In Renaissance Florence, certain paintings and sculptures of the Virgin Mary and Christ were believed to have extraordinary efficacy in activating potent sacred

In recent years the study of miraculous images has experienced a substantial re-evaluation of their importance as powerful agents of divine intercession and ass

Jacopo Carucci, known as Pontormo (1494–1557), was the leading painter in mid sixteenth-century Florence and one of the most original and extraordinary Manner

This book traces the origins and development of the use of votive panel paintings in Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

From the strictly regimented church bells to the freewheeling chatter of civic life, Renaissance Florence was a city built not just of stone but of sound as wel