Dominion of the eye: urbanism, art, and power in early modern Florence

Abstract

Through a spatial and historical analysis of the major squares of Florence, all built in the trecento together with primary civic monuments, Marvin Trachtenberg shows that, contrary to current belief, Florentine planners engaged in a theoretically sophisticated mode of practice. In these squares, geometrically structured perspectival views of the principal monuments were established long before Alberti and other Renaissance theorists may have promoted such planning. Including more than 50 new drawings and 200 illustrations, many published here for the first time, Dominion of the Eye challenges many of the cardinal truisms in the art history of the Renaissance, offering a new model for understanding the art of Italy in the early modern era.

Contents

History and theory -- From theory to practice I: the Piazza del Duomo -- From theory to practice II: the Piazza della Signoria -- Framing and grounding urbanism in theory and the arts -- On the politics of urbanistic order -- Resistance and renaissance.