The late Renaissance sculptor Leone Leoni (1509-1590) came from modest beginnings, but died as a nobleman and knight. His remarkable leap in status from his humble birth to a stonemason's family, to his time as a galley slave, to living as a nobleman and courtier in Milan provide a specific case study of an artist's struggle and triumph over existing social structures that marginalized the Renaissance artist. Based on a wealth of discoveries in archival documents, correspondence, and contemporary literature, the author examines the strategies Leoni employed to achieve his high social position, such as the friendships he formed, the type of education he sought out, the artistic imagery he employed, and the aristocratic trappings he donned. Leoni's multiple roles (imperial sculptor, aristocrat, man of erudition, and criminal), the visual manifestations of these roles in his house, collection, and tomb, the form and meaning of the artistic commissions he undertook, and the particular successes he enjoyed are here situated within the complex political, social and economic contexts of northern Italy and the Spanish court in the sixteenth century.

An analysis of Italian Renaissance art from the perspective of the patrons who made 'conspicuous commissions', this text builds on three concepts from the economics of information - signaling, signposting, and stretching - to develop a systematic methodology for assessing the meaning of patronage.

In recent years, historians of early modern Italian art have begun to delve into issues surrounding patronage, production, materials and materiality. This volume brings together some of the top scholars in the field, to investigate how sculptors and patrons dealt with the practical and esoteric issues of material choices and acquisition, production, shipping and transportation, and the changing meanings of sculptures. The epilogue reveals continuity in the challenges artists face today as they move large sculptures around the globe.

A Companion to the Spanish Renaissance makes a renewed case for the inclusion of Spain within broader European Renaissance movements. Its introduction, “A Renaissance for the ‘Spanish Renaissance’?” will be sure to incite polemic across a broad spectrum of academic fields. This interdisciplinary volume combines micro- with macro-history to offer a snapshot of the best new work being done in this area. With essays on politics and government, family and daily life, religion, nobles and court culture, birth and death, intellectual currents, ethnic groups, the plastic arts, literature, popular culture, law courts, women, literacy, libraries, civic ritual, illness, money, notions of community, philosophy and law, science, colonial empire, and historiography, it offers breath-taking scope without sacrificing attention to detail. Destined to become the standard go-to resource for non-specialists, this book also contains an extensive bibliography aimed at the serious researcher. Contributors are: Beatriz de Alba-Koch, Edward Behrend-Martínez, Cristian Berco, Harald E. Braun, Susan Byrne, Bernardo Canteñs, Frederick A. de Armas, William Eamon, Stephanie Fink, Enrique García Santo-Tomás, J.A. Garrido Ardila, Marya T. Green-Mercado, Elizabeth Teresa Howe, Hilaire Kallendorf, Henry Kamen, Elizabeth A. Lehfeldt, Michael J. Levin, Ruth MacKay, Fabien Montcher, Ignacio Navarrete, Jeffrey Schrader, Lía Schwartz, Elizabeth Ashcroft Terry, and Elvira Vilches.

The late Renaissance sculptor Leone Leoni (1509-1590) came from modest beginnings, but died as a nobleman and knight. His remarkable leap in status from his humble birth to a stonemason's family, to his time as a galley slave, to living as a nobleman and courtier in Milan provide a specific case study of an artist's struggle and triumph over existing social structures that marginalized the Renaissance artist. Based on a wealth of discoveries in archival documents, correspondence, and contemporary literature, the author examines the strategies Leoni employed to achieve his high social position, such as the friendships he formed, the type of education he sought out, the artistic imagery he employed, and the aristocratic trappings he donned. Leoni's multiple roles (imperial sculptor, aristocrat, man of erudition, and criminal), the visual manifestations of these roles in his house, collection, and tomb, the form and meaning of the artistic commissions he undertook, and the particular successes he enjoyed are here situated within the complex political, social and economic contexts of northern Italy and the Spanish court in the sixteenth century.

"The late Renaissance sculptor Leone Leoni (1509-1590) came from modest beginnings, but died as a nobleman and knight. His remarkable leap in status from his humble birth to a stonemason's family, to his time as a galley slave, to living as a nobleman and courtier in Milan provide a specific case study of an artist's struggle and triumph over existing social structures that marginalized the Renaissance artist. Based on a wealth of discoveries in archival documents, correspondence, and contemporary literature, the author examines the strategies Leoni employed to achieve his high social position, such as the friendships he formed, the type of education he sought out, the artistic imagery he employed, and the aristocratic trappings he donned. Leoni's multiple roles (imperial sculptor, aristocrat, man of erudition, and criminal), the visual manifestations of these roles in his house, collection, and tomb, the form and meaning of the artistic commissions he undertook, and the particular successes he enjoyed are here situated within the complex political, social and economic contexts of northern Italy and the Spanish court in the sixteenth century."--Provided by publisher.

First developed in the princely courts of Renaissance Italy in the 1430s, in the 16th century medals were transformed into a recognisably modern form, in the messages they conveyed, the techinques employed in their manufacture, and the uses to which they were put. Contributing to this change were influential patrons including the Medici and the popes, as well as celebrated artists such as Leone Leoni and Benvenuto Cellini. This catalogue takes up the story where Sir George Hill's classic Corpus of Italian Medals of the Renaissance before Cellni published in 1930, leaves off. This major catalogue includes over 1200 medals from the British Museum and the other major British collections, many published here for the first time. The catalogue entries provide detailed historical and iconographical information on the medals, many of which are published for the first time. The introductory essays discuss the centres of production, artists and subjects of the medals; the reasons they were made; their design, production and functions; the diffusion of the Italian medal throughout Europe in the 16th century and the history of collecting 16th-century Italian medals in Britain.

First published in 1955-63, Sir John Pope-Hennessy's classic Introduction to Italian Sculpture still stands as the definitive introduction to the subject. A triumph of clear organization, sustained critical scholarship and certain aesthetic judgement, its three volumes bring order to a huge mass of material, and present a magisterial survey of one of the most creative phases in Western art. These books have long been indispensable for scholars, students, curators, collectors and dealers. For the fourth edition of this great work, the text has been revised and updated, and new notes and bibliographies have been added. The design has been dramatically transformed, with all the illustrations now appearing in a single sequence integrated with the narrative text. Many new photographs have been obtained, and duotone printing has been used to achieve the highest possible quality of reproduction. This classic work is now also reissued in a paperback edition, at a price that will make it available to students and a wider public.