Bronzino: Renaissance Painter as Poet

Bronzino's stature as one of the great painters of the Florentine Renaissance has long been recognized. By contrast, his literary achievements as a poet have been neglected. Originally published in 2000, this study focuses on the poetry of Bronzino. His work in two media places him in a distinguished group of artist-poets that includes Michelangelo, William Blake and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In clarifying the meaning of Bronzino's poems, Deborah Parker argues that they are considerable literary achievements. Importantly, she demonstrates that our understanding of Bronzino's paintings is incomplete without careful attention to his creative work as a poet. Situating Bronzino's achievements within a broader social and cultural context of mid-sixteenth-century Florence, this study also contains numerous translations of Bronzino's poetry.

Review of the hardback: '… throw[s] new light on the artist's polished surfaces.' Chase Madar, The Times Literary Supplement, Review of the hardback: 'With reliable and sometimes elegant prose translations of Bronzino's poems, the author leads us through a reading of his rime in burla and canzoniere in relation to the works of Petrarch and to that of such sixteenth-century authors as Benedetto Varchi and Laura Battiferri, among others …This is a strong and readable book because Parker accepts her subject on his own terms, allowing him to speak through her.' Virginia Quarterly Review, Review of the hardback: 'This splendid book provides a much-needed survey of late Renaissance Italian poetic practice … It situates Bronzino's work in a rich social and cultural context and … offers an illuminating commentary on the interaction of the visual and literary arts at a particularly fertile period of their early modern development. The book makes a superb contribution to Renaissance studies …' Forum Italicum, Review of the hardback: '… [Parker] has produced an eminently readable and much-welcomed volume that is meticulously researched, and that contains some beautifully translated passages of Bronzino's poetry. It will undoubtedly be of great value to anyone working on the interaction between literature and fine art in the early modern period, as well as to specialists with a particular interest in 'this most canny, self-conscious, and allusive of artist-poets'.' Annali d'Italianistica