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Italian Renaissance Learning Resources
In collaboration with
the National Gallery of Art
Search for:
Units
Virgin and Child
Picturing Family and Friends
The Making of an Artist
A New World of Learning
Presentation of Self
Time and Narrative
Recovering the Golden Age
Artists and Patrons
Help
About
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Units
Virgin and Child
Picturing Family and Friends
The Making of an Artist
A New World of Learning
Presentation of Self
Time and Narrative
Recovering the Golden Age
Artists and Patrons
Sample Page
Help
Site Map
All Images
About
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Contact Us
Site Map
Units
Virgin and Child
Essays
Introduction
Saint Luke Paints the Virgin and Child: Genealogy of an Image
The Power of Icons
The Triumph of Images: Icons, Iconoclasm, and the Incarnation
Icons and Panel Painting in the West
Venice: Mundus Alter
Bellini’s Luminous Madonnas
Florence and the Renaissance
The Spectacle of Devotion: Civic Miracle-Workers
Images of the Virgin and Child at Home
Raphael’s Madonnas: Full of Grace
Notes
Images
Primary Sources
Excerpts from the diary of Luca Landucci about the Impruenta
A wax ex-voto for the Virgin of Santa Maria in Carceri
A Florentine rails against an image of Saint John the Baptist
Savonarola on images
Advice for the use of religious images in childrearing
Glossary
Discussion Questions
Activities
More Resources
Picturing Family and Friends
Essays
Husbands and Wives
Husbands and Wives: Case Studies
Children
Children: Case Studies
Lovers
Lovers: Case Studies
Friends and Enemies
Friends and Enemies: Case Studies
Notes
Primary Sources
Wedding preparations for Caterina Strozzi
Description of Bianca Sforza’s wedding
Advice for the use of religious images in childrearing
Lorenzo de’ Medici on love and beauty
A poem from Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta to Isotta degli Atti
Poems about Ginevra and Bembo
Condemnation of Sigismondo Malatesta
Images
Glossary
Discussion Questions
Activities
More Resources
The Making of an Artist
Essays
Introduction
Who were the artists?
What made a vibrant artistic center?
Training and Practice
Sculptors at Work
Guilds (Arti)
Academies
The Status of Artists
The Status of Art
A Gallery of Artists
Notes
Primary Sources
Excerpts from Cennino Cennini’s Handbook
Excerpts from Giorgio Vasari’s “Life of Madonna Properzia de’ Rossi,” sculptor of Bologna
Excerpts from Vasari’s description of Sofonisba Anguissola
Giorgio Vasari’s description of the Medici “academy”
Excerpts from Book III of Leon Battista Alberti’s On Painting
The courtier and the arts: An excerpt from Baldassare Castiglione, The Courtier
Leonardo on painting versus poetry
Painting versus sculpture
Leonardo on painting versus sculpture
Images
Glossary
Discussion Questions
Activities
More Resources
A New World of Learning
Essays
The Eye…Like a God of Human Parts
Medals: The Renaissance Calling Card
Books, Writing, and the Printing Press
At Home with the Antique Gods
A Room of One’s Own: The Studiolo
Collecting as a Mark of Erudition
Notes
Primary Sources
Alberti praises the painters of Florence
Vespasiano da Bisticci praises the library of Federigo da Montefeltro
Privilege is granted to Aldus Manutius by the Venetian government for the production of his new italic typeface
Piero de’ Medici takes delight in his studiolo
Guarino da Verona gives instructions to Lionello d’Este on how to paint the muses
Poggio Bracciolini collects ancient sculpture
Ovid, Fasti
Images
Glossary
Discussion Questions
Activities
More Resources
Presentation of Self
Essays
Portraiture
Presentation of Self and Family in the Home
Let There Be Glory and Riches in Your House
Kinship with Noble Families
Plates of Beautiful Maiolica . . . To Show That You Are Well Born
The Beautiful Chamber
The Special Case of the Medici: Experts in Self-Promotion
Notes
Images
Glossary
Discussion Questions
Activities
More Resources
Time and Narrative
Essays
Introduction
Merging the Divine and the Temporal
Serial Narratives: The Expansion of Time and Space in Composite Formats
Episodic Contemplation
Monoscenic Narratives: The Unification of Pictorial Space
Moving Pictures
The Expansion of Viewing Time
Continuous Narrative: Pictorial Déjà Vu
Spatial Framing Aids
Chronological Order
Nonlinear Narrative Paths
Storytelling in Perspective
Mystical Realism
Notes
Primary Sources
Painting in the service of religion
Getting inside the picture
Painting as an aid to religion
Variety in an istoria
Images
Glossary
Discussion Questions
Narrative
Icon vs. Narrative Painting
The Representation of Movement
Continuous Narrative
Activities
More Resources
Recovering the Golden Age
Essays
The Impact of Classical Antiquities on Renaissance Art
The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Ancient Rome
Pagan Artifacts in Christian Art
The Classical Treatment of the Body
Trompe L’Oeil Sculpture in Renaissance Painting
Art and Archaeology: Reconstructing the Roman World
Modern Artists as Rivals of the Ancients
Notes
Primary Sources
Historic preservation in Renaissance Italy
An encounter with classical sculpture in a Christian church
An impromptu pilgrimage
A treasure hunt for antiquities
A collector enjoys his treasures
Showing off an antique sculpture garden
Images
Glossary
Discussion Questions
Saint Apollonia Destroys a Pagan Idol
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
Saint Sebastian
An Episode from the Life of Publius Cornelius Scipio, after 1506
Portraits
Activities
More Resources
Artists and Patrons
Essays
Introduction
Wedding Pictures
Milan
Urbino
Naples
An Aragonese Princess: Beatrice of Aragon
Mantua
Isabella d’Este Collects
Ferrara
A Painting for an Active Wife: The Wife of Hasdrubal and Her Children
A Patron at Work: The Feast of the Gods
Notes
Primary Sources
Leonardo lists his skills
Mantegna complains to Lodovico Gonzaga
Isabella d’Este asks Leonardo for a work
Isabella instructs Perugino
Memo to Lodovico Sforza, Il Moro, concerning the reputation of Florentine painters, about 1496
Images
Glossary
Discussion Questions
Activities
More Resources
Sample Page
Help
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All Images
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