Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence

Description

The first full-length study of the impact of the discovery of the Americas on Italian Renaissance art and culture, Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence demonstrates that the Medici grand dukes of Florence were not only great patrons of artists but also early conservators of American culture. In collecting New World objects such as featherwork, codices, turquoise, and live plants and animals, the Medici grand dukes undertook a “vicarious conquest” of the Americas. As a result of their efforts, Renaissance Florence boasted one of the largest collections of objects from the New World as well as representations of the Americas in a variety of media. Through a close examination of archival sources, including inventories and Medici letters, Lia Markey uncovers the provenance, history, and meaning of goods from and images of the Americas in Medici collections, and she shows how these novelties were incorporated into the culture of the Florentine court. More than just a study of the discoveries themselves, this volume is a vivid exploration of the New World as it existed in the minds of the Medici and their contemporaries. Scholars of Italian and American art history will especially welcome and benefit from Markey’s insight. COVER Front Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Notes to Introduction Chapter 1: The New World and Italy in the Early Sixteenth Century Notes to Chapter 1 Chapter 2: A Turkey in a Medici Tapestry Notes to Chapter 2 Chapter 3: The Americas in the Guardaroba Nuova Notes to Chapter 3 Chapter 4: Francesco’s Exchange and Documentation of American Nature Notes to Chapter 4 Chapter 5: The Stanzino and the Representation of the New World Notes to Chapter 5 Chapter 6: Between Ethnography and Fantasy in Ferdinando’s New World Notes to Chapter 6 Chapter 7: The Florentine Codex and Buti’s Frescoes of Amerindians Notes to Chapter 7 Chapter 8: Stradano’s Invention of the Americas Notes to Chapter 8 Chapter 9: The Americas Both Real and Imagined Notes to Chapter 9 Conclusion: Vicarious Conquest Notes to Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index COVER Back