Artistic Exchange and Cultural Translation in the Italian Renaissance City brings together twelve commissioned essays, the impetus for which was the conference that accompanied the exhibition, “Florence and the 1470s: Contexts and Contrasts,” curated by Patricia Rubin and Alison Wright in 1999 at the National Gallery in London. It was during this conference that the importance of the recurring concepts of cultural translation and exchange became evident to Campbell and Milner. The volume scrutinizes these aspects of the artistic and intellectual life of Italian urban cultures in the early modern period. The introduction by the editors, in particular, examines the notions of cultural translation and interpretation, which over the past decade have been explored by scholars of history, anthropology, religious studies, musicology, and comparative studies. And rather than considering each society as hermetic or self-contained, the anthology explores how these cultures interpenetrate, influence, and inform one another. It also questions the notions of conservatism and normativity evident in contemporary studies of Renaissance cultural history, which still exercise a pervasive force in the discipline, particularly the perception of Florence as a touchstone and even as the primogenitor of a wide range of developments in the culture of the peninsula. Moreover, many of the papers are informed by the concept of “peripheralization” (a term coined by Carlo Ginzburg and Enrico Castelnuovo) to express the condition of remaining outside the “cultural center” and to recognize the role of minor centers as sites for the creation of alternatives and as resistances to the center. The considerable variety of methodologies and topics addressed in the volume (including portrait medals, tombs, fountains, chapel decoration, altarpieces, and artists’ contracts) exemplify how pervasive the notions of translation and cultural transmission were in the Italian Renaissance. This is keenly evident in the opening essay by Campbell and Milner and their brief prologues that introduce the articles grouped into three distinct sections.

Three of the most engaging papers lead off the first segment of the volume, which is dedicated to the interaction between artist and patron and to the dissemination of prototypes through derivations and copies. The first of these is Michelle O’Malley’s inquiry into the process of commissioning works of art, which is based on an examination of contracts and other archival material. Here, she repudiates the notion of one-sided programmatic patronal control over the objects created and instead finds mutual collaboration between artist and client. Next, Megan Holmes investigates the voluminous replication of paintings by Fra Filippo Lippi during the 1460s and 1470s. The reproduction of Lippi’s panels, many of which were originally produced for the Medici, leads Holmes convincingly to suggest that these products may have functioned as symbols of allegiance to Florence’s leading family. Then, by examining Mino da Fiesole’s tomb for Cardinal Niccolò Forteguerri, Shelly Zuraw traces the fascinating permutations of the Florentine “humanist” tomb as the motif was translated to a Roman context, where the papal curia created a great demand for such memorials. Luke Syson’s ensuing chapter on Bertoldo di Giovanni concludes the book’s first section. It examines how Bertoldo’s sculptures (in particular, one commemorative medal) embodied the “artistic policy” of his patron, Lorenzo de’ Medici. It then argues that, through Bertoldo, Il Magnifico sought to create a distinctive artistic style, as had contemporary Italian princes through their court artists. Lastly, it traces Bertoldo’s teaching activities at the Medici sculpture garden at San Marco, which he suggests led to the creation of a court style in Florence. It seems that Syson’s paper would have been more successful had it undertaken fewer issues.

The most cohesive chapters of the volume, which explore the reception of Florentine influence upon other Italic centers, are compiled in its second division. These contributions problematize the axiomatic presumption of Florentine cultural and artistic supremacy and the passive absorption of these models by peripheral regional entities. They also demonstrate the important and pervasive nexus between art and politics during the early modern period. Campbell leads off this segment with a discussion of the political, cultural, and artistic links between Florence and Ferrara. Georgia Clarke then investigates Giovanni II Bentivoglio’s use of the tournament as a means of asserting his authority over the city of Bologna. Here, she convincingly compares the adoption of the chivalric mode by Giovanni and the Medici as a way to negotiate and promote their civic prominence and power. Following Clarke’s paper is Bruce Edelstein’s compelling study examining the use of waterworks at the villa of Poggioreale at Naples as a hydraulic prototype for the garden complexes of Boboli and Castello. In this case, we see the Medicean adoption of a Neapolitan model to emphasize the benefits of their rule over the city of Florence through their provision of fresh water to the populace. The two subsequent essays by Milner and Deborah Krohn consider the politics involved in artistic commissions concerning Florence and its subject cities. Through an assiduous reading of archival materials, Milner recounts the civic and ideological tensions evident in the creation of Verrocchio’s cenotaph for Cardinal Forteguerri in the prelate’s native Pistoia. Krohn sees the decoration of the Santa Fina chapel in San Gimignano by Ghirlandaio and the Maiano brothers as emblematic of the relationship between the town and its conquering neighbor. She persuasively interprets the community’s memorial of a native saint as an assertion of local civic identity and an illustrious past vis-à-vis its subjugation by Florence.

The three essays in the concluding section examine the notion of the “Cultural Other” from various perspectives. Although current scholarship often explores the negative encounters between Western Europeans and the contemporary ethnic or religious “other,” the contributions here consider the self-adopting aspects of a foreign (and ideal) norm. Christopher Celenza’s inquiry (the only one in the text diverging from an art historical topic) addresses Ficino’s Neoplatonic intellectualism, which modern historians have termed as pagan, and resituates it within the dialectical parameters of orthodoxy. Brian Curran’s fascinating essay examines the appropriations and responses by popes Alexander VI and Leo X to Egyptian monuments and hieroglyphs in Rome as a means of promoting their political agendas, while also considering how these monuments functioned in the broader context of the revival of antiquity in the sixteenth century. Lastly, Morten Steen Hansen reflects upon works of art commissioned by the immigrant population of Ancona (a group traditionally excluded from political power) with regards to their ambiguous civic status in the cinquecento. His proposal that foreigners acquired spectacular altarpieces by Titian, Lorenzo Lotto, and other prominent artists as methods of assimilation into the general population and of displaying their personal wealth is credible.

If I were to find fault with this volume, it would be to indicate certain oversights in the editorial process. Chapters 4 and 5 by Syson and Campbell each take on too broad a scope, weakening arguments that would probably be more forceful if they were developed further. In addition, the relationships between articles could be articulated more fully in the introductory essays, in the chapters themselves, or even in the endnotes. For instance, chapters 3 and 8 by Zuraw and Milner discuss the Roman tomb and Pistoiese cenotaph commemorating Cardinal Forteguerri, yet nothing in the text guides us to read these essays in tandem in spite of the evocative parallels between the two commissions. Furthermore, the numerous typographical errors make the reading process less than smooth.

In closing, I am obliged to reflect upon the many strengths of this publication, which greatly outweigh any of my complaints. The writing throughout the text is lucid and compelling, the research is sound, and the bibliography for each paper is current and extensive. Nearly all of the essays contained in the volume are of exemplary scholarship, and the range of topics and methodological approaches addressed will appeal to a variety of scholars in the humanities; they will also serve as valuable teaching tools in graduate and undergraduate seminars.