A Companion to Renaissance and Baroque Art

Through the masterpieces produced by artists ranging from Michelangelo and Leonardo to Rembrandt, Rubens, and Vermeer, Europe's Renaissance and Baroque period grew into one of the most creative times in world history. A Companion to Renaissance and Baroque Art presents a comprehensive collection of interdisciplinary essays that address major aspects of European visual arts produced from approximately 1300 to 1700, a period of artistic flourishing that many consider the beginning of modern history. These essays, however, transcend the traditional period labels of Renaissance and Baroque by addressing works from Duccio and Chaucer to Velazquez and Newton as a single continuum, inclusive in terms of both disciplinary and geographical boundaries, as an era best characterized as early modern. Featuring original contributions by an international roster of scholars from various disciplines, writings are grouped by concept in five sections that spotlight the varied components and processes that constitute the world of the visual arts and the variety of interpretive methods and ideas that can be, and have been, brought to bear on art objects. Essays explore how art interacts with the cultural paradigms of this explosive time: the interface between art and religion, art and science, and gender and sexuality to name a few. Combining an unprecedented breadth of coverage and depth of scholarship with lucid and accessible writing, A Companion to Renaissance and Baroque Art represents the most comprehensive reference on the study of Renaissance and Baroque visual arts available today.