From Imitation to Inspiration
This fascinating study captures a unique ‘moment’ in the life of Renaissance Italyaround 1500 – up to and specifically 1506 – a time of extraordinary artistic creativity.This creativity was stimulated above all by movement and exchange, as artists andartworks travelled the width and length of the peninsula and beyond. The author’shighly original uncovering of the networks and the multiple, sometimes novel, meansof transmission in the period enables him to take the pulse of this remarkable ferment,which, up to 1506, did not yet know it was to become the High Renaissance.Recognized everywhere as an authority on Renaissance prints, in this new bookresulting from years of research David Landau traces the constant movement of artand artists – and, often, their families and workshops – from one city to another, onecourt to another, one monastery to another, in search of work, patrons and prestigeprojects. He examines the impact of these interactions on the people involved, chartingthe remarkably rapid diffusion of styles, motifs and artistic innovations across Italy’sregions and in exchange with other countries. The diverse artworks here considered ina great variety of media, notably portable and/or multiple media such as drawings andprints, gems, plaques or medals, might serve a variety of purposes – diplomatic, nuptial,religious, social, amicable – revealing a constant curiosity and taste for the novel and‘modern’.The book investigates how valuable objects, both antique and contemporary,were carefully packed and moved overland on Italy’s rivers or, where necessary, overtreacherous roads and mountainous geography or by sea along its coasts, deftlyskirting political turmoil, warring states and recurrent plagues. Drawing entirely oncontemporaneous documents such as records of costs, commissions and fees, billsof lading, municipal archives, travellers’ accounts and artists’ own letters, the authorvividly brings back to life the extraordinary fervour of that time as well as the obstacles,rivalries, trials and triumphs of being an artist or craftsman in the Renaissance. Thepatrons’ side is also portrayed, with a chapter on the activity of Isabella d’Este throughthe year 1506 and another on Du¨rer’s letters home from Venice in that year to his mainfriend and supporter, for whom he had to shop.We are thus taken – with remarkable detail – into the lives of itinerant artists, fromthe very famous, like Michelangelo, to the lesser known ones always worried aboutthe next commission. The book recounts the adventures of the likes of Pinturicchio,Sodoma and Signorelli, and many almost unknown figures, and a full variety of small,now frequently neglected, objects of many kinds that transmitted the newest ideas andstyles.The result is a unique and compelling analysis of artists, patrons and their milieuxat a pivotal moment in Renaissance art, as if vividly recounted by a contemporarychronicler.
