The Craft of art
Subtitle: originality and industry in the Italian Renaissance and baroque workshop
By: edited by Andrew Ladis and Carolyn Wood ; William U. Eiland, general editor.
Contributors: Ladis, Andrew, 1949-; Wood, Carolyn H.; Eiland, William U.; Museo Horne (Florence, Italy); Dixon Gallery and Gardens.; Georgia Museum of Art.
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Athens
Language: eng
Number of pages: 243
Subjects: Art, Italian -- Congresses; Art, Renaissance -- Italy -- Congresses; Art, Baroque -- Italy -- Congresses; Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.); Group work in art -- Italy -- Congresses
Description: In this collection of nine essays some of the preeminent art historians in the United States consider the relationship between art and craft, between the creative idea and its realization, in Renaissance and Baroque Italy. The essays, all previously unpublished, are devoted to the pictorial arts and are accompanied by nearly 150 illustrations.

Examining works by such artists as Michelangelo, Titian, Volterrano, Giovanni di Paolo, and Annibale Carracci (along with aspects of the artists' creative processes, work habits, and aesthetic convictions), the essayists explore the ways in which art was conceived and produced at a time when collaboration with pupils, assistants, or independent masters was an accepted part of the artistic process.

The consensus of the contributors amounts to a revision, or at least a qualification, of Bernard Berenson's interpretation of the emergent Renaissance ideal of individual "genius" as a measure of original artistic achievement. This new perspective accords greater influence to the collaborative, appropriative conventions and practices of the craft workshop, which persisted into and beyond the Renaissance from its origins in the Middle Ages.

Consequently, say the contributors, we must acknowledge the sometimes rather ordinary beginnings of some of the world's great works of art. Such an admission will open new avenues of study and enhance our understanding of the complex connections between invention and execution.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Papers from a symposium held on the occasion of an exhibition of works from the Horne Museum, Florence, Italy; the exhibition was presented at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis and the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens.