Art, Theory, and Culture in Sixteenth-Century Italy
From Techne to Metatechne

A critical 1998 overview of literature on the visual arts produced during the High and Late Renaissance.

Robert Williams (Author)

9780521184335, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 February 2011

256 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.38 kg

Review of the hardback: ' … useful and adventurous …' Art History

Art, Theory and Culture in Sixteenth-Century Italy was originally published in 1998, and offers a critical overview of the literature on the visual arts produced during the High and Late Renaissance. Analysing and interpreting texts by such writers as Vasari, Lomazzo, Zuccaro, and Tasso, Robert Williams demonstrates how these works offer insight into the experience of contemporary viewers, thus permitting a clearer view of the relationship between abstract thought and lived experience. Also examined is the argument that art is a privileged form of knowledge that subordinates all others. By focusing on a hitherto neglected, but important, body of literature, Williams shows how an understanding of it can transform our knowledge and appreciation of the Renaissance.

Introduction
1. Vasari's concept of Disegno
2. Style, decorum and aesthetic experience
3. Absolute art: Lomazzo, Zuccaro and Tasso
4. Francesco Bocchi
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: History of art & design styles: c 1400 to c 1600 [ACN]