Reviews for Art and society in Italy 1350-1500

The average rating for Art and society in Italy 1350-1500 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-12-27 00:00:00 Brian Gilbertson My second reading has consolidated the impression I had during my first encounter. This is an excellent complementary reading to another account of Art in Renaissance Italy of a more traditional sort. Evelyn Welch is treading on the path first opened by Michael Baxandall when in 1972 he published Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style. There, Baxandall gave a sharp twist to the traditional art historical approach, --ironically invented during the Italian Renaissance by Vasari. Baxandall's effort was to use documentary evidence (such as sermons and other writings) to help us in conjuring up "the period eye" through which we could contemplate the works. Welch acknowledges from early on that this is the path of investigation she has chosen but states that we need to go further and "to multiply our vision, sensitizing our understanding" in trying to recreate the historical context. And so, instead of a lineal chronology, we move in a thematic wheel: from the material, to the spiritual, to political and religious power and back to the more down to earth, or domestic. We are reminded of the importance of the materials used, of how these were the details stipulated in contracts and over which judicial cases would arise. We examine the way artisans organized themselves and how they stood vis-a-vis those who paid them. We move away from museums back into sacred and devotional settings. We observe the men (and a few women) who called the shots, and review the ample catalogue of different political units that composed what we now call Italy. We then take a rest at the end visiting domestic environments. And all this thematic unveiling is presented with a continuous stream of examples of art works that illustrate the narrative. For this is a narrative, an expository one. There is little argument or thesis, which sometimes hampers the reader's memory, for both the facts and the art works. In Welch's aim at multiplying our vision, one certainly welcomes the very wide array of artists and works she evokes. She clearly moves beyond Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo and Michaelangelo, and it becomes a sheer delight to meet the art by Giusto de Menabuoi, Cosmè Tura, Vincenzo Foppa, Andrea di Bonaiuti, Quirizio da Murano, Giovanni da Modena, Francesco Rosselli, Pietro Lombardo, Giovanni di Paolo, Agnolo Gaddi, Neroccio di Barolomeo de'Landi, Francesco del Cossa, Ercole de Roberti, Taddeo Crivelli, etc, etc, etc… But I am surprised that this book forms part of the Oxford History of Art series. For if one were to read only this book about the Italian Renaissance, one would feel as reading only the stage directions without watching the play.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-01-22 00:00:00 Jeremy Lucas A well-researched book. Welch has an interesting take on the art and architecture during a time deemed momentous. She gives voice to ordinary artisans, and, instead of merely praising again and again the familiar names of Filippo Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, and the like, she focuses on the social and political aspects which brought about the notion of arts patronage. As a firm believer in social contexts as origins of events, I found this approach intriguing as I could see art as a form of progress, based on which we can trace back and find explanations for turning points (e.g. the advent of the concept of artist/individualism/creativity), as opposed to fragments emerging from nowhere. However, I really, really wished Welch carried out more analyses of the artworks and how all the backgrounds she successfully provides are depicted through the works. It seems to me that most of the images serve to illustrate a single detail rather than unify larger/main ideas in a chapter. I was left yearning for more from her.