Material culture is not static: objects are created, used and re-used, sometimes for centuries, and their lives interact with those of the people who made and used them. The essays in this book discuss the 'social lives' of objects in late-medieval and renaissance Italy, ranging from maiolica, through sculpture and prostitutes' jewellery, to miraculous painted images.

• Demonstrates the continued life of these objects well past the deaths of their creators and patrons.
  
• Contains a series of original contributions by young scholars, representing a broad range of approaches.

About the Author
Roberta J.M. Olson is Professor Emeritus of Art History at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. She has worked as Curator of Drawings at the New-York Historical Society for seven years.

Patricia L. Reilly is Assistant Professor of Art History at Swarthmore College. She is currently finishing a book on Raphael, Giorgio Vasari and the development of what she terms the 'Florentine Visual Vernacular'.

Rupert Shepherd is based in the Department of Western Art at the Ashmolean Museum. His previous employment included two years as a research fellow at the University of Sussex, working on the collaborative project The Material Renaissance: Costs and Consumption in Italy c.1300-1650.

Reviews
"All in all, this is a useful, at times thought-provoking, and never less than informative collection of essays." (Sixteenth Century Journal, Winter 2008)



Book Information
ISBN 9781405139557
Author Roberta J. M. Olson
Format Paperback
Page Count 156
Imprint Wiley-Blackwell
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Weight(grams) 254g
Dimensions(mm) 230mm * 155mm * 9mm