Many studies have shown that images - their presence in the daily lives of the faithful, the means used to control them, and their adaptation to secular uses - were at the heart of the Reformation crisis in northern Europe. But the question as it affects the art of Italy has been raised only in highly specialized studies. In this book, Alexander Nagel provides the first truly synthetic study of the controversies over religious images that pervaded Italian life both before and parallel to the Reformation north of the Alps. Tracing the intertwined relationship of artistic innovation and archaism, as well as the new pressures placed on the artistic media in the midst of key developments in religious iconography, "The Controversy of Renaissance Art" offers an important and original history of humanist thought and artistic experimentation from one of our most acclaimed historians of art.

Prizes

Commended for PROSE (Art History/Criticism) 2011

"Alexander Nagel's account of the underappreciated radicality of Renaissance aesthetic experiments is packed with solid research, original interpretive insights, and flashes of poetry. This is a substantial, well-written, and much-needed book that will make a major impact on the field." - Rebecca Zorach, University of Chicago"

Alexander Nagel is professor of Renaissance art history at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. He is the author of Michelangelo and the Reform of Art and coauthor, with Christopher Wood, of Anachronic Renaissance.