Evelyn Waugh was a loving Husband, a wise and affectionate father and the funniest English novelist of the century. This selection of letters does full justice to these splendid attribute's " Phillip Toynbee.
Shopping was as important in the Renaissance as it is in the 21st century. This book breaks new ground in the area of Renaissance material culture, focussing on the marketplace in its various aspects, ranging from middle-class to courtly consumption and from the provision of foodstuffs to the acquisition of antiquities and holy relics. It asks how men and women of different social classes went out into the streets, squares and shops to buy the goods they needed and wanted on a daily or on a once-in-a-lifetime basis during the Renaissance period. Drawing on a detailed mixture of archival, literary and visual sources, she exposes the fears, anxieties and social possibilities of the Renaissance marketplace. Thereafter, Welch looks at the impact these attitudes had on the developing urban spaces of Renaissance cities, before turning to more transient forms of sales such as fairs, auctions and lotteries. In the third section, she examines the consumers themselves, asking how the mental, verbal and visual images of the market shaped the business of buying and selling. Finally, the book explores two seemingly very different types of commodities - antiquities and indulgences, both of which posed dramatic challenges to contemporary notions of market value and to the concept of commodification itself.
Milan was one of the largest and most important cities in Renaissance Italy. Controlled by the Visconti and Sforza dynasties from 1277 until 1500, its rulers were generous patrons of the arts, responsible for commissioning major monuments throughout the city and for supporting artists such as Giovanni di Balduccio, Filarete, Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci. But the city was much more than its dukes. Milan had a distinct civic identity, one that was expressed, above all, through its neighbourhood, religious and charitable associations. This book moves beyond standard interpretations of ducal patronage to explore the often overlooked city itself, showing how the allegiances of the town hall and the parish related to those of the servants and aristocrats who frequented the Visconti and Sforza court. In this original and stimulating interdisciplinary study, Evelyn Welch illustrates the ways in which the myths of Visconti and Sforza supremacy were created. Newly discovered material for major projects such as the cathedral, hospital and castle of Milan permits a greater understanding of the political, economic and architectural forces that shaped these extraordinary buildings. The book also explores the wider social networks of the artists themselves. Leonardo da Vinci, for example, is de-mythologised: far from being an isolated, highly prized court artist, he spent his almost eighteen years in the city working within the wider Milanese community of painters, sculptors, goldsmiths and embroiderers. The broad perspective of the book ensures that any future study of the Renaissance will have to re-evaluate the place of Milan in Italian cultural history.
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