Description
Book SynopsisDescribes the transformation of Italian sculpture during the neglected half-century between the death of Michelangelo and the rise of Bernini. This book follows the Florentine careers of three major sculptors - Giambologna, Bartolomeo Ammanati, and Vincenzo Danti - as they negotiated the politics of the Medici court and eyed one another's work.
Trade ReviewFinalist for the 2012 Charles Rufus Morey Book Award, College Art Association One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2011 "In this stimulating offering, Cole investigates sculptural enterprise in Florence during the second half of the 16th century. Focusing on Giambologna, Bartolomeo Ammanati, and Vincenzo Danti, this book is no mere survey of trends or compilation of biographies. It concerns what being a sculptor meant in this dynamic time and place and the nature of the plastic arts themselves. The study, which is as ambitious as its subjects were, succeeds brilliantly... [P]rofoundly original."--Choice "The book is beautifully illustrated and structured around clearly defined thematic chapters, and Cole weaves, or perhaps it would be better to say, builds an art historical text that is just as monumental as the sculptural works he discusses."--Jennifer D. Webb, Sixteenth Century Journal "Cole is persuasive and unsettling enough to ensure that no reader will be able to look at a sixteenth-century sculpture the same way again."--Cammy Brothers, Oxford Art Journal "Ambitious Form has much to recommend it as essential reading for anyone interested in the history of art. Cole's ability to make the reader/viewer take a second and more studied look at an object is repeatedly evinced."--Fredrika Jacobs, European Legacy
Table of ContentsIntroduction i Chapter 1: Models 21 Chapter 2: Professions 51 Chapter 3: Naturalism 90 Chapter 4: Pose 121 Chapter 5: Sculpture as Architecture 158 Chapter 6: Chapels 193 Chapter 7: Sculpture in the City 244 Conclusion 283 Photo Credits 287 Notes 293 Acknowledgments 353 Index 357
