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University of California Press

About the Book

In this absorbing illustrated history, Loren Partridge takes the reader on an insightful tour of Renaissance Florence and sheds new light on its celebrated art and culture by examining the city's great architectural and artistic achievements in their political, intellectual, and religious contexts. This essential and accessible text, the only up-to-date volume on Renaissance Florence currently available, incorporates insights from recent scholarship, including gender studies, while emphasizing the artists' social status, rivalries, and innovations. The result is a multilevel exploration of how the celebrated Florentine culture formally registers in specific works of art or architecture and how these works interactively informed and often shaped the culture.

About the Author

Loren Partridge is Professor of the Art of the Italian Renaissance at the University of California, Berkeley. His many books include Michelangelo, Last Judgment: A Glorious Restoration, The Art of Renaissance Rome, 1400-1600, and Michelangelo: The Sistine Chapel Ceiling. He has been honored by Fulbright, Kress, Guggenheim, and Getty fellowships; grants from the American Academy in Rome and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton; and the chairmanship of the departments of both History of Art and Art Practice at Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Renaissance
Humanism
Independent Portraits
Perspective
Narrative
The Human Body
Classicizing Architecture
The Status of Artists

Pre-Renaissance Florence
Roman and Early Medieval Florence
People’s Government
The Priorate
The Priors’ Palace
Piazza della Signoria and the Priors’ Loggia
Final Circuit of Walls and Florentine Expansion
The Cathedral and Or San Michele

I Florence Under the Albizzi and the Medici, 1400–1494

1 Civic Architecture and Urbanism
Brunelleschi’s Foundling Hospital
Piazza della SS. Annunziata

2 Freestanding Public Sculpture
Cathedral Buttress Figures
Donatello’s Marble David Or San Michele, I
Donatello’s St. Mark
Nanni di Banco’s Four Crowned Saints
Ghiberti’s St. John the Baptist
Donatello’s St. George
Donatello’s St. Louis of Toulouse
Campanile
Donatello’s Abraham and Isaac
Donatello’s Zuccone
Or San Michele, II
Verrocchio’s Christ and Doubting Thomas

3 Ecclesiastical Architecture
The Cathedral Dome
S. Lorenzo
The Old Sacristy
The Church
S. Marco
The Church and Monastery
The Library
S. Spirito
The Façade of S. Maria Novella

4 The Baptistery Doors
Competition Reliefs
Brunelleschi
Ghiberti
Ghiberti’s First Doors
Annunciation
Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise
Creation of Adam and Eve, Temptation and Fall, Expulsion from Paradise
Jacob and Esau
Solomon and Sheba

5 Altarpieces and Chapels
S. Maria degli Angeli: Lorenzo Monaco’s Coronation of the Virgin
S. Maria Novella, I: Masaccio’s Trinity
S. Maria del Carmine: Masaccio and Masolino’s Brancacci Chapel
Temptation and Fall and Expulsion from Paradise
Tribute Money
Peter Heals with His Shadow and Death of Ananias
S. Lorenzo, I: Old Sacristy
Buggiano’s Sarcophagus
Donatello’s Decoration
S. Marco: High Altarpiece and Cells
Fra Angelico’s S. Marco Altarpiece
Fra Angelico’s Annunciation
SS. Annunziata, I: Castagno’s Trinity with St. Jerome
S. Miniato al Monte: The Cardinal of Portugal’s
Chapel
North Wall
East Wall
West Wall
S. Lorenzo, II
Verrocchio’s Tomb of Cosimo il Vecchio
Donatello’s Bronze Pulpits
Verrocchio’s Tomb of Piero and Giovanni de’ Medici, Old Sacristy
SS. Annunziata, II: Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo’s
St. Sebastian
S. Trinita: Ghirlandaio’s Sassetti Chapel
Confirmation of the Rule of St. Francis
St. Francis Resurrects a Boy Who Fell from a Palace
Window in 1266
Nativity
S. Maria Novella, II: Filippino Lippi’s Strozzi Chapel
St. John Raises Drusiana
St. Philip Exorcises a Dragon

6 Refectories
S. Apollonia: Castagno’s Last Supper
S. Marco: Ghirlandaio’s Last Supper

7 Palaces
The Medici Palace
The Rucellai Palace
The Pitti Palace, I
The Strozzi Palace

8 Halls of State: Palazzo
Vecchio, I
Uccello’s Battle of S. Romano
Ghirlandaio’s Sala dei Gigli

9 Palace Chapels: The Medici Palace
Gozzoli’s Journey of the Magi
Filippo Lippi’s Nativity

10 Freestanding Palace Sculpture: The Medici Palace
Donatello’s Bronze David
Donatello’s Bronze Judith and Holofernes

11 Wedding Chests and Birth Trays
Scheggia’s Reconciliation between the Romans and the Sabines
Masaccio’s Lying-in of a Florentine Lady

12 Spalliera Painting
Botticelli’s Primavera
Botticelli’s Nastagio degli Onesti

13 Portraits
Uccello’s Young Man
Filippo Lippi’s Lorenzo Scolari and Angiola Sapiti
Piero di Cosimo’s Cleopatra
Mino da Fiesole’s Piero de’ Medici
Botticelli’s Woman at a Window
Botticelli’s Man Holding a Medallion of Cosimo il Vecchio
Leonardo’s Ginevra de’ Benci

14 Devotional Works
Donatello’s Shaw Madonna
Filippo Lippi’s Virgin and Child with Two Angels
Botticelli’s Madonna of the Magnificat
Michelangelo’s Madonna of the Steps

II Florence Under the Second Republic, 1494–1512

15 Halls of State: Palazzo Vecchio, II
Sala Grande, I
Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari
Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina

16 Freestanding Public Sculpture
Michelangelo’s David

17 Altarpieces
SS. Annunziata: Leonardo’s St. Anne Cartoon Palazzo Vecchio, Sala Grande: Fra Bartolomeo’s
St. Anne Altarpiece

18 Portraits
Leonardo’s Mona Lisa
Raphael’s Portraits of Agnolo and Maddalena Doni

19 Devotional Works
Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo
Raphael’s Madonna della Sedia

III Florence Under the Medici Popes, 1513–1534

20 Civic Architecture and Urbanism
Piazza della SS. Annunziata

21 Freestanding Palace Sculpture: The Medici Palace
Bandinelli’s Orpheus with Cerberus

22 Chapels and Libraries: S. Lorenzo
Michelangelo’s New Sacristy
Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library

23 Altarpieces and Devotional Works
S. Francesco: Sarto’s Madonna of the Harpies
Rosso’s Moses Defending and the Daughters of Jethro
S. Felicità: Pontormo’s Deposition

24 Portraits
Sarto’s Man with a Book
Sarto’s Woman with Petrarch’s Poems
Rosso’s Young Man

IV Florence Under the Medici Dukes, 1531–1600

25 Earlier Freestanding Public Sculpture
Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus

26 Palace Chapels: Palazzo Vecchio
Bronzino’s Chapel of Eleonora
Altarpiece
Altar Wall and St. Michael
Crossing of the Red Sea and St. Francis

27 Palaces: Pitti Palace, II and Boboli Gardens

28 Churches and Church Decoration
Vasari’s Renovation of S. Croce and S. Maria Novella
S. Croce: Vasari’s Doubting Thomas

29 Civic Architecture and Urbanism
Tasso’s Mercato Nuovo
Vasari’s Uffizi

30 Later Freestanding Public Sculpture
Cellini’s Perseus
Ammannati’s Neptune Fountain
Danti’s Rigor, Equity, and Cosimo I as Augustus
Giambologna’s Cosimo I in Armor
Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabines
Giambologna’s Equestrian Monument to Cosimo I

31 Portraits
Bronzino’s Ugolino Martelli
Bronzino’s Cosimo I as Orpheus
Bronzino’s Cosimo I in Armor
Bronzino’s Eleonora of Toledo with Her Son Giovanni
Vasari’s Apotheosis of Cosimo I

32 Halls of State: Palazzo Vecchio, III
Salviati’s Sala di Udienza
Bandinelli and Vasari’s Sala Grande, II

Genealogy of the Medici
Timeline
Glossary
Artists’ Biographies
Selected Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index

Reviews

“Partridge’s detailed observations make his text exciting.”
Foreword
“An excellent introduction to the art of Renaissance Florence. . . . Highly recommended.”
Choice
“A compact nicely illustrated introduction to the art of Florence with much to offer for those who teach or study the Italian Renaissance.”
Sixteenth Century Journal
“The text is incontrovertibly learned and the writing attractive.”
Bibliotheque D'humanisme Et Renaissance
“Rich and engaging. This account of Florentine art tells the story of who commissioned these works, who made them, where they were seen, and how they were experienced and understood by their viewers. Includes a useful timeline, glossary, and series of artists' biographies.”—Patricia L. Reilly, Swarthmore College

“An extraordinarily useful book, not only for teachers, but also for historically minded travelers interested in an illustrated guide to the art of Renaissance Florence.”—Evelyn Lincoln, Brown University

“Clear and compelling. The well-chosen illustrations include ground plans and diagrams of key architectural monuments and sculpture. The updated, judicious bibliography is a resource for anyone tackling the vast scholarship on the art of Renaissance Florence.”—Cristelle Baskins, editor of The Triumph of Marriage: Painted Cassoni of the Renaissance

Awards

  • Outstanding Academic Title in Art & Architecture 2011, Choice, a publication of the American Library Association