Exotic Animals in the Art and Culture of the Medici Court in Florence - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Exotic Animals in the Art and Culture of the Medici Court in Florence write by Angelica Groom. This book was released on 2018-10-22. Exotic Animals in the Art and Culture of the Medici Court in Florence available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. An examination of the diverse roles exotic animals, both living species and depicted as motifs in art, played in the fashioning of the Medici’s courtly identity.
Primates in History, Myth, Art, and Science
Primates in History, Myth, Art, and Science - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Primates in History, Myth, Art, and Science write by Cecilia Veracini. This book was released on 2024-05-15. Primates in History, Myth, Art, and Science available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Non-human primates (hereafter just primates) play a special role in human societies, especially in regions where modern humans and primates co-exist. Primates feature in myths and legends and in traditional indigenous knowledge. Explorers observed them in the wild and brought them, at great cost, to Europe. There they were valued as pets and for display, their images featured in art and architecture, and where they were literally teased apart by scientists. The international team of contributors to this book draws these different perspectives together to show how primates helped humans better understand their own place in nature. The book will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students as well scholars in disciplines ranging from anthropology to art history. Key features: Includes contributions from an international team of historians and natural scientists Integrates various perspectives and perceptions of non-human primates across time and place Summarizes the place of non-human primates in science, art and culture Includes rare early illustrations
Provenance and Possession
Provenance and Possession - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Provenance and Possession write by K. J. P. Lowe. This book was released on 2024-04-09. Provenance and Possession available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. A thought-provoking study of how knowledge of provenance was not transferred with enslaved people and goods from the Portuguese trading empire to Renaissance Italy In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Renaissance Italy received a bounty of "goods" from Portuguese trading voyages—fruits of empire that included luxury goods, exotic animals and even enslaved people. Many historians hold that this imperial "opening up" of the world transformed the way Europeans understood the global. In this book, K.J.P. Lowe challenges such an assumption, showing that Italians of this era cared more about the possession than the provenance of their newly acquired global goods. With three detailed case studies involving Florence and Rome, and drawing on unpublished archival material, Lowe documents the myriad occasions on which global knowledge became dissociated from overseas objects, animals and people. Fundamental aspects of these imperial imports, including place of origin and provenance, she shows, failed to survive the voyage and make landfall in Europe. Lowe suggests that there were compelling reasons for not knowing or caring about provenance, and concludes that geographical knowledge, like all knowledge, was often restricted and not valued. Examining such documents as ledger entries, journals and public and private correspondence as well as extant objects, and asking previously unasked questions, Lowe meticulously reconstructs the backstories of Portuguese imperial acquisitions, painstakingly supplying the context. She chronicles the phenomenon of mixed-ancestry children at Florence’s foundling hospital; the ownership of inanimate luxury goods, notably those possessed by the Medicis; and the acquisition of enslaved people and animals. How and where goods were acquired, Lowe argues, were of no interest to fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italians; possession was paramount.
Singing of Arms and Men
Singing of Arms and Men - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Singing of Arms and Men write by Kelley Harness. This book was released on 2024-09-27. Singing of Arms and Men available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Equestrian ballets (balletti a cavallo), although little known today, emerged as valued dramatic entertainments in early modern Europe, capable of demonstrating the wealth and magnificence of the patrons who commissioned them as well as the horsemanship and military skills of the noblemen who rode in them. Although the horse ballet did not originate in Florence, that city--and its ruling grand dukes, the Medici--acquired a reputation for excellence in the genre. Between 1608 and 1686, the court commissioned horse ballets to commemorate important state events such as Medici weddings or visits by foreign visitors. In Singing of Arms and Men, author Kelley Harness undertakes the first comprehensive study of the seventeenth-century Florentine horse ballets. She demonstrates how these works communicated messages relevant to the occasions for which they were performed, delivered by means of texts sung in styles similar to contemporary opera and punctuated by choreography and dramatic structure. Mock battles fought with swords and pistols animated audiences but also provided visible instances of conflict, which were then interrupted by the sudden arrival of a deus ex machina, who commanded the combatants to instead join forces to defeat a common enemy. The knights then demonstrated newfound cooperation through their creation of choreographed figures danced on horseback in time to music. Documentary evidence confirms that the Medici family expended significant financial and human resources on these one-time events, revealing just how much work it took to appear effortless. Ultimately, Harness shows how the balletto a cavallo played a crucial role in Medici self-fashioning during the period, and that the 250 noblemen invited to lend their equestrian skills both confirmed their family's relationship to the Medici and were provided a venue for demonstrating critical markers of masculine nobility.
Tuscany in the Age of Empire
Tuscany in the Age of Empire - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Tuscany in the Age of Empire write by Brian Brege. This book was released on 2021-07-13. Tuscany in the Age of Empire available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Winner of the American Association for Italian Studies Book Prize A new history explores how one of Renaissance Italy’s leading cities maintained its influence in an era of global exploration, trade, and empire. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was not an imperial power, but it did harbor global ambitions. After abortive attempts at overseas colonization and direct commercial expansion, as Brian Brege shows, Tuscany followed a different path, one that allowed it to participate in Europe’s new age of empire without establishing an empire of its own. The first history of its kind, Tuscany in the Age of Empire offers a fresh appraisal of one of the foremost cities of the Italian Renaissance, as it sought knowledge, fortune, and power throughout Asia, the Americas, and beyond. How did Tuscany, which could not compete directly with the growing empires of other European states, establish a global presence? First, Brege shows, Tuscany partnered with larger European powers. The duchy sought to obtain trade rights within their empires and even manage portions of other states’ overseas territories. Second, Tuscans invested in cultural, intellectual, and commercial institutions at home, which attracted the knowledge and wealth generated by Europe’s imperial expansions. Finally, Tuscans built effective coalitions with other regional powers in the Mediterranean and the Islamic world, which secured the duchy’s access to global products and empowered the Tuscan monarchy in foreign affairs. These strategies allowed Tuscany to punch well above its weight in a world where power was equated with the sort of imperial possessions it lacked. By finding areas of common interest with stronger neighbors and forming alliances with other marginal polities, a small state was able to protect its own security while carving out a space as a diplomatic and intellectual hub in a globalizing Europe.
