Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: ANARCHISM Colin Ward CLASSICS Mary Beard and ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw John Henderson ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Julia Annas THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon ANCIENT WARFARE CONSCIOUSNESS Sue Blackmore Harry Sidebottom Continental Philosophy THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE Simon Critchley John Blair COSMOLOGY Peter Coles ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia CRYPTOGRAPHY ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn Fred Piper and Sean Murphy ARCHITECTURE DADA AND SURREALISM Andrew Ballantyne David Hopkins ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Darwin Jonathan Howard ART HISTORY Dana Arnold Democracy Bernard Crick ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DESCARTES Tom Sorell THE HISTORY OF DREAMING J. Allan Hobson ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin DRUGS Leslie Iversen Atheism Julian Baggini THE EARTH Martin Redfern Augustine Henry Chadwick EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch BARTHES Jonathan Culler EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY THE BIBLE John Riches BRITAIN Paul Langford BRITISH POLITICS THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball Anthony Wright EMOTION Dylan Evans Buddha Michael Carrithers EMPIRE Stephen Howe BUDDHISM Damien Keown ENGELS Terrell Carver CAPITALISM James Fulcher Ethics Simon Blackburn THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe The European Union CHOICE THEORY John Pinder Michael Allingham EVOLUTION CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson Brian and Deborah Charlesworth CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead FASCISM Kevin Passmore FOUCAULT Garry Gutting MUSIC Nicholas Cook THE FRENCH REVOLUTION Myth Robert A. Segal William Doyle NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner FREE WILL Thomas Pink NINETEENTH-CENTURY Freud Anthony Storr BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and Galileo Stillman Drake H. C. G. Matthew Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh NORTHERN IRELAND GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger Marc Mulholland GLOBAL WARMING PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close Mark Maslin paul E. P. Sanders HEGEL Peter Singer Philosophy Edward Craig HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson Samir Okasha HINDUISM Kim Knott PLATO Julia Annas HISTORY John H. Arnold POLITICS Kenneth Minogue HOBBES Richard Tuck POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY HUME A. J. Ayer David Miller IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTCOLONIALISM Indian Philosophy Robert Young Sue Hamilton POSTMODERNISM Intelligence Ian J. Deary Christopher Butler ISLAM Malise Ruthven POSTSTRUCTURALISM JUDAISM Norman Solomon Catherine Belsey Jung Anthony Stevens PREHISTORY Chris Gosden KAFKA Ritchie Robertson PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY KANT Roger Scruton Catherine Osborne KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner Psychology Gillian Butler and THE KORAN Michael Cook Freda McManus LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews QUANTUM THEORY LITERARY THEORY John Polkinghorne Jonathan Culler RENAISSANCE ART LOCKE John Dunn Geraldine A. Johnson LOGIC Graham Priest ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler MARX Peter Singer RUSSELL A. C. Grayling MATHEMATICS RUSSIAN LITERATURE Timothy Gowers Catriona Kelly MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION MEDIEVAL BRITAIN S. A. Smith John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths SCHIZOPHRENIA MODERN ART David Cottington Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone MODERN IRELAND Senia Pasˇeta SCHOPENHAUER MOLECULES Philip Ball Christopher Janaway SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer STUART BRITAIN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL John Morrill ANTHROPOLOGY TERRORISM Charles Townshend John Monaghan and Peter Just THEOLOGY David F. Ford SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce THE TUDORS John Guy Socrates C. C. W. Taylor TWENTIETH-CENTURY THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan Helen Graham Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling SPINOZA Roger Scruton WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Available soon: AFRICAN HISTORY HUMAN EVOLUTION John Parker and Richard Rathbone Bernard Wood THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BUDDHIST ETHICS Paul Wilkinson Damien Keown JAZZ Brian Morton CHAOS Leonard Smith JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy MANDELA Tom Lodge CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE THE MARQUIS DE SADE Robert Tavernor John Phillips CONTEMPORARY ART THE MIND Martin Davies Julian Stallabrass NATIONALISM Steven Grosby THE CRUSADES PERCEPTION Richard Gregory Christopher Tyerman PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot Timothy Lim PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards Derrida Simon Glendinning RACISM Ali Ratansi DESIGN John Heskett THE RAJ Denis Judd Dinosaurs David Norman THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta ROMAN EMPIRE THE END OF THE WORLD Christopher Kelly Bill McGuire SARTRE Christina Howells EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt FEMINISM Margaret Walters SOCIALISM Michael Newman THE FIRST WORLD WAR A HISTORY OF TIME Michael Howard Leofranc Holford-Strevens FOSSILS Keith Thomson TRAGEDY Adrian Poole FUNDAMENTALISM THE VIKINGS Julian Richards Malise Ruthven THE WORLD TRADE Habermas ORGANIZATION James Gordon Finlayson Amrita Narlikar For more information visit our web site www.oup.co.uk/vsi/ Geraldine A. Johnson RENAISSANCE ART A Very Short Introduction 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in OxfordNew York AucklandCape TownDar es SalaamHong Kong Karachi Kuala LumpurMadridMelbourneMexico CityNairobi New DelhiShanghaiTaipeiToronto With offices in ArgentinaAustriaBrazilChileCzech Republic FranceGreece GuatemalaHungary ItalyJapanSouth KoreaPolandPortugal Singapore Switzerland Thailand TurkeyUkraineVietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Geraldine A. Johnson 2005 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as a Very Short Introduction 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0–19–280354–9 EAN 978–0–19–280354–2 1357910864 2 Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall To Chris, my Renaissance man. This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements xi List of illustrations xiii 1 Introduction: whose Renaissance? whose art? 1 2 The art of the altarpiece 13 3 Story-telling in Renaissance art 30 4 The challenge of nature and the antique 45 5 Portraiture and the rise of ‘Renaissance man’ 61 6 Did women have a Renaissance? 76 7 Objects and images for the domestic sphere 91 8 The story of a square: art and urbanism in Florence 108 9 Michelangelo: the birth of the artist and of art history 120 References 135 Further reading 139 Glossary 145 Index 151
Description: