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All is not fun and games: conversation, play, and surveillance at the Montefeltro court in Urbino
Author(s) -
WEBB JENNIFER D.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
renaissance studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1477-4658
pISSN - 0269-1213
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-4658.2011.00745.x
Subject(s) - panopticon , conversation , portrait , humanism , the renaissance , art , visitor pattern , art history , visual arts , law , sociology , political science , computer science , communication , politics , programming language
Works of art and literature commissioned for the Montefeltro court in Urbino and executed by Joos Van Gent, Pedro Berruguete, Baldassare Castiglione and Martino Filetico, use conversation, play, and wit to commemorate humanist interests and court practice. While these and other works celebrate Federico da Montefeltro's court, the illusionism of the intarsia panels in his studiolo do more than amuse. The objects and the uomini illustri portraits that fill the studiolo tease the visitor to the space and point to systems of surveillance and judgment as familiar to the Renaissance courtier as they were to the prisoner in the panopticon.