Renaissance Florence: The Art of the 1470s by Patricia Lee Rubin; Alison Wright

Review by: Patricia Emison

The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000), pp. 867-868
Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2671130 .
Accessed: 12/06/2014 22:16

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The Sixteenth Century Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Sixteenth Century Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 22:16:21 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 BookReviews 867

of his "ignorance [...] impudente et temeraire"(La Mesnardiere),of his poems as "durs,&

incultes,""irreguliers,licencieux ou libertins"(Colletet). Following an earliercriticismby
Etienne Pasquier,the image is establishedof Baif as "aucunement mal-n&a la poesie," a pe-
dantic and derivativeversifier.Only in the wake of Sainte-Beuve, and particularlyin the
twentiethcentury,have more nuanced and oftenmore favorablereadingsbecome possible.
In addressingthe ongoing question of what we todayare to make of Baif the presentbibli-
ographyprovidesan indispensabletool.
There is, of course,alwaysroom forquibbling.Does the entryforBaffin Maurice de
La Porte'sEpithetesreallybelong in the chapteron "General Studies"? On the other hand,
one can admire the author's modesty in declaring "non denuee d'inexactitudes" a bio-
graphical chronology he published several years ago. There is obviously a continuing
progressin scholarlyknowledge of details of BaYf'slife.The same appears to hold true for
understandingand appreciationof what is distinctiveabout his poetry.Perhaps inevitably,
an overalloptimismemergesin thisvolume fromthe rigorsof bibliography:we can over-
come the errorsand distortionsof the past,we can edit the poet as he deserves,and we can
even hope somedayto findsome of those lost manuscripts.
Stephen Murphy .......................... . Wake Forest University

Renaissance Florence: The Art of the 1470s. PatriciaLee Rubin. Ed. Alison Wright.
London: National GalleryPublications,1999. 360 pp. $50.00. ISBN 0-300081-71-5.
The days when exhibition catalogues condemned to nonexistence any object not
available forloan and offeredno index are long gone.This catalogue of an exhibitionheld
at the National Gallery,London, in falland winter,1999, doubles as a basic book on a sig-
nificantsegmentof Quattrocento Florence. Indeed, the readermightwell forgetits func-
tion as an exhibitioncatalogue,so thoroughis the treatmentof the historicalcontext and
documentaryevidence. Profuselyand gorgeouslyillustrated,it is coauthored by two re-
spected academics,one known principallyforher work onVasari,the otherwell-published
on Pollaiuolo. The Florence of Lorenzo il Magnifico appears here in a distinctlyupdated
guise,devoid of hero worshipeitherof Lorenzo himselfor of his artists.
The 1470s was the decade of Laurentian glorybefore the severitythatfollowed the
Pazzi Conspiracy.Charactersas various as Neri di Bicci and the young Leonardo jostled for
attentionin a city dominated artisticallybyVerrocchioand Antonio Pollaiuolo. Donatello
was dead and Michelangelo a baby:Vasari'sthreeperiods scarcelyallow of such a gap. In
deferenceto the complexityof artproductionof the time,the word "Renaissance" is barely
used; the traditionalprogressionfromearlyto high is utterlygone. The catalogue entries,
which set a standardforinformativeness and thoroughness,are not organized by medium.
Instead,the somewhat clumsy divisions are entitled:"The Art of the 1470s,Verrocchio's
Workshop and Its Projects";"Verrocchio and His Workshop:Teaching and Transmission";
"The Pollaiuolo Brothers";"The Heroic and the Antique"; "Sacred Beauty"; and "'The
Beautiful Chamber,"' thislast a rubric for domestic art display.Perforce,the index will be
used; yet the mixing of statuetteswith embroideries,and stuccoes with paintings,prints
with marble reliefs,and bookbinding with candelabra helps the readerto imagine a visual
world ratherthan trackinnovation.This is the greatstrengthof the book overall:the reader
recognizes the day-to-dayeventsof the fifteenthcenturyat theirdiscretebest,instead of
being hit over the head with the magnitudeof a period grown so imposing under Burck-
hardt'saegis thatil Magnifico himselfmightnot recognize it. If thisbreeds an indifference
toward characterizingand tracingstylisticinteractions,an indifferenceespecially toward

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 22:16:21 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
868 Sixteenth
Century
Journal XXXI/3 (2000)

styleall'antica,so be it.The pendulum was ripe forswingingthe otherway.

The difficulty in insuringand transporting fifteenth-centurypanels became in thisin-
stancealmosta blessing,opening up space forobjects other than familiarworksby familiar
masters.A stucco and wood mirrorframewith nude figures,a jasper cup inscribed with
Lorenzo's name,a thirteenth-century cameo mistakenin the fifteenthcenturyforantique
(again inscribedby the immodestLorenzo), and a small recliningmale nude in terra-cotta
byVerrocchiofromBerlin all help to make even the most familiarobjects look new again.
This correctivetemperingby the less well known worksalso enlivensthe threeintroducto-
ry essays,in which a wood and gesso shield by Pollaiuolo fromthe Louvre, the intriguing
stucco reliefson the palace of Bartolommeo Scala, ascribedto Bertoldo,and the greatsilver
crossforthe baptisterymade by Pollaiuolo and others,remindthe readerhow many parts
thereare to the web of culturein fifteenth-century Florence.
The chronologicalframeworkis used flexibly;some of the objects are difficult to date
securely,and a few are admittedto be as much as decades laterthan 1480. As an exhibition
catalogue of broad scope, the textis more solution-orientedthanproblem-oriented.In par-
ticular,Pollaiuolo's engravedBattleis presentedas littlemore than a "materiallyhumble ob-
ject." One would scarcelybe able to glean fromthissummaryof the stateof researchthat
importantquestionsof historicalinterpretation are hangingin the balance: our understand-
ing of the deinstitutionalizatin of the visual artshinges on when thisimage was made and
forwhom and with what meaning.This is a work thatappearsto serve neitherchurchnor
state;it has traditionallybeen assimilatedinto a quiteVasariannotion of the artistas student
of nature,in thiscase of anatomy,and recipientof burgeoningattentionand respectfiroman
increasinglygeneral public. But thereis more than professionalself-esteemat issue here.
The independence of the production of imageryfrompatrons'control implicitin such a
work is neitheroriginal to Florence nor properlyattributableto any notion of the pagan
gloriesof personal magnificence.There is at least a kernel of somethingnewer here than a
fascinationwith musculatureor a rivalrywith Mantegna. Pollaiuolo's Battleis a landmark
work,and it sitsa bit oddly in thisversionof Renaissance Florence withoutlandmarksand
proud of it.Yetin settingout to prove thatthe visual cultureof Renaissance Florence offers
rich and varied territoryeven when flattenedof pinnacles of achievement,Rubin and
Wright must be grantedto have succeeded admirably. The ordinaryhas achieved its own
apotheosishere and earnsitselfan ungrudgingcelebration.
The introductoryessaysare dedicated to describingthe familiesinvolvedin major pa-
tronage(thatby PatriciaRubin); a coauthored summaryof theartists' workshops,an even-
handed if somewhat pedestriansummary;and a basic introductionto Florentinecivic life
by AlisonWright.These threeessaystogetherprovide a portraitof Florence usefulto spe-
cialistand avid lay readeralike.The whole-essays and entries-is rich in documentaryde-
tailsand devoid of overweeningopinion. Ready thoughthe authorsare to boil thingsdown
to what we actuallycan document,commendablytheyshyaway frompresentingthe histo-
ry of artas a historyonly of consumerismand commodification. We are takento the brink
of a more thoroughreconceptualizationof what used to be called the Renaissance thanthis
circumspectaccount of politicsand statusever actuallyarticulates.Yetthe invocationofAr-
istotelianmagnificencestillexplainsmore perhapsthan it ought to,particularlyin a decade
in which Pollaiuolo's engravedBattlehit the streetsand Botticellipaintedso informala por-
traitas the SmeraldaBandinelli, shown in simple (ifhardto paint) clothing.
Patricia Emison. . . ....... University of New Hampshire

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 22:16:21 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions