Art and Miracle in Renaissance Tuscany
Cambridge University Press, 10/18/2018
EAN 9781108426848, ISBN10: 1108426840
Hardcover, 276 pages, 26.1 x 18.4 x 1.7 cm
Language: English
In this book, Robert Maniura explores the role and importance of the miraculous image in the art and devotional practices of Renaissance Italy. Using the records of Giuliano Guizzelmi, a Tuscan lawyer, he focuses on his stories of miracles of local shrines, including Santa Maria delle Carceri, a painting of the Virgin Mary on a wall of the town prison, and the relic of her belt in the Prato Cathedral. Guizzelmi's stories build a powerful picture of the visual culture of the period, involving images that were kissed, worn and applied to sick bodies in rituals of healing. They also place his devotional activity in the context of his everyday life. Moreover, the paintings of Guizzelmi's burial chapel also engage with contemporary pictorial conventions and show how his concerns can inform our understanding of contemporary art, notably the works of his late fifteenth-century contemporaries, Ghirlandaio, Perugino and Filippino Lippi.
Introduction
1. Giuliano Guizzelmi
a lawyer of Prato
2. The Guizzelmi chapel, the large crucifix and the eucharist
3. The relic of the Virgin
the Holy Girdle
4. The miraculous image of the Virgin
Santa Maria delle Carceri
5. Guizzelmi's miracles
badges and prints
6. Votive offerings
making oneself in wax
7. Making miracles
Conclusion.