The Florentine Tondo (2000)

In this now scarce and important study, Roberta Olson explores an important phenomenon in Italian Renaissance art: the flowering and early sixteenth-century painting and sculpture of the tondo (or circular form) in the Renaissance ideal of the perfect form. The Florentine Tondo fills a major gap in Florentine artistic and cultural history, collating documentary, textual, and artistic material with new evidence and discoveries about patronage, location, function, and iconography. It also charts the pattern of tondi production and establishes their meaning within a cultural context. In explaining the iconography of specific tondi, Professor Olson illuminates a further facet of Renaissance culture; many of her analyses provide answers to previously puzzling issues. Technical information and bibliography is provided for each tondo, making a significant contribution to the understanding of this specific genre as well as to Italian Renaissance art and culture in general. Condition: near fine.