The Early Modern Italian Domestic Interior, 1400-1700: Objects, Spaces, Domesticities

Description

First published 2013 by Ashgate Publishing Emphasizing on the one hand the reconstruction of the material culture of specific residences, and on the other, the way in which particular domestic objects reflect, shape, and mediate family values and relationships within the home, this volume offers a distinct contribution to research on the early modern Italian domestic interior. Though the essays mainly take an art historical approach, the book is interdisciplinary in that it considers the social implications of domestic objects for family members of different genders, age, and rank, as well as for visitors to the home. By adopting a broad chronological framework that encompasses both Renaissance and Baroque Italy, and by expanding the regional scope beyond Florence and Venice to include domestic interiors from less studied centers such as Urbino, Ferrara, and Bologna, this collection offers genuinely new perspectives on the home in early modern Italy. Illustrations vii Notes on Contributors ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: Early Modern Domesticities: Integrating People, Spaces, Objects / Erin J. Campbell, Stephanie R. Miller, and Elizabeth Carroll Consavari 1 Part I. Domesticities 1. "Uno palaço belissimo": Town and Country Living in Renaissance Bologna / Catherine Fletcher 19 2. From Padua to Rome: Pietro Bembo’s Mobile Objects and Convivial Interiors / Susan Nalezyty 33 3. "A casa con i Sirani": A Successful Family Business and Household in Early Modern Bologna / Adelina Modesti 47 Part II. People, Spaces, and Objects 4. Parenting in the Palazzo: Images and Artifacts of Children in the Italian Renaissance Home / Stephanie R. Miller 67 5. The Venetian Portego: Family Piety and Public Prestige / Margaret A. Morse 89 6. Art and Family Viewers in the Seventeenth-Century Bolognese Domestic Interior / Erin J. Campbell 107 Part III. Domestic Objects and Sociability 7. "Chi vuol esser lieto, sia": Objects of Entertainment in the Tornabuoni Palace in Florence / Maria DePrano 127 8. "Il mare di pittura": Domestic Pictures and Sociability in the Late Sixteenth-Century Venetian Interior / Elizabeth Carroll Consavari 143 9. Let’s Eat: Kitchens and Dining in the Renaissance Palazzo and Country Estate / Katherine A. McIver 159 10. Silk-Clad Walls and Sleeping Cupids: A Documentary Reconstruction of the Living Quarters of Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara / Allyson Burgess Williams 175 11. "All that is Seen": Ritual and Splendor at the Montefeltro Court in Urbino / Jennifer D. Webb 191 Part IV. Objectifying the Domestic Interior 12. Objectifying the Domestic Interior: Domestic Furnishings and the Historical Interpretation of the Italian Renaissance Interior / Adriana Turpin 207 13. Recreating the Renaissance Domestic Interior: A Case Study of One Museum’s Approach to the Period Room / Susan E. Wegner 227 Selected Bibliography 245 Index 255