Italian altarpieces, 1250-1550
Subtitle: function and design
By: edited by Eve Borsook and Fiorella Superbi Gioffredi.
Contributors: Borsook, Eve.; Gioffredi Superbi, Fiorella.
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
Subjects: Catholic Church -- In art.; Altarpieces, Italian.; Painting, Gothic -- Italy.; Painting, Medieval -- Italy.; Painting, Renaissance -- Italy.; Art patronage -- Italy.
Description: Since the 1960s, the Italian altarpiece has attracted unprecedented scholarly attention, bringing artistic, liturgical, social and technical considerations to bear on the subject. The eight contributors to this book provide an impressive synopsis of the different approaches developed in order to enlarge and deepen our knowledge of paintings in terms of their historical functions. Patronage, morphology, religious meaning, pictorial composition, reception, and original setting are all discussed.

In several cases, new light is shed on paintings that until a few years ago were dealt with only as elements within a history of style. In nearly all the contributions there is an overwhelming concern with reconstruction, and much new material is presented concerning the historical significance of a specific category of painting.

. This volume is the result of an international symposium held in June 1988 at the Harvard University for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti in Florence.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-287) and index.