Leone Leoni and the status of the artist at the end of the Renaissance

Abstract

The late Renaissance sculptor Leone Leoni (1509-1590) came from modest beginnings, but died as a nobleman and knight with a house and art collection envied by the nobility. Leoni's success as an artist and his social and intellectual achievements outdid those of any of his predecessors. Through extensive archival research, Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio sheds new light on Leoni's background and character, as well as on unknown aspects of his career, his social position in Milan, and the contents of his impressive art collection. Di Dio has collected and analyzed a sizeable body of unpublished material that, along with contemporary accounts, fleshes out Leoni's multiple roles as imperial sculptor, aristocrat, scholar, and criminal. She further examines the visual manifestations of these roles in his house, collection, and tomb, as well as Leoni's influence on artists in Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

Contents

From medallist to sculptor -- Sir Leone -- Rivals in art and crime -- The Casa degli Omenoni and the construction of identity -- Leoni's collection -- Leoni's legacy.