Re–thinking Renaissance Objects: Design, Function and Meaning

Re–thinking Renaissance Objects considers key issues at the heart of current scholarly debate on Renaissance art and culture. Inspired by research that has developed from the redisplay of the outstanding Medieval and Renaissance collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the authors use the objects themselves as their starting point in their papers. The book explores and often challenges assumptions about the interconnection between sacred and secular belief, the problems inherent in making distinctions between ′artists′ and ′artisans′, and the various ways in which ideas were exchanged across media and cultural boundaries. This object–based approach has often helped revolutionize our thinking not only about individual pieces but also about the culture for which these works were created. The volume brings together V&A curators with other experts. The result is an impressive range of contributions which build on a wealth of existing scholarship in order to cast new light on the appearance, meaning, style and function of a collection of Renaissance artistic works.

Notes on contributors ix Introduction Peta Motture and Michelle O’Malley 1 1 Finding fame: painting and the making of careers in Renaissance Italy Michelle O’Malley 9 2 Set in stone: monumental altar frames in Renaissance Florence   Meghan Callahan & Donal Cooper 33 3 Veit Stoss and the origins of collecting of small–scale sculpture before 1500 Norbert Jopek 56 4 New light on a Venetian lantern at the V&A Nick Humphrey & Martino Ferrari Bravo 71 5 Rethinking the Petrucci Pavement Elizabeth Miller & Alun Graves 94 6 Dancing, love and the ‘beautiful game’: a new interpretation of a group of fi fteenth–century ‘gaming’ boxes Paula Nuttall 119 7 Sharing and status: the design and function of a sixteenth–century Spanish spice stand in the Victoria and Albert Museum Kirstin Kennedy 142 8 Scattered knives and dismembered song: cutlery, music and the rituals of dining Flora Dennis 156 Bibliography 185 Index 212

Peta Motture is Senior Curator of Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and was previously Chief Curator of the Medieval & Renaissance Galleries.  She has published widely on medieval and later sculpture, specializing primarily in the Italian Renaissance. Motture has co–curated several exhibitions and is curator of the Robert H. Smith Renaissance Sculpture Programme at the V&A. Dr Michelle O′Malley is Reader in Art History at the University of Sussex, where she has also held the position of Director of Research in the School of Humanities. Previously, she was Head of Education for Exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Dr. O′Malley is the author of The Business of Art: Contracts and the Commissioning Process in Renaissance Italy (2005) and The Material Renaissance (co–edited with Evelyn Welch, 2007).