Changing Patrons

“No one writing about Florentine and Italian art history will be able to ignore this elegant and probing book.” —F.W. Kent, Director, Monash University at Prato

“Probing, concise and grounded in extensive research, Jill Burke’s Changing Patrons: Social Identity and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Florence is a major study in the current vein. . . . Drawing continually on archival documents, Burke does a masterly job of tracking the ascent of her two families, particularly as seen in the fortunes of their palazzo and religious commissions. Seldom have the ties between social identities and art of display objects been so convincingly shown.” —Lauro Martines, Times Literary Supplement

“Burke's lucidly argued and well researched study proves to be a thought-provoking read whose significance goes well beyond a circle of readers interested in the study of patronage in Quattrocento Florence.” —Gabriele Neher, The Art Book

“The great strengths of Changing Patrons are Burke’s archival research into the Nasi and Del Pugliese families and her willingness to examine this research from a broad societal perspective. . . . It is well researched and well informed and both broadens our knowledge of specific examples of Florentine patronage and studies these examples in new ways. . . . Burke should be praised for both indicating and demonstrating how ideas about artistic patronage might be reframed.” —Barnaby Nygren, Sixteenth Century Journal

“Lucid explanations of artists’ contracts and the patronage of family chapels and building committees make Jill Burke’s first book an extremely useful introduction to 'how the fifteenth-century [Florentine] patron could use paintings, sculptures, and buildings to mediate relationships with the wider world' (p.189), and her thoughtful, often controversial, interpretations provide material for reflection.” —Jonathan Katz Nelson, Burlington Magazine

“The study of patronage in Renaissance Florence has a rich history over the past half a century and Changing Patrons by Jill Burke provides a welcome new chapter. Her succinct historiographical introduction will surely provide essential reading not only for those wishing to work in this specific area but also for any student of Renaissance Florence.” —Samuel Bibby, Object