The Art and Language of Power in Renaissance Florence: A Symposium
Celebrating the Scholarship of Alison Brown
Monash University Prato Centre
9 & 10 December 2015
Abstracts of Papers – Alphabetical
Name:
Stefano U. Baldassarri, ISI Florence
Title:
Feigning Ignorance. The Case of Giannozzo Manetti
Abstract:
The Florentine humanist Giannozzo Manetti (1396–1459) had the
tendency to adopt a strategy in his writing that was common to most of his texts.
Whatever their genre, Manetti accumulated a wealth of materials and quoted all the
sources he managed to find on a given topic, even if they happened to be
contradictory. Because of this, some scholars have labelled Manetti’s approach as
scholastic or, at best, encyclopedic. Yet there is one significant work in which Manetti
moved in the opposite direction: the "Against the Jews and Gentiles." In this lengthy
treatise in defense of the Catholic faith, Manetti refrained from showing off his vast
repertoire. On the contrary, he did not even allude to many texts on the topic at hand
— both famous and rare — and with which he certainly was acquainted. As I will try
to show in my talk, Manetti did so in order better to reach his objectives and embrace
a more lenient stance towards the Jews.
Name:
Title:
Jérémie Barthas
Sulla funzione tribunizia dei Sedici Gonfalonieri delle Compagnie del
Popolo a Firenze tra 1494 e 1512
Abstract:
Circa 1500, in occasione delle discussioni sulle modalità di prelievo
fiscale, possiamo osservare che i gonfalonieri delle compagnie sapevano rinviare alle
posizioni emerse in seno a una popolazione più ampia rispetto a quella che
partecipava alla democrazia diretta del Consiglio maggiore: ricordavano all’esecutivo
e alle prime istanze del legislativo parziale la necessità di promuovere un meccanismo
di prelievo fiscale “che fussi approbato dal popolo”. In queste occasioni, i
Gonfalonieri delle compagnie sembrano ricoprire la loro originaria funzione di
difensori del popolo contro i Grandi, suggerendo che la possibilità di un confronto
armato poteva far parte del loro repertorio d’azione.
Secondo ogni verosimiglianza, l’affermazione del Consiglio maggiore si è
storicamente accompagnata alla riaffermazione della funzione tribunizia dei Sedici in
quanto organo destinato a opporsi “alla insolenzia de’ grandi”, e del suo
rinnovamento in veste di organo che permetteva di mantenere i legami tra le forze
popolari escluse dal Consiglio e quelle che, essendovi incluse, disponevano del potere
sovrano. Tale è l’ipotesi interpretativa che proponiamo di sviluppare in questa sede.
Name:
Amy Bloch, State University of New York at Albany
Title:
Art and Humanism in Early Fifteenth-Century Florence
Abstract:
Alison Brown, in her seminal book on the rediscovery of Lucretius’s
De rerum natura, demonstrated how profoundly his text shaped the thought of
humanists in Florence in the second half of the fifteenth and the early sixteenth
century. In this paper I explore Lucretius’s influence during the first half of the
fifteenth century on several progressive artists working in Florence, in particular
Ghiberti and Donatello. Both sculptors had close connections to Poggio Bracciolini,
who rediscovered the text in 1417, and to Niccolò Niccoli, who pursued its study in
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the subsequent decade. I will examine how Lucretius’s ideas about history, sense
perception, and the origins and evolution of nature may be reflected in a number of
their sculptures, including Donatello’s Cantoria (1433-39) and Ghiberti’s Gates of
Paradise (1425-52).
Name:
Luca Boschetto
Title:
Il retroterra familiare di Machiavelli
Abstract:
Il De legibus et iudiciis è uno degli scritti di Bartolomeo Scala di cui
Alison Brown ha sottolineato in varie occasioni l’‘estrema importanza’, richiamando
tra l’altro i suggestivi elementi che consentono di accostarlo al pensiero di
Machiavelli. La lettura del dialogo, che vede protagonista accanto alla figura di Scala
proprio il padre di Niccolò, Bernardo, offre però anche non pochi spunti per tornare a
interrogarsi sulla storia familiare del Segretario fiorentino: un tema al quale la critica,
specialmente in anni recenti, non ha in genere riservato grande attenzione. Una più
esatta comprensione della posizione rivestita da Machiavelli nella società del suo
tempo può contribuire invece a illuminarne meglio le scelte professionali, la
collocazione nel panorama politico cittadino e addirittura, almeno in qualche misura,
alcuni tratti della sua personalità così originale.
Name:
Serena Cenni, Emeritas Professor, Università di Trento
Title:
Alison Brown e il conflitto Lee/Berenson
Abstract:
In 1889, the British erudite Vernon Lee (née Violet Paget) purchased
the historic Villa Il Palmerino on the outskirts of Fiesole where she lived until her
death in 1935. Her salon became an important meeting place for the Anglo-American
visitors and for the cosmopolitan intelligentsia resident in town. Among them there
was “that little art-critic who appears destined to become famous” [Bernard Berenson]
who visited her at Il Palmerino or met her in Florence several times, captivated by her
brilliant mind. My paper will explore Alison Brown’s essays focused on the analysis
of the cosmopolitan milieu of the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first
decade of the twentieth century in Florence, with special attention to the complex
relationship between Lee and Berenson as regards the Psychology of Art and
Aestheticism.
Name:
Title:
Filippo de Vivo, Birkbeck, University of London
The management of outside information in late medieval and early
modern Italian chanceries
Abstract:
This paper draws inspiration from Alison Brown’s early work on Bartolomeo Scala.
Drawing examples from a range of case studies across Italy, I will compare the
chancery arrangements developed between the fifteenth and sixteenth century for the
management of incoming and outgoing diplomatic correspondence. In line with recent
work on the early modern information overload, the paper addresses, first, the growth
of ambassadorial correspondence, and then asks how early modern principalities and
republics dealt with, in succession, the reception, processing, and storage of
correspondence.
Name:
Title:
Lorenzo Fabbri, Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence
Lorenzo de' Medici e i diritti delle donne: una legge sull'eredità
femminile nel contesto della congiura dei Pazzi.
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Abstract:
The law De testamentis, passed by the Florentine legislative councils
in March 1477 under pressure from Lorenzo de’ Medici, often recurs in historical
narrative in connection with the tragic event that occurred the following year, the
Pazzi conspiracy, being considered one of its underlying causes. So far, however, no
detailed survey has been carried out about the estate litigation between the Borromei
and Pazzi families, which drove the legislative action of Lorenzo the Magnificent, nor
about the law itself, by which the interpretation of the statutory rules concerning
female rights on inheritance was substantially changed while leaving the text
untouched. My study aims to fill this gap in the context of a more general survey of
the policies implemented by Lorenzo de’ Medici towards the major families of the
Florentine patriciate.
Name:
Title:
Maria Leuzzi Fubini
La biblioteca viaggiante di Vincenzio Borghini, monaco benedettino
Abstract:
Qui si vuole presentare l’insieme di libri che il giovane monaco
benedettino portò con sé da un monastero all’altro fra il 1541 e il 1544. L’inventario
di tali volumi è parte importante dei Ricordi dei suoi primi quindici anni trascorsi in
monastero. L’interesse dell’argomento riguarda molteplici aspetti. Rivela il genere di
letture condotte sotto la guida di maestri del monastero, che pur riprendendo testi fra i
più presenti fra i monaci cassinesi sono spesso allargati a letture e commenti assai
aggiornati, dominati da Erasmo. Del primo gruppo fanno parte oltre ai testi sacri
anche i classici latini e greci. Con meticolosa attenzione la seconda parte del catalogo
raccoglie volumi che gli sono stati donati dai padri che lo ebbero in stima al momento
della partenza: qui si alternano classici ed edizioni ricercate di recenti edizioni
erasmiane o meno. Finalmente un gruppo, pure nutrito, raccoglie i libri che Borghini
comprò di sua scelta nel breve soggiorno a Venezia nel febbraio del 1544.
Name:
Riccardo Fubini
Title:
Il fregio della villa medicea di Poggio a Caiano e le sue allegorie
Abstract:
Il fregio è stato finora interpretato alla luce dei riferimenti classici, soprattutto poetici
e mitologici (Claudiano ed Ovidio costituiscono gli esempi più evidenti). Ma
l’interpretazione delle singole figure (madre natura, come nel primo quadro, Saturno
che mangia i figli nel secondo ecc.) non dà ragione del significato e della logica
dell’insieme, che infatti è rimasto controverso. Secondo il mio intervento una
possibile soluzione va cercata nel pensiero cabalistico, ispirato da Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola, che proprio in quell’anno, 1489, risiedeva in Firenze protetto da Lorenzo
contro la scomunica papale, e pubblicava l’Heptaplus, a giustificazione della sua
teoria che la cabbala ebraica era strumento prezioso anche al fine di chiarificare i
luoghi dubbi della teologia cristiana. Non posso qui dilungarmi ulteriormente, ciò che
implicherebbe un’analisi dei successivi quadri dell’intera composizione. Un solo
esempio basta non soltanto a indicare l’ispirazione cabalistica, ma un’ispirazione che
attinge alle fonti dirette ebraiche oltre l’opera scritta di Pico (attestando con ciò
l’intervento diretto di Pico nel progetto). Si tratta della dottrina dei mistici ebrei,
secondo la quale attraverso la meditazione profonda, il corpo cade in catalessi, mentre
l’anima separata si congiunge con Dio. E infatti la figurazione si conclude, al modo
del sabato mistico dei cabalisti, con l’ascesa del carro del sole. In altre parole, se le
singole figurazione (ma non tutte) sono tratte da fonti classiche, il significato
dell’insieme è esoterico, e cioè per l’appunto cabalistico.
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Maia Wellington Gahtan, Istituto Lorenzo de’Medici
Historia testis temporum. Cesare Ripa’s “Historia” between
philosophy and allegory
Abstract:
In 1593 Cesare Ripa first published his Iconologia, a compendium of
descriptions of a wide range of allegorical figures, some well-known and others of his
own invention. His second expanded 1603 edition includes two recipes for the
representation of History, the more complex of which would be illustrated in the 1611
edition and would enjoy a glorious afterlife especially on the frontispieces of history
books. In this paper, I will examine the conceptual genesis of Ripa’s allegory of
History—the first independent visual representation of this subject—both in terms of
contemporary visual traditions (Clio, Fame, Time, Victory, etc..) and the development
of a philosophy of history over the course of the 16th century (truth, order, time, etc..).
Investigating and comparing History’s respective debt to iconographic and
historiographic traditions will also contribute to a wider discourse on the intellectual
and cultural significance of allegorical representations at the turn of the 17th century.
Name:
Title:
Name:
Andrea Guidi, Birkbeck – University of London
Title:
The Chancellor Angelo Marzi da San Gimignano: an episode of
record-keeping in the story of the increasing autocracy of the Medici in Florence
Abstract:
In her magisterial book on Bartolomeo Scala (Florence’s Chancellor in
the years 1465-97), Alison Brown highlighted Scala’s personal role in introducing
new record-making and record-keeping practices, as well as his part in securing the
control of the Medici on all departments of the Chancery.
By documenting later practices of record-keeping and supervision of public records
that were implemented by Chancellor Angelo Marzi da San Gimignano in order to
increase the control of the Medici family on the Chancery, this paper aims to follow
both themes of Brown's research. It argues also that Marzi implemented both personal
and factional practices which had the aim to identify members of the former
Republican ruling class immediately after 1530. Such uses of documents were part of
a wider contemporary practice of power and government, as well as the result of an
interaction between public and private interest.
Name:
Title:
Francesco Guidi-Bruscoli, Università degli Studi di Firenze
Some Implications of the Medici-Cybo Marriage for the Medici Bank
in Rome
Abstract:
The marriage in 1488 between Franceschetto Cybo, pope Innocent
VIII’s son, and Maddalena, Lorenzo de’ Medici’s daughter, placed the Magnificent and
his bank in a very powerful position at the Papal Court. The alliance implied a financial
burden, however, part of which was due to the necessity to cover the lavish expenses
of the pope’s son. Nofri Tornabuoni, the Medici bank’s manager in Rome, tried to
develop various strategies in order to raise money without endangering the financial
position of the banco. One of them was the acquisition of tax-farming contracts in
Rome, which the newly acquired marriage alliance could now facilitate. In 1490 he also
tried to raise money from Florence itself, through the request to the pope for the
imposition of a new tithe; this plan, however, needed to be handled with extra care
given the political implications that it could generate.
Name:
Eckart Marchand, The Warburg Institute / Project ‘Bilderfahrzeuge:
Aby Warburg’s Legacy and the Future of Iconology’
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Title:
The Materials of Ephemeral Sculpture in Renaissance Italy
Abstract:
My paper takes as its starting point a passage from Alison Brown’s
article “City and Citizen. Changing Perceptions in the 15th and 16th Centuries” (1991).
There she draws attention to the civic functions and perceived status of snow sculptures
in fifteenth-century Florence. Looking at evidence from Vicenza, Montepulciano and
Florence I shall examine Renaissance ephemeral sculpture in terms of materiality and
the extent to which the choice of material related to its functions in civic ritual. I shall
look in particular at the uses and fate of ephemeral works: What happened to them
during and after the events they were made for? How can we interpret their systematic
destruction or temporary survival? Materials discussed include, in addition to snow and
sugar, the less intrinsically ephemeral materials of plaster, clay papier-mâché and wax.
Name:
Title:
Abstract:
Jonathan K. Nelson (Villa I Tatti/Syracuse University in Florence)
“Jockeying for Position: Donor Portraits in Ghirlandaio’s Malatesta
Altarpiece”
To be provided
Name:
Gabriele Pedullà, L’Università degli Studi Roma Tre
Title:
Machiavelli e Virgilio
Abstract:
La relazione cerca di mettere in luce alcuni aspetti della presenza di
Virgilio nelle opere politiche di Machiavelli, con particolare attenzione all'Eneide ma
non solo. Più in generale, si tratta di riaffermare l'importanza dei sottostesti poetici
per la corretta comprensione della teoria politica machiavelliana, dal momento che
alcuni passaggi chiave delle sue opere dialogano con opere letterarie spesso non prese
in considerazione dai lettori e dai commentatori moderni, ma che all'epoca facevano
parte di un patrimonio basilare condiviso. Il caso di Virgilio è proprio uno di questi:
assieme a Lucrezio e a Ovidio, forse il più importante.
Name:
Title:
Abstract:
Ros Pesman, Emeritus Professor, University of Sydney
To be supplied
To be supplied
Name:
Simone Testa, Research Fellow, European University Institute,
Florence
Title:
Academies and instructions for diplomats in the late 16th century
Abstract:
Following the line of Alison Brown’s research on the instructions
delivered to Lorenzo de’ Medici’s new men (Renaissance studies, 2003), the paper
explores the context, content, and circulation of Giovanfrancesco Peranda’s
instruction to Annibale Di Capua when the latter went as papal nuncio to Venice. The
analysis of the text reveals the author’s use of literary sources (in particular
Machiavelli and Castiglione), to instruct the diplomat to dissimulate the Holy See’s
true feelings towards the Venetian Republic and its politics. The context of the
publication of this confidential writing is no less fascinating. First printed in the
anonymous miscellany Thesoro politico (Academia italiana di Colonia, 1589), I
suggest that the origin of such edition should be found in the publication plan devised
by the Venetian Accademia della Fama (1558-1561).
Name:
Title:
Michael Wyatt, Independent Scholar
The Remembrance Book of Emanuel van Metheren
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Abstract:
As I had noted in The Italian Encounter with Tudor England (2005),
Dutch immigrants in sixteenth-century England far outnumbered any of the other
‘stranger’ communities there, and a manuscript in the main branch of the Public
Library in Auckland, New Zealand, provides an intriguing window onto the activities,
acquaintances, and forma mentis of a Dutch merchant who seems to have lived
primarily in London but traveled regularly to the Low Countries in the decades of
Queen Elizabeth’s reign. The Remembrance Book of Emanuel van Metheren (or
Demetrius), deals primarily with the period 1565-88, though its earliest entry is dated
1550 and it runs intermittently through 1610, the account of these later years added by
his sons following his death. This talk will aim to situate van Metheren within the
‘stranger’ ecosystem of Elizabethan England by focusing on his religious culture and
on several of the most interesting ‘strangers’ who turn up in his book.
Invited Participants
Lorenz Böninger, independent scholar
Silvia Catitti
David Chambers, Emeritus Reader in Renaissance Studies, Warburg Institute, London
Franco Franceschi, Università di Siena
Richard Goldthwaite
Cecilia Hewlett, Monash University
Peter Howard, Monash University
Brenda Preyer, Professor emerita, Department of Art and Art History, The University
of Texas at Austin
Fabrizio Ricciardelli, Kent State University, Florence
Michael Rocke, Villa I Tatti
Marco Spallanzani, Emeritus Professor, Università di Firenze
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