ferente, 'Naturales dominae: Women
and lordship in late medieval Italy' (Late-Medieval & Early-Modern Italy
Seminar), 3rd Floor Seminar Room, IHR, Senate House.
Monday 24th November, 6.15pm – Jane Garnett & Gervasse Rosser, ‘The
Presence of Miraculous Images in the Middle Ages’, Room G09, UCL
Department of History, 24-25 Gordon Square.
Monday 8th December, 5pm – Evelyn Welch & Ulinka Rublack, ‘Dressing
Early Modern Europe: A Comparative Approach’ (European History 1500-1800
Seminar), Low Countries Room, IHR, Senate House.
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