Reforming Art in Renaissance Venice

Shows how the spiritual turmoil of the sixteenth century impacted art and architecture in Venice.

Marie-Louise Lillywhite (Author)

9781009557498, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 February 2025

432 pages
10.5 x 18.9 x 2.7 cm, 1.08 kg

'… presents us with a more accurate and complete picture of the artistic production in Venice post-Trent, which is likely to become the standard reference on the topic … an ideal companion for the study of sacred art in Venice during the 16th century not only for scholars of Venetian art, but also for students of art history at all levels.' Maria Aresin, Sehepunkte

The spiritual turmoil of the sixteenth century had a profound impact on religious life throughout Italy. Art and architecture were directly implicated in the seismic historical events of the age, as the Catholic Church countered Protestant iconoclasm through the embrace of sacred images as decreed by the Council of Trent in 1563. In this volume, Marie-Louise Lillywhite considers the impact of religious reform on the devotional art and architecture of sixteenth-century Venice. Interrogating early modern censorship, artistic liberty, notions of decorum tied to depictions of the body, and the role of sacred images in the shaping of local identity, she shows how Venice, a crossroads city exposed to a rich gamut of religious and artistic currents, serves as a fascinating case study through which to explore these themes. Her study reconstructs the conditions that enabled artistic invention to prevail and how artists became interpreters of spiritual values.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: 1. The appeal of the subversive: art and heresy (1520–1544)
2. Nakedness and the lascivious: the boundaries of decorum before and after the Council of Trent
3. The limits of enforcement: artistic censorship in Venice
4. A reform in quantity: patriarch Lorenzo Priuli's visitation
Part II: 5. The body of Christ
6. Sanctity
7. The afterlife
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index

Subject Areas: The arts: general issues [AB]