Courts and Courtly Arts in Renaissance Italy, an Italian edition of which was published in 2010, draws together the work of twenty-four recognized Italian scholars into an ambitious examination of the historical context and artistic production of the best-known courts across Italy from the end of the fourteenth century, a critical period of consolidation, to 1530, the year Charles V’s coronation in Bologna effectively rearranged the power structures across the peninsula. Although explorations of individual Italian courts such as those of Milan or Florence abound and have been followed by regional investigations, Courts and Courtly Arts provides a broader scope and a more systematic approach to its subject. Scholars long ago internalized the importance of patronage for the creation of Italian Renaissance art; growing out of this recognition, this volume seeks to focus attention upon and explore the artistic contributions of the brilliant, transitory, and interrelated courts that dotted Italy’s complex, treacherous, and fragmented geopolitical landscape.

Marco Folin, the editor, sets the stage in the introductory essay. He provides an informative overview concerning the emergence of Italy’s courts from the city-republics of the medieval period, and examines how the means by which courts gained recognition as legitimate centers of political power—or did not at the risk of being deemed the principality of a tyrant—shaped them and their artistic production. Art became the medium of choice to bolster the shaky foundations of a dynasty’s right to rule its territories in lieu of the precious but all-too-rare recognition from the more powerful heads of foreign states. Celebrating the “monarchic qualities” (8) of what were essentially often politically weak regional princes with respect to their European counterparts became the special task of the courtly arts, resulting in investment into ever more embellishments as many courts became (or sought to become) arbitrators of taste. Along with the embellishment of palaces—the basic types of which are also discussed—Italian courts quickly developed “new rituals, styles and etiquettes of power, in a competition for prestige that drew on all the arts, visual and otherwise” (11). Folin draws attention to the structures of the courts and those elements that differentiated them from the rest of Europe, specifically the strong municipal traditions with which each ruling dynasty identified itself. He also discusses the courtly roles of the various artists, visual and otherwise, including men of letters. Throughout he carefully differentiates the current study from those of the past that characterized the style of courtly arts—and indeed, the spread of Renaissance styles generally—as emerging from Florence’s political ambitions. Instead, the emphasis is placed upon recognizing fifteenth-century art as the clash “between classicist standards . . . and a series of local traditions that were proud of their differences and that, in a profoundly emulative context, often sought to accentuate their hallmarks” (25).

Following the introductory essay, the book is organized into two sections. The first is comprised of three thematic essays examining Italy’s political geography, the place and purposes of writing and men of letters at court, and the creation of music within the court setting. The first of these, by Francesco Somaini, examines the fragmented political geography of increasingly stable territorial divisions through the use of several maps, something seen infrequently in similar studies. These maps and their analysis do an excellent job of highlighting the political fragmentation of Italy, centering primarily on the major powers of the peninsula while also highlighting their relations with smaller, satellite powers. Nevertheless, the reader is advised to keep a magnifying glass handy, for while the saturated colors make it easy to obtain a broad notion of territorial relationships, any attempt to identify the cities that made up individual territories will result in eyestrain due to the tiny print.

The chapters on literature and music are also welcome. The latter, by Franco Piperno, which focuses on an art form studied too seldom in conjunction with the visual arts, discusses the importance of music and especially the court chapel (choir) as an essential means by which many courts highlighted the power and prestige of its sovereign. “The court chapel was the body appointed for the resonant manifestation of power, sovereignty, and . . . the sanctity of the lord who founded it, hired its members . . . and regulated its functions” (82). Piperno discusses the diplomatic scope of court chapels but traces, too, the end of music’s role as an instrument to legitimize political power at the beginning of the sixteenth century as the art form became increasingly associated with the private sphere within the court setting, being used less frequently for state and ceremonial purposes and more often for courtly entertainments.

Section 2 sees an abrupt turn from the thematic essays of section 1, and instead is divided into thirteen primary chapters interspersed with six shorter ones that progress from north to south, using Italy’s topography as an organizational tool with the benefit of ensuring that all regions are examined, not simply those that possessed famous courts. The first of these, while quite informative, is unfortunately one of the weaker; the chapter on Piedmont and Liguria by Massimiliano Caldera examines the relatively little-known courts of Savoy, Saluzzo, Montferrat, and Finale, but with little to no attempt to put these courts into their larger regional contexts or to explore any interactions or relations between them; each section becomes a separate discussion of the individual principality. Elena Svalduz presents a more useful model for discussing smaller, obscure regional courts in her chapter examining those of the Po Valley. In her introduction, she first briefly examines the means by which the “small seigniorial states” (204) of the Po Valley formed. She then puts them—nearly a dozen courts—concisely into the larger context of Italy, marking their ties to the bigger centers. Her discussion centers first on Carpi’s rapid expansion and enhancement under Alberto III Pio, whose skillful patronage in about two decades transformed what Hans Semper (1882) once described dismissively as a “fortified village” into the small but vibrant capital of a territorial state enhanced by the work of such artists as Baldassare Peruzzi and Giovanni Battista Cima, thus making it fit to compete with Italy’s larger capitals. When examining the smaller courts of the Po Valley, Svalduz does not attempt to discuss the complete “panorama,” but instead identifies general trends witnessed across the region. She further argues that while the seigniorial courts often emulated each other even as they competed with one another, the very reciprocity of relations between courts “exploiting cultural contacts, kinship and trade as a means of transmission”—signaled by the frequency with which objects and people with technical expertise moved among them—is an under-researched area.

Chapters on the best-known courts such as Milan under the Visconti and Sforza or Mantua under Gonzaga rule obviously benefit from the wealth of studies on these particular centers. Cities without proper courts also find treatment; Florence, for example, is discussed in a chapter by Alessandro Cecchi that charts the course of Medici patronage from Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici through Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici, setting the family’s use of artistic patronage within their strategies for personal advancement against the backdrop of Florentine politics. Here, as in the case of several chapters focused on the larger centers and more famous families, the contribution is not in new discoveries but in placing the cities and their courts within the larger context of the peninsula. In this, Courts and Courtly Arts provides a noteworthy addition to the field of Renaissance studies; its essayists have been able to put the largest and smallest of Italy’s court centers into dialogue with each other in a way few other books have attempted. The evident and concerted effort to move the discussion beyond the more often-studied courts of Milan, Ferrara, Mantua, and Naples is to be applauded. Nevertheless, there are obvious distinctions in the ways authors were able to discuss, for example, the Aragonese kings of Naples as compared to the Marquises of Saluzzo. Such differences make it evident that while contributions like the present one inform the reader of a world outside of the best-known centers, many of Italy’s Renaissance court cultures remain noticeably and woefully under-researched. Further, although the thematic essays treated in the book’s first section explore music and literature within the court setting, the majority of the discussions of the individual courts do not follow in the same vein and instead, with only one or two exceptions, focus almost exclusively on the visual arts, leaving aside not only literature, poetry, and music, but also dance and the culinary arts.

Courts and Courtly Arts is a handsomely produced text enhanced by an extraordinary number of color reproductions of objects, drawings, paintings, and buildings that reveal the liveliness and the scope of Renaissance Italy’s court cultures. The useful bibliography is divided by chapters, and each includes a short paragraph by the chapter author listing essential readings.