The Endless Periphery: Toward a Geopolitics of Art in Lorenzo Lotto's Italy

Description

While the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance are usually associated with Italy’s historical seats of power, some of the era’s most characteristic works are to be found in places other than Florence, Rome, and Venice. They are the product of the diversity of regions and cultures that makes up the country. In Endless Periphery, Stephen J. Campbell examines a range of iconic works in order to unlock a rich series of local references in Renaissance art that include regional rulers, patron saints, and miracles, demonstrating, for example, that the works of Titian spoke to beholders differently in Naples, Brescia, or Milan than in his native Venice. More than a series of regional microhistories, Endless Periphery tracks the geographic mobility of Italian Renaissance art and artists, revealing a series of exchanges between artists and their patrons, as well as the power dynamics that fueled these exchanges. A counter history of one of the greatest epochs of art production, this richly illustrated book will bring new insight to our understanding of classic works of Italian art. Contents List of Illustrations Foreword / John A. Bross Preface Acknowledgments 1. Off the Axis: The Renaissance without Vasari Working with — and without — Vasari’s Lives Court Centers as World Cities What Was Italy? Models for Renaissance Cultural Geography: Dialect Pluralism versus Literary Canons 2. Place, Event, and the Geopolitics of Art Place in Relational Geography Place as Event and Performance in an Altarpiece by Lorenzo Lotto Regionalism and Its Discontents 3. The View from Messina: Lombards, Sicilians, and the Modern Manner The questione meridionale in the History of Art A Southern Renaissance without Vasari Cesare da Sesto: Raffaelesco or Anti-Raphael? Polidoro da Caravaggio’s Radical Late Style 4. Distant Cities: Lorenzo Lotto and Gaudenzio Ferrari Lorenzo Lotto: An Artist “Out of Place” Lotto and Gaudenzio: Parallel Careers From Varallo to Loreto: Landscapes of Pilgrimage Holding Rome at a Distance: Lotto’s Loreto Network Excursus: The Meaning of Style Coercive Geometry Moti: Emotional Dynamics Gaudenzio as City Artist 5. Brescia and Bergamo, 1520–50: Sacred Naturalism and the Place of the Eucharist Eucharistic Heterotopias in Lombardy: Romanino at Pisogne Painting/Christogram/Eucharist Moretto and the Substance of Style 6. Against Titian Artists “Off the Axis”: The Campi, the Carracci, and the Legacy of Correggio The Afterlife of Titian in Milan The 1540s: Titian as “Italian” Artist Ludovico Dolce and the Invention of Venetian Painting The Placelessness of Titian’s Late Style Notes Bibliography Index