
Private Lives in Renaissance Venice
Art, Architecture, and the Family
Patricia Fortini Brown(Author)
Yale University Press
Published on 11. August 2004
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-300-10236-9 (ISBN)
Description
This book offers an engaging and original perspective on the private lives and material culture of patrician families in sixteenth-century Venice. Distinguished art historian Patricia Fortini Brown takes us behind the elegant facades of grand palaces built along the Venetian canals and examines the roles of both fine and applied arts in family life as well as the public messages that these impressive homes conveyed.
Illustrated with hundreds of varied and unusual images, the book provides a lively picture of the aristocratic lifestyle during a period of changing definitions of nobility. The author considers such wide-ranging themes as attitudes toward wealth and display, the articulation of family identity, and the visual culture of Venetian women-how they decorated their homes, dressed, undertook domestic tasks, entertained, and raised their children. Recapturing the interplay between the public and private, she offers an account of Venetian households unequalled in vividness and detail.
Illustrated with hundreds of varied and unusual images, the book provides a lively picture of the aristocratic lifestyle during a period of changing definitions of nobility. The author considers such wide-ranging themes as attitudes toward wealth and display, the articulation of family identity, and the visual culture of Venetian women-how they decorated their homes, dressed, undertook domestic tasks, entertained, and raised their children. Recapturing the interplay between the public and private, she offers an account of Venetian households unequalled in vividness and detail.
Reviews / Votes
"Lavishly illustrated and handsomely bound, Private Lives takes us behind the scenes for a close look into the homes and families of some of Venice's wealthiest homes. Author Fortini Brown, through her use of vivid and precise detail, brings alive an era of sumptuous and privileged living. An impressive study."-Art Times "[Brown's] book, much aided by sumptuous illustrations and photography, captures the way Venice's developed sense of interior design profoundly reflected and enhanced its natural beauty."-Sarah Dunant, The Times (London)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
200 b-w + 80 color illus.
Dimensions
Height: 279 mm
Width: 229 mm
Weight
1860 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-10236-9 (9780300102369)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Patricia Fortini Brown is professor and chair of the department of art and archaeology at Princeton University.