Bronzino: Renaissance Painter as Poet

This 2000 study focuses on the poetry of Bronzino, the last great Florentine Renaissance painter.

Deborah Parker (Author)

9780521781664, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 October 2000

248 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

Review of the hardback: '… [Parker] has produced an eminently readable and much-welcomed volume that is meticulously researched, and that contains some beautifully translated passages of Bronzino's poetry. It will undoubtedly be of great value to anyone working on the interaction between literature and fine art in the early modern period, as well as to specialists with a particular interest in 'this most canny, self-conscious, and allusive of artist-poets'.' Annali d'Italianistica

Bronzino's stature as one of the great painters of the Florentine Renaissance has long been recognized. By contrast, his literary achievements as a poet have been neglected. Originally published in 2000, this study focuses on the poetry of Bronzino. His work in two media places him in a distinguished group of artist-poets that includes Michelangelo, William Blake and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In clarifying the meaning of Bronzino's poems, Deborah Parker argues that they are considerable literary achievements. Importantly, she demonstrates that our understanding of Bronzino's paintings is incomplete without careful attention to his creative work as a poet. Situating Bronzino's achievements within a broader social and cultural context of mid-sixteenth-century Florence, this study also contains numerous translations of Bronzino's poetry.

Introduction
1. A poetry of transgression: Bronzino's Rime in Burla
2. The comfort of friends in Bronzino's Canzoniere
3. The world of art in Bronzino's poems
4. The poetics of Bronzino's painting.

Subject Areas: History of art / art & design styles [AC]