Co-published with the Philadelphia Museum of Art This book accompanies an exhibition of the same name held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art upon the completion of conservation of Pontormo’s famous portrait of Duke Alessandro de’ Medici. Centering on Pontormo’s painting and Agnolo Bronzino’s equally renowned depiction of another Medici duke, Cosimo I, the exhibition of some fifty sixteenth-century works from American and European collections explores the ways in which these artists changed the Renaissance portrait during this tumultuous period in Florence’s history.
In his catalogue entries, Carl Brandon Strehlke surveys the history and multifaceted significance of the Medici portraits and other paintings, drawings, coins, medals, books, and prints in the exhibition, offering a wealth of insights into the Medici dukes and the artists who served them. This fully illustrated volume also features Elizabeth Cropper’s thought-provoking essay “Pontormo and Bronzino in Philadelphia: A Double Portrait,” which explores the rich cultural and artistic background behind these artists’ portraiture. The two Philadelphia portraits offer fascinating private views of important rulers of Renaissance Florence. An essay by Mark S. Tucker and colleagues discusses findings from the recent conservation of Pontormo’s portrait of Alessandro. A glossary, a genealogy of the Medici family, and a bibliography complete this publication.
The book will accompany an exhibition to be held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from November 20, 2004, to February 13, 2005.

Pontormo, Bronzino, and the Medici: The Transformation of the Renaissance Portrait in Florence

Arts & Photography

Cropper, Elizabeth

Strehlke, Carl

History & Criticism

Penn State University Press

Ten years after completing his work The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, Bolognese painter Domenichino was accused by his rival Giovanni Lanfranco of stealing the idea for the painting from an altarpiece crafted by Lanfranco’s teacher, Agostino Carracci. The resulting scandal reverberated through the centuries, drawing responses by artists and critics from Poussin and Malvasia to Fuseli and Delacroix.Why was Domenichino attacked in this way when other related paintingsincluding Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin and Perugino’s painting of the same subjectaroused no such negative response? In this fast-paced book, Elizabeth Cropper investigates the Domenichino affair and addresses the perennial debate regarding the precise nature of originality and of imitation. She offers close readings of the paintings involved in the story, detailed analysis of attitudes toward imitation, emulation, and plagiarism, and a fascinating discussion of what Domenichino’s plight signifies in art history.

The Domenichino Affair: Novelty, Imitation, and Theft in Seventeenth-Century Rome

Yale University Press

The Description for this book, The Ideal of Painting: Pietro Testa's Dusseldorf Notebook, will be forthcoming.

The Ideal of Painting: Pietro Testa's Dusseldorf Notebook

Princeton University Press

Nicolas Poussin

By investigating the important cultural figures who were close to the painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), Elizabeth Cropper and Charles Dempsey allow the reader to enter not only the Rome where he lived but also the Rome of antiquity, which he admired and tried to reconstruct. The authors argue that Poussin's works were structured by his friendships, as well as by his study of ancient history and early Christian archaeology, his exploration of the poetry and mystery of ancient places, and his conception of his paintings as gifts rather than commercial objects. By looking into this rich background, they also show how Poussin introduced into his theory and practice of painting a new concept of the inherent expressiveness of form that was quite different from the then prevailing conventions for depicting the passions and affections.
 The first two chapters treat Vincenzo Giustiniani, the most sophisticated patron and art collector of his day, whose purpose and rationale for collecting ancient sculpture deeply influenced Poussin and the Flemish sculptor Francois Duquesnoy. Among other topics, the succeeding sections take up Poussin's deep readings of Montaigne and his friendships with the poet Giovanni Battista Marino, with artists such as Pietro Testa and Matteo Zaccolini, and with patrons and true friends, among them Cassiano dal Pozzo and Paul Fréart de Chantelou, for whom Poussin painted a special self-portrait, which the artist said stood for "The Love of Painting and Friendship."

Dempsey, Charles

Much has been written about the identity of the sitter in this portrait. In 1568, Vasari noted that Pontormo painted a beautiful work, a portrait of Francesco Guardi. In 1612, however, the name of Cosimo i de' Medici was attached to a description of the portrait. In this volume, Cropper argues that the subject of the painting is indeed Francesco Guardi. She discusses not only the specific determination of the sitter but the tools and methods used in general for establishing the people and places portrayed in works of art.

Pontormo: Portrait of a Halberdier (Getty Museum Studies on Art)

J.paul Getty Museum

La pintura boloñesa en el Prado: Tras las huellas de Malvasia como crítico de la pintura

Abada Editores, S.L.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cropper, Elizabeth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cropper, Elizabeth

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cropper, Elizabeth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Pontormo, Bronzino, and the Medici: The Transformation of the Renaissance Portrait in Florence

The Domenichino Affair: Novelty, Imitation, and Theft in Seventeenth-Century Rome

The Ideal of Painting: Pietro Testa's Dusseldorf Notebook

Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin

Pontormo: Portrait of a Halberdier (Getty Museum Studies on Art)

La pintura boloñesa en el Prado: Tras las huellas de Malvasia como crítico de la pintura