What do you think?
Pisanello : Painter to the Renaissance Court
The first major publication in English to focus on Pisanello's work as a painter and medallist - Essential reading for specialists, students and general readers interested in early Renaissance art and the chivalric values and humanist culture of fifteenth-century Italian court life - Lavishly illustrated with paintings, drawings, medals, tapestries and manuscripts from international collections - Published to accompany a major exhibition at the National Gallery, London (24 October - 13 January 2002), the highlight of 'Renaissance Autumn' season at the Gallery Pisanello (c.1394-1455) was the most famous artist of his time, an outstanding figure of the early Italian Renaissance, celebrated as both painter and medallist. He was regularly employed by two of Italy's ruling houses, the Gonzaga in Mantua and the d'Este in Ferrara, and worked all over the peninsula to celebrate the virtues of popes, princes and kings. His work is both exquisitely beautiful and rare - only four undisputed panel paintings by him still survive - and little has been published about him in English. This book provides a unique insight into the life and work of this extraordinary artist. Pisanello's art is except
- GenresArt
264 pages, Hardcover
First published October 26, 2001
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 2, 2024
A belief in the primacy of Florentine art as the driving force of the Italian Renaissance has anchored itself firmly in the collective mind ever since Giorgio Vasari published his Lives of the Artists (1550-1568). Yet historical evidence doesn't fit comfortably with the widely shared conviction that a new dawn in the visual arts originated solely in Florence with Masaccio as the Alpha and Michelangelo as the Omega. How to classify the work of such masters as Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello, whose paintings were tailored to the tastes of clients living at the Italian courts outside Tuscany? And what to make of the famous remark by humanist Bartolomeo Facio (staying at the Neapolitan court, 1456) that not Masaccio or Fra Angelico, but Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello (together with Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden) were the greatest painters of his era?
In Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court, published to accompany the 2001 exhibition at the National Gallery in London, Luke Syson and Dillian Gordon counter the dominant view of a Florence-centred rebirth of the visual arts by shedding light on a master who enjoyed much greater fame in his own time than he does now: Pisanello (Verona, c.1394-1455). Instead of writing a traditional exhibition catalogue, the authors have opted for a monographic approach in which they sketch an overview of Pisanello's life and work in five lavishly colour-illustrated chapters. The first chapter provides biographical notes of Pisanello's life and career, while subsequent chapters examine different aspects and themes that suffuse his work, such as the culture of chivalry in Italy, classical learning, and court art. The book closes with a reflection on Pisanello's workshop practices and that quintessential Burckhardtian notion of renaissance characteristics: artistic individuality.
Through these chapters we learn that Pisanello not only worked for private clients at different courts in northern Italy and the Kingdom of Naples, but also that his aristocratic clientele regarded the tastes and traditions of the Burgundian court as benchmarks for their own behaviour and art patronage. This helps explain why many surviving painted works by Pisanello (of which few are extant) depict scenes from chivalric stories and Arthurian legends, which we often associate with the International Gothic Style. At the same time, however, Pisanello is remembered as an artist with a true renaissance spirit for his countless faithful drawings after nature and for his portrait medals, a medium he revived and popularised, which in this book are also elaborately analysed and discussed.
With Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court, Syson and Gordon have written an elegant monograph about a master who we might now find somewhat difficult to categorize but who was staggeringly innovative and without a doubt one of the pre-eminent artists of the early Italian Renaissance. While they seldom break new ground, the authors help to make available to an English-speaking audience a treasure trove of scholarly knowledge previously only accessible in Italian and French for the first time in almost a century. Warmly recommended!
In Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court, published to accompany the 2001 exhibition at the National Gallery in London, Luke Syson and Dillian Gordon counter the dominant view of a Florence-centred rebirth of the visual arts by shedding light on a master who enjoyed much greater fame in his own time than he does now: Pisanello (Verona, c.1394-1455). Instead of writing a traditional exhibition catalogue, the authors have opted for a monographic approach in which they sketch an overview of Pisanello's life and work in five lavishly colour-illustrated chapters. The first chapter provides biographical notes of Pisanello's life and career, while subsequent chapters examine different aspects and themes that suffuse his work, such as the culture of chivalry in Italy, classical learning, and court art. The book closes with a reflection on Pisanello's workshop practices and that quintessential Burckhardtian notion of renaissance characteristics: artistic individuality.
Through these chapters we learn that Pisanello not only worked for private clients at different courts in northern Italy and the Kingdom of Naples, but also that his aristocratic clientele regarded the tastes and traditions of the Burgundian court as benchmarks for their own behaviour and art patronage. This helps explain why many surviving painted works by Pisanello (of which few are extant) depict scenes from chivalric stories and Arthurian legends, which we often associate with the International Gothic Style. At the same time, however, Pisanello is remembered as an artist with a true renaissance spirit for his countless faithful drawings after nature and for his portrait medals, a medium he revived and popularised, which in this book are also elaborately analysed and discussed.
With Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court, Syson and Gordon have written an elegant monograph about a master who we might now find somewhat difficult to categorize but who was staggeringly innovative and without a doubt one of the pre-eminent artists of the early Italian Renaissance. While they seldom break new ground, the authors help to make available to an English-speaking audience a treasure trove of scholarly knowledge previously only accessible in Italian and French for the first time in almost a century. Warmly recommended!
April 1, 2019
This is a detailed exploration of the career of the celebrated Renaissance artist, Antonio da Pucci, known as Pisano or Pisanello (c1395-1455). Perhaps less well known than other Italian masters he was "... probably the most celebrated and among the most sought after painters of his generation in Italy."
The authors, Luke Syson and Dillian Gordon, examine the life and work of Pisanello and place him in in the artistic and historical context of Italy in the late 14th century. The authors examine the two extant panel paintings in London, the Italian frescoes and the two extant Este portraits. They also examine his work in medals and his drawings and in doing so highlight the aspects of his work that made him such a celebrated artist. It seems that Pisanello's success lay in his ability as an artist to reflect the courtly chivalric tradition of his patrons while also reflecting the new humanist learning which was such an integral part of the Italian Renaissance.
The authors, Luke Syson and Dillian Gordon, examine the life and work of Pisanello and place him in in the artistic and historical context of Italy in the late 14th century. The authors examine the two extant panel paintings in London, the Italian frescoes and the two extant Este portraits. They also examine his work in medals and his drawings and in doing so highlight the aspects of his work that made him such a celebrated artist. It seems that Pisanello's success lay in his ability as an artist to reflect the courtly chivalric tradition of his patrons while also reflecting the new humanist learning which was such an integral part of the Italian Renaissance.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews