MITTEILUNGEN DES KUNSTHISTORISCHEN INSTITUTES LXIII. BAND — 2021 IN FLORENZ HEFT 1 Bad Reception Expressing Disapproval of Art in Early Modern Italy LXIII. BAND — 2021 MITTEILUNGEN HEFT 1 DES KUNSTHISTORISCHEN INSTITUTES IN FLORENZ Bad Reception: Expressing Disapproval of Art in Early Modern Italy edited by Diletta Gamberini, Jonathan K. Nelson, Alessandro Nova Redaktionskomitee | Comitato di redazione Alessandro Nova, Gerhard Wolf, Samuel Vitali _ 83 _ Maddalena Spagnolo _ 3 _ Diletta Gamberini - Efmere saette: sfide e limiti Redakteur | Redattore Jonathan K. Nelson Samuel Vitali Preface di una satirico- Kunstliteratur Editing und Herstellung | Editing e impaginazione burlesca Ortensia Martinez Fucini _ 7 _ Alessandro Nova Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz Bad Reception in Early Modern Max-Planck-Institut _ 99 _ Paolo Celi Via G. Giusti 44, I-50121 Firenze Italy: An Introduction “Che non l’arebbe fat’a pena Tel. 055.2491147, Fax 055.2491155 s.vitali@khi.fi.it – martinez@khi.fi.it Cuio”. Porte, apparati e www.khi.fi.it/publikationen/mitteilungen facciate fiorentine in tre testi Die Redaktion dankt den Peer Reviewers dieses Heftes _ 15 _ Jonathan K. Nelson - für ihre Unterstützung | La redazione ringrazia i peer pasquineschi dello Zoppo reviewers per la loro collaborazione a questo numero. Richard J. Zeckhauser Italian Renaissance Portraits Carrozziere e dell’Etrusco Graphik | Progetto grafico RovaiWeber design, Firenze that Disappoint: Isabella d’Este, Francesco del Giocondo, and Produktion | Produzione _ 115 _ Sefy Hendler Centro Di edizioni, Firenze Other Displeased Patrons “Broken into pieces and its Die erscheinen jährlich in drei Heften und head thrown into the square”: könnenMitteilungen im Abonnement oder in Einzelheften bezogen werden durch | Le escono con cadenza The Numerous Failures of quadrimestrale e possonoMitteilungen essere ordinate in abbonamento _ 33 _ David Ekserdjian o singolarmente presso: Bad Reception and the Michelangelo’s Bronze Statue Centro Di edizioni, Via dei Renai 20r of Pope Julius II I-50125 Firenze, Tel. 055.2342666, Renaissance Altarpiece [email protected]; www.centrodi.it. Preis | Prezzo Einzelheft | Fascicolo singolo: _ 47 _ Chiara Franceschini _ 127 _ Raymond Carlson € 30 (plus Porto | più costi di spedizione) Giudizi negativi e stime Epistolary Criticism, Jahresabonnement | Abbonamento annuale: € 90 (Italia); € 120 (Ausland | estero) d’artista nel mondo di Vasari the Minerva , and Christ e Michelangelo Michelangelo’s Problem Die Mitglieder des Vereins zur Förderung des Garzone Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz (Max-Planck- Institut) e. V. erhalten die Zeitschrift kostenlos. I membri del Verein zur Förderung des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz (Max-Planck-Institut) e. V. ricevono _ 71 _ Diletta Gamberini _ 147 _ Gail Feigenbaum la rivista gratuitamente. The Fiascos of Mimesis: Vulgarity and the Masterly Adresse des Vereins | Indirizzo del Verein: Ancient Sources for Renaissance Manner: Annibale Carracci c/o Schuhmann Rechtsanwälte Ludwigstraße 8 Verse Ridiculing Art Cites His Sources D-80539 München foerderverein@khi.fi.it; www.khi.fi.it/foerderverein Die alten Jahrgänge der sind für Subskribenten online abrufbar über JSTORMitteilungen (www.jstor.org ). Le precedenti annate delle sono accessibili online su JSTOR (www.jstor.org)Mitteilungen per gli abbonati al servizio. ____ 1 Domenico Ghirlandaio and workshop, Malatesta Altarpiece. Rimini, Museo della Città di Rimini “L. Tonini” ITALIAN RENAISSANCE PORTRAITS THAT DISAPPOINT ISABELLA D’ESTE, FRANCESCO DEL GIOCONDO, AND OTHER DISPLEASED PATRONS Jonathan K. Nelson - Richard J. Zeckhauser The history of portraiture is usually presented as works have never been studied systematically as a group. a happy sequence of successes. Prominent individuals Research on Renaissance portraits generally ignores commission art that showcases their best qualities. The what decision theorists call selection bias, namely that works delight the patrons, artists, and viewers, and the some groups (successful portraits) are much more like- cultural patrimony of the world is increased. But just ly to survive than others (disappointing portraits). As a as accounts of wars are disproportionately written by result of selection bias, standard assessments of Italian the victors, the successful fruits of Italian Renaissance Renaissance commissions convey an unrealistically fa- patronage have been prominently displayed and ap- vorable picture. In this distorted reconstruction of the provingly admired. They are discussed by the patrons past, the risks inherent in having one’s portrait rendered and artists and written up favorably by their contem- in Renaissance Italy have been woefully underestimated. poraries and ours. Historical accounts tend to lose track, by contrast, of works that disappointed their Risk in the Renaissance patrons. Giorgio Vasari, in his artists’ biographies, When commissioning a portrait, patrons recog- discussed successful commissions far more often than nize the possibility of a disappointing outcome, even failures; he could have opted for a diferent balance. an extremely unacceptable one. In common parlance, Individual portraits that displeased or disgraced risk identifies the possibility of losing something of val- their subjects are occasionally mentioned in publica- ue and includes two elements: an event’s probability, or tions about the patrons or artists, but such unsuccessful likelihood of happening, and its consequences.1 This 1 Decision theorists distinguish between risk, where probabilities can unknown; see Frank P. Knight, , Boston/New York Risk, Uncertainty and Profit be calibrated with some precision, and uncertainty, where probabilities are 1921, and Leonard J. Savage, , New York 1954. The Foundation of Statistics | 15 understanding of risk, already well-known in medieval sioned paintings and sculptures. Merchants in Re- Italy, is central to the present essay. In an article en- naissance Italy, like many of their counterparts today, titled “Risky Business”, economic historian Giovanni were experts in pricing and were obsessed with calcu- Ceccarelli explained that “Risk as an element of credit lations about future developments, calculations that ( ) was well known to canonists and theo- had to recognize uncertainties. Especially in Florence, logianspericulum already sortis by the end of the twelfth century” and where the ruling class was informed by the mercan- often discussed in the context of usury.2 In subsequent tile culture, an extraordinary number of record books publications, Ceccarelli focused on the late medieval survive. They attest to a keen awareness of uncer- and early modern industry in Florence that insured tain future outcomes and the returns to risk-taking. maritime commerce. Formal insurance mechanisms Though some noble patrons might have had less are thought to have originated in the fourteenth cen- helpful commercial experience, they too were surely tury, and by the fifteenth century marine insurance aware of risks. That hardly implies that either group, was well established for trade in the Mediterranean.3 even if alert to dangers, mostly made rational or well- Merchants from all the major European cities shipped informed decisions. The field of behavioral decision, goods across the continent and the seas beyond; that which has received two Nobel Memorial Prizes in commerce was supported by now familiar insurance economic sciences, has established that individuals, policies.4 The risks associated with maritime expe- even when dealing with monetary losses, often make ditions and the delivery of goods involved material non-rational decisions.7 These must have been com- items, items that if lost could be directly compensated mon with artistic commissions, particularly given the with money. The historian Nicholas Baker has argued unique circumstances that applied to each project. that Italian Renaissance merchants “began to think One of the greatest and most frequent risks art probabilistically – if not statistically – about the po- patrons encountered was delay or non-completion, a tential benefits of risk, of gambling a stake, whether danger well known by those who commissioned works literally on a game of chance or figuratively through from Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo. Not sur- speculative but potentially lucrative investments”.5 prisingly, contracts regularly stipulated a fine for late Across Italy, but especially in Florence and Ven- delivery. Other potential problems included the use ice, art patrons were often wealthy businessmen who of substandard materials or poor workmanship. Con- were familiar with the world of insurance and risk tracts also addressed these risks, and some even ofered evaluations. Nevertheless, the Renaissance concept of the wary patron the possibility of refusing a work out- risk has not been applied to art patronage.6 Patrons right.8 Nearly all contracts for paintings and sculp- were surely aware of the risks when they commis- tures refer to altarpieces, fresco cycles, or major public 2 Giovanni Ceccarelli, “Risky Business: Theological and Canonical uals of Politics and Culture in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honour of Edward Thought on Insurance from the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth Century”, , conference proceedings Toronto 2014, ed. by Mark Jurdjevic/Rolf Muir in: , XXXI (2001), pp. 607–658: 613. Strøm-Olsen, Toronto 2016, pp. 259–281: 266. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 3 , 6 We explore this topic in (forthcom- Idem Un mercato del rischio: assicurare e