Often overshadowed by the cities of Florence and Rome in art-historical literature, this volume argues for the importance of Naples as an artistic and cultural centre, demonstrating the breadth and wealth of artistic experience within the city.
• Generously illustrated with some illustrations specifically commissioned for this book
• Questions the traditional definitions of 'cultural centres' which have led to the neglect of Naples as a centre of artistic importance
• A significant addition to the English-language scholarship on art in Naples
Product Details
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (March 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-9861-5
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches
Synopsis From the Back Cover
Naples was a major hub of artistic activity from the late thirteenth to the early seventeenth century, yet it has been overshadowed by other Italian cities because it defies art-historical definitions of a ‘cultural centre’: it is viewed as having imported more art and artists than it exported. The essays in this volume seek, in different ways, to redress the neglect of Naples, particularly noticeable in English-language scholarship, by questioning traditional definitions of ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ and by focusing on works of art and architecture which demonstrate the ways in which Naples can be defined as a cultural and artistic centre. The contributors reveal the breadth and wealth of artistic experience available in Naples through an exploration of fourteenth-century frescoes by Giotto and Cavallini, and fifteenth-century tombs and palace architecture; they examine the influence of Vasari’s writings on Naples, the importation of prestigious marble inlays in the sixteenth century, the frontispieces of published saints’ lives in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the concept of Naples as a ‘world city’.
Notes on Contributors
1. Introduction: Reassessing Naples 1266–1713 (Cordelia Warr and Janis Elliott).
2. The North Looks South: Giorgio Vasari and Early Modern Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Naples (Aislinn Loconte).
3. The Rise of the Court Artist: Cavallini and Giotto in Fourteenth-Century Naples (Cathleen A. Fleck).
4. The Local Eye: Formal and Social Distinctions in Late Quattrocento Neapolitan Tombs (Tanja Michalsky).
5. Building in Local all’antica Style: The Palace of Diomede Carafa in Naples (Bianca de Divitiis)
6. From Social Virtue to Revetted Interior: Giovanni Antonio Dosio and Marble Inlay in Rome, Florence, and Naples (John Nicholas Napoli).
7. ‘The Face is a Mirror of the Soul’: Frontispieces and the Production of Sanctity in Post-Tridentine Naples (Helen Hills).
8. Patronage, Standards and transfert culturel: Naples between Art History and Social Science Theory (Nicolas Bock).
Index
