The interesting critical contributions from the international conference organized at Villa Spelman in Florence in 1998 on the theme of the relationships among art, politics and diplomacy in 17th-century Italy.
This volume presents interesting critical contributions gathered at the international conference organized at Villa Spelman in Florence in 1998 on the theme of the relationships among art, politics and diplomacy in 17th-century Italy.
The role played by artworks in diplomacy, their capacity to make social distinctions, the function of portraits in the assertion of political power are just some of the aspects discussed. Many of the talks present unpublished works and indicate new attributions based on recent documentary discoveries.
Five of the contributions are in Italian, while the others are in English and French; an introduction by Elizabeth Cropper places the themes in a wider geographical, historical and political context.