Description
Book SynopsisLong obfuscated by modern definitions of historical evidence and art patronage, Lucrezia Tornabuoni deâ Mediciâs impact on the visual world of her time comes to light in this book, the first full-length scholarly argument for a lay womanâs contributions to the visual arts of fifteenth-century Florence. This focused investigation of the Medici familyâs domestic altarpiece, Filippo Lippiâs Adoration of the Christ Child, is broad in its ramifications. Mapping out the cultural network of gender, piety, and power in which Lippiâs painting was originally embedded, author Stefanie Solum challenges the received wisdom that women played little part in actively shaping visual culture during the Florentine Quattrocento. She uses visual evidence never before brought to bear on the topic to reveal that Lucrezia Tornabuoni - shrewd power-broker, pious poetess, and mother of the 'Magnificent' Lorenzo deâ Medici - also had a profound impact on the visual arts. Lucrezia emerges as a fascinating key t
Trade Review'Solum presents a fresh, innovative interpretation of a familiar masterpiece by Filippo Lippi, illuminating our understanding of a series of related works. This erudite and lucid text offers a new paradigm for the definition of the nature of the artist-patron relationship, especially important for future work on female patronage.' Bruce Edelstein, New York University in Florence
'Stefanie Solum opens this stimulating book by discussing a question fundamental for those interested in artistic patronage in Renaissance Florence: whether or not laywomen commissioned significant paintings, sculptures, or buildings in the city during the fifteenth century. ...Lucrezia certainly pursued a religious ideal embodied by the saints, exemplified in religious texts, and outlined in devotional literature. Solum’s ingenious utilization of such evidence yields a fascinating hypothesis concerning Lucrezia’s role in influencing the creation of a major fifteenth-century painting, as well as a reconstruction of her inner life of prayer and rich religious imagination.' CAA.Reviews
Table of ContentsContents: Preface; Introduction: Lucrezia Tornabuoni de' Medici and the power of female patronage in 15th-century Florence; Saving the Medici; Gendered histories: Lucrezia Tornabuoni’s spiritual activism; Choosing the Child Baptist: beyond a civic icon; From outside in: the Child Baptist, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, and the contemplative turn; Garden, forest, and mountain: navigating the Baptist’s wilderness in the Palazzo Medici Adoration; Lucrezia Tornabuoni, female piety, and the power of patronage; Works cited; Index.
