Lomazzo’’s Aesthetic Principles Reflected in the Art of His Time

Lomazzo’s Aesthetic Principles Reflected in the Art of his Time explores the work of the Milanese artist-theorist Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo (1538-92) and his influence on the circle of the Accademia della Val di Blenio and beyond. Following reflections on Lomazzo’s fortuna critica, the accompanying essays examine his admiration of Gaudenzio Ferrari; Lomazzo’s painted oeuvre; his influence on printmaking with Giovanni Ambrogio Brambilla; on drawing and painting with Aurelio Luini; on the decorative arts and the embroideress Caterina Cantoni; his pupils Giovanni Ambrogio Figino and Girolamo Ciocca; grotesque sculpture outside Milan; and Lomazzo in England with Richard Haydocke’s translation of the Trattato. In doing so, this book takes an innovative approach--one which aims to bridge the scholarship, hitherto disjoined, between Lomazzo the artist and Lomazzo the theorist--while expanding our knowledge of a protagonist of Renaissance and early modern art theory.

Contributors: Alessia Alberti, Federico Cavalieri, Jean Julia Chai, Roberto Paolo Ciardi, Alexander Marr, Silvia Mausoli, Mauro Pavesi, Rossana Sacchi, Paolo Sanvito, and Lucia Tantardini.

Rebecca Norris, Ph.D. (2014, University of Cambridge) is Adjunct Professor at Claremont Graduate University. She has published articles on North-Italian Renaissance art including Women on the Edge: The Saletta delle Dame of the Palazzo Salvadego in Brescia (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Lucia Tantardini, Ph.D. (2014, University of Cambridge) is a Department Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. She has published articles on Renaissance Milan and is working on two books: Aurelio Luini (ca. 1530-93). The Complete Paintings and Drawings (Bozzi 2021), and Drawing in Renaissance Milan (Routledge 2021).