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Throughout the twentieth century, scholars, artists and politicians have accused each other of “historicism.” But what exactly did this mean? Judging by existing scholarship, the answers varied enormously. Like many other “isms,” historicism could mean nearly everything, to the point of becoming meaningless. Yet the questions remain: What made generations of scholars throughout the humanities and social sciences worry about historicism? Why did even musicians and members of parliament warn against historicism? And what explains this remarkable career of the term across generations, fields, regions, and languages? Focusing on the “travels” that historicism made, this volume uses h...
The printed book caused an explosion of knowledge and major changes in the perception of texts. In investigating how knowledge was presented to the early modern reader, this volume treats both book-historical issues and the intersections of layout with issues of genre, content and function.
Focusing on what he calls 'the performative gaze', the author explores the artistic world of the Urbino painter Federico Barocci (1535-1612) in the context of Renaissance culture. Through analysis of Barocci's works, Gillgren also sheds new light on Renaissance aesthetic communication generally. The first part of the book discusses the poetics of Early Modern painting, based on contemporary theories of Reception Aesthetics, hermeneutics and phenomenology, but grounded in Renaissance culture itself through numerous examples from Early Modern painting. The author discusses works by such artists as Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, Vel?uez and Poussin from the point of view of their spectator status...
How and why did a medieval female saint from the Eastern Mediterranean come to be such a powerful symbol in early modern Rome? This study provides an overview of the development of the cult of Catherine of Alexandria in Renaissance Rome, exploring in particular how a saint's cult could be variously imaged and 'reinvented' to suit different eras and patronal interests. Cynthia Stollhans traces the evolution of the saint's imagery through the lens of patrons and their interests-with special focus on the importance of Catherine's image in the fashioning of her Roman identity-to show how her imagery served the religious, political, and/or social agendas of individual patrons and religious orders.
Equestrian ballets (balletti a cavallo) emerged as valued dramatic entertainments in early modern Europe, demonstrating the wealth and magnificence of the patrons who commissioned them as well as the horsemanship and military skills of the noblemen who rode in them. Author Kelley Harness undertakes the first comprehensive study of seventeenth-century Florentine horse ballets and shows how the balletto a cavallo played a crucial role in self-fashioning by the Medici family during the period. Horse ballets also provided participating noblemen a venue for demonstrating critical markers of masculine nobility and confirming their family's relationship to the Medici.
There is scant research on the art produced under the Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, with the exception of a couple of general books focused primarily on major Oratorian art pieces. Therefore, this book of essays aims to discuss the art and culture produced by or associated with the Oratorians by providing a broad overview focused especially on rarely investigated issues. The authors focus on this very important artistic production, commonly forgotten when compared with other religious productions of art, by covering geographical areas spanning from Sri Lanka to Mexico, including Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, India and Brazil.
Reviewers of a recent exhibition termed Federico Barocci (ca. 1533–1612), 'the greatest artist you’ve never heard of'. One of the first original iconographers of the Counter Reformation, Barocci was a remarkably inventive religious painter and draftsman, and the first Italian artist to incorporate extensive color into his drawings. The purpose of this volume is to offer new insights into Barocci’s work and to accord this artist, the dates of whose career fall between the traditional Renaissance and Baroque periods, the critical attention he deserves. Employing a range of methodologies, the essays include new ideas on Barocci’s masterpiece, the Entombment of Christ; fresh thinking abo...
A Hospice in Change: Applied Social Realist Theory reports upon a study into aspects of the ways in which structural and organisational developments, professional cultures and ‘bedside’ or patient focused clinical practice interact within a single UK institution. While the findings of this study are time and context specific, the events and social processes being described may nonetheless resonate closely with the experience of healthcare practitioners at other hospices both within and without the UK. The work examines themes and ideas that hospice and palliative care practitioners, as well as those involved or interested more broadly in ‘end of life issues’, may find relevant. It is argued that differential morphogenesis can be identified between structures (social and cultural) and agents (individual and group) at an independent healthcare charity in southern England. A Hospice in Change connects theory and philosophy with concrete research practice to provide a worked example of Margaret Archer’s realist social theory.
In this established textbook, Wallace provides a succinct overview of the European Reformation, interweaving the influential events of the religious reformation with the transformations of political institutions, socio-economic structures, gender relations and cultural values throughout Europe. Examining the European Reformation as a long-term process, he reconnects the classic 16th century religious struggles with the political and religious pressures confronting late medieval Christianity, and argues that the resolutions proposed by reformers such as Luther were not fully realised for most Christians until the early 18th century. This new edition features a brand new chapter on the Reforma...