Description
Book SynopsisGarcilaso de la Vega and the Material Culture of Renaissance Europe examines the role of cultural objects in the lyric poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega, the premier poet of sixteenth-century Spain. As a pioneer of the “new poetry” of Renaissance Europe, aligned with the court, empire, and modernity, Garcilaso was fully attuned to the collection and circulation of luxury artefacts and other worldly goods. In his poems, a variety of objects, including tapestries, paintings, statues, urns, mirrors, and relics participate in lyric acts of discovery and self-revelation, reveal memory as contingent and unstable, expose knowledge of the self as deceptive, and show how history intersects with the ideology of empire.
Mary E. Barnard’s study argues persuasively that the material culture of early sixteenth-century Europe embedded within Garcilaso’s poems offers a key to understanding the interplay between objects and texts that make those works such vibrant
Trade Review
'Barnard's studies of Garcilaso's Naples period are excellent approaches to his politics and his representations of emotional states... Barnard's book is worthy of careful attention of anyone interested in Renaissance verse.' -- Eric Clifford Graf Renaissance Quarterly vol 69:01:2016 'A vibrant, truly scholarly study that deserves pride of place in any collection (library or personal)... Essential.' -- K.M Sibbald Choice Magazine vol 52:12:2015
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements Note on Editions and Translations List of Illustrations Introduction: Engaging the Material Chapter 1: Weaving, Writing, and the Art of Gift-Giving Tapestry Culture The Poem as Fabric: Weavers and Writers Chapter 2: Empire, Memory, and History An Archive in Cloth Unearthing Carthage Chapter 3: Objects of Dubious Persuasion The Lyre and the Viol(a) The Shell Boat A Marble Statue Chapter 4: The Mirror and the Urn At the Fountain of Narcissus The Urn's Tale Chapter 5: Eros at Material Sites Weaver Nymphs in Crystal Palaces Daphne's Scenographic Body Mapping the Humoral Interior Tablet of the Soul Chapter 6: Staging Objects in Pastoral Falling in Love with a Statue Mourning Becomes Material Conclusion Notes Works Cited Index
