More than mere playthings
Subtitle: the minor arts of Italy
By: edited by Julia C. Fischer
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Newcastle upon Tyne
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781443896498; 9781443890403
Subjects: Decorative arts; History; Arts décoratifs; Histoire; The arts; Ceramic arts, pottery, glass; Precious metal, precious stones & jewellery: artworks & design; ART / Folk & Outsider Art; CRAFTS & HOBBIES / Folkcrafts
Description: This book is inspired by the 2015 Italian Art Society-sponsored conference sessions of the American Association of Italian Studies. Its seven chapters span the art of ancient Etruria to twentieth century Italy, and explore a variety of media, including mirrors, cameos, treasury objects, reliquaries, ceramics, and figurines. Contributors approach the topic of the minor arts from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, including reception, use, patronage, gender issues, propaganda, and iconography. The volume thus fills the lacuna in the scholarship of the minor arts, and reveals that the minor arts are unique and worthy of study for their size, preciosity, patronage, audience, function, portability, and material. Ultimately, in revealing the importance of these objects, the book shows that the division between the major and minor arts is no longer valid, and that these objects of the minor arts hold as much significance as those of the major arts.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Chapter One. Introduction / Julia C. Fischer ; Chapter Two. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Reflections on Etruscan Bronze Mirrors / Bridget Sandhoff ; Chapter Three. A Woman{u2019}s Weapon: Private Propaganda in the Large Imperial Cameos of the Early Roman Empire / Julia C. Fischer ; Chapter Four. Holy Plunder and Stolen Treasures: Portable Luxury Objects as War Trophies in the Italian Maritime Republics, 1100-1400 / Karen Mathews ; Chapter Five. Early Renaissance Reliquaries: Shaping Renaissance Art through Private Devotion / Sarah M. Dillon ; Chapter Six. Minor Arts/Major Crises in Mid-20th Century Italian Ceramics / Adrian R. Duran ; Chapter Seven. Ever-Present: Italian Figurines / Melissa Hempel.