THE PRINCES OF THE RENAISSANCE

A history of Renaissance Italy emphasizing the wealthy and powerful and the artists, scholars, and architects they patronized.

Italian Renaissance scholar Hollingsworth has written several books on this eventful era, and readers would be advised to read them and a few other general histories before tackling this lively but intensely detailed chronicle of that land in the two centuries after 1400. Even readers who recognize political names from this period—Borgia, Medici, Visconti, Sforza, D’Este—may be surprised to learn that each family may represent half a dozen individuals. Luckily, the pantheon of great artists, from da Vinci to Michelangelo, stand on their own, and the book includes beautiful illustrations of their works, with architecture enjoying equal billing as painting and sculpture. From the Middle Ages through unification in the 19th century, Italy consisted of a handful of medium-sized states (Venice, Milan, the Papal States, the Kingdom of Naples) and a bewildering collection of principalities and city-states, mostly in the north, whose leaders seemed preoccupied with cheating, fighting, and murdering each other, often joined by some highly pugnacious popes. “For the rulers of the minor states of northern Italy, survival in the ruthless world of Italian politics was a matter of luck and judgement,” writes the author. “Too small to rely on their own military strength to overcome the aggression of the major powers, they needed to develop more cunning strategies—not least shrewd diplomacy and fruitful family alliances—to outwit their enemies.” Hollingsworth astutely shows how, in an era before royalties, museums, and mass-market printing, artists either worked for the rich or starved. Fortunately, it was considered proper for an aristocrat to take an interest in cultural matters. Readers struggling to sort out who was who in interminable wars and intrigues will welcome the author’s frequent digressions into the lives and work of Renaissance Italy’s pantheon of brilliant artists.

Dense politics relieved by dazzling art.