Customer Reviews
Includes Leonardo's 10 Year Guarantee! - By: Bruce Loveitt, 31 Jan 2003 
I sometimes get a bit nervous when I buy a book written, supposedly, for the general public by an academic. Is the book going to be written in "normal" English, or am I going to be bombarded by jargon & a clunky style? Happily, Peter Burke appears to believe in "plain-speaking". He also has a sense of humor, which helps. Additionallly, he doesn't go off the deep end when coming to conclusions. He is prudent & cautious. If he can't say something definitive, if statistical or other types of evidence just aren't there, he isn't afraid to tell you so. Mr. Burke attempts to explain why the Renaissance happened in Italy & why it started when it did. This leads to the importance of the city-states, such as Florence, Milan, Venice, etc. Artists & sculptors were often the children of craftsmen, & the city-states were populated by many craftsmen. Humanists & scientists were usuallly the children of "professional" people, & were educated at universities. Again, professionals & universities tended to be found in or near urban centers. Why did Italy have so many city-states? Because, during the period of the Italian Renaissance, Italy was a natural trade center.....right between the Middle East & Northern Europe. This created wealth, which led to the city-states, which also led to new sources of patronage as the members of the new merchant class looked for ways to spend their money & impress each other. When the Atlantic trade routes opened, & also after the Portuguese led the way around the Cape of Good Hope, Italy lost its place as the "hinge" of trade. Of course, I am greatly simplifying Mr. Burke's arguments, as they are much more complex & nuanced. But, I think I am giving you the general drift. In any case, what makes the book reallly interesting is that Mr. Burke grounds his theories in the everyday. He talks very specificallly about painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, writers, etc. He tells you how they got their training, who they worked for & who callled the shots.....patron, artist, or both. The "case histories" are both fascinating & funny. Some examples? "More precise evidence about the relative importance of patrons & artists & the expectations of both parties is provided by the scores of surviving contracts.....Contracts often specified that the materials employed be of high quality.....Leonardo's contract for "The Virgin Of The Rocks" gives a ten-year guarantee; if anything was to need repainting within that period, it was to be at the expense of the artist. One wonders if Leonardo gave a similar guarantee in the case of his flaky "Last Supper". (I can just see the author delivering this line in a lecture, with a deadpan expression!) This was also a time when the status of the artist was in flux. Before the Renaissance the artist was considered to be just another craftsman in the employ of a "great" man or lady. But as the city-state grew in importance, & as the merchant & craftsman grew in importance, the status of the artist started to change. In the period of change, the artist looked for reasons why he should be considered to be "high-class". To quote the author: "Another point in favor of the high status of painting, & one which reveals something of Renaissance assumptions or mentalities, was that the painter could wear fine clothes while he was at work. As Cennini put it: 'Know that painting on panel is a gentleman's job, for you can do what you want with velvet on your back.' And Leonardo: 'The painter sits at his ease in front of his work, dressed as he pleases, & moves his light brush with the beautiful colours.....often accompanied by musicians or readers of various beautiful works.' " As the person actuallly doing the creating started to become more important & independent, what the patron began looking for could be rather amusing. One nobleman, who was looking for a "court musician" & had narrowed the choice down to two men, picked the less talented man- because he was both cheaper & he would compose music "on demand". The other fellow only composed when he felt like it! The book is filled with many concrete examples such as the ones I have mentioned, which makes it very enjoyable indeed.....although Mr. Burke does also mix in statistics, where appropriate, to alllow the book to stand on its own two feet academicallly. The book also branches off into interesting little side areas- the change in subject matter over the course of the Renaissance; the incorporation of alllegories which were meant to have political overtones; who taught the classicallly untrained artists about mythology so they would know enough to do history paintings; censorship of the arts (on one occasion Veronese was asked to explain "why he had included in a painting of 'The Last Supper' what the inquisitors callled 'buffoons, drunkards, Germans, dwarfs & similar vulgarities'.") If you are at alll curious about the Renaissance, do yourself a favor & get yourself a copy of this very good book.
