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Virtue and Magnificence
註釋The "virtue", or genius, of the artist and the "magnificence" of the ruler are two defining qualities of the Renaissance. Around these two concepts, Alison Cole has built a remarkable new vision of Italian Renaissance art and culture. While the story of the famous powers of the fifteenth century -- Florence, Venice, and Rome -- has been told countless times, that of the other cities in Italy is less well known. The reader will delight in Cole's lively account -- a new and fascinating perspective on Italy. Between the two splendid poles of Naples and Milan -- the two great rival powers of Italy -- were a cluster of duchies and princely courts, each with its own desire for fame. Like small jewels, these isolated towns and palaces glittered with artworks of the greatest virtuosity and remarkably innovative literature, music, and the sciences. In the service of their own magnificence, these great cities and tiny duchies gathered to themselves a remarkable collection of brilliant artists, poets, and scholars. The courts were the personal possessions of princes (including at least one woman); their task in the game of Italian politics was to maintain their status, wealth, and independence through skillful marriages, force of arms, strength of personality, and cultural power. Their aim as patrons of the arts and sciences was to enhance their prestige, their honor, and their glory. Alison Cole explores these extraordinary courts, large and small, in the moment of their greatest brilliance, seeing them as the inheritors of a medieval courtly tradition, in contrast to Florence and Venice, whose model was ancient Rome. he reveals to us another side of the Renaissance, that of the individual patrons and their world. This unique book is both a scholarly discussion in the tradition of Jakob Burckhardt and a delightful tour through Renaissance Italy, described with charm and filled with intriguing detail. Book jacket.