The Lives of Paintings

Presence, Agency and Likeness in Venetian Art of the Sixteenth Century

Cover Van Kessel

About this book

In sixteenth-century Venice, paintings were often treated as living beings. As this book shows, paintings attended dinner parties, healed the sick, made money, and became involved in love affairs. Presenting a range of case studies, Elsje van Kessel offers a detailed examination of the agency paintings and other two dimensional images could exert.

This lifelike agency is not only connected to the seemingly naturalistic style of these images – works by Titian, Giorgione and their contemporaries, illustrated here in 150 plates. It also brought in relation to their social-historical contexts, meticulously unravelled through archival research.

Grounded in the theoretical literature on the agency of material things, The Lives of Paintings contributes to Venetian studies as well as engaging with wider debates on the attribution of life and presence to images and objects.

Elsje van Kessel, University of St Andrews

Format: Hardback

Pages: 352

Illustrated: Yes

ISBN Print: 9789087282813

Published: 22 May 2017

Language: English

Keywords:

Category:

Price 89.00

Related products

Be the first to hear about the latest news and publications of LUP.

Subscribe to our newsletter >>

Be the first to hear about the latest news and publications of LUP.

Subscribe to our newsletter >>

X