Renaissance monuments to favourite sons

This essay focuses on a previously unnoticed large group of public monuments that was erected at civic expense in fifteenth-century Italy to honour Roman literary notables like Virgil, Ovid, Livy, Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Catullus and Virtruvius. All the memorials to Roman authors were ci...

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Veröffentlicht in:Renaissance studies 2005-09, Vol.19 (4), p.458-486
1. Verfasser: McHam, Sarah Blake
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:This essay focuses on a previously unnoticed large group of public monuments that was erected at civic expense in fifteenth-century Italy to honour Roman literary notables like Virgil, Ovid, Livy, Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Catullus and Virtruvius. All the memorials to Roman authors were civic commissions, prominently located in the public spaces of Italian Renaissance cities, either as freestanding statues in the main square, or installed on the exterior of the town hall, or even on the cathedral. Most of the sculptures were not of high artistic quality, or by famous sculptors, or in major centres of artistic production like Florence or Venice. Some never made it past the design stage. For all these reasons, they have not been integrated into the study of Renaissance art history. Consequently, art historians have not realised that some of these parochial monuments introduce important features associated with the Renaissance revival of ancient art that are usually ascribed to later, more famous sculptures.
ISSN:0269-1213
1477-4658
DOI:10.1111/j.1477-4658.2005.00113.x