Exotic Animals in the Art and Culture of the Medici Court in Florence.

Intro -- Exotic Animals in the Art and Culture of the Medici Court in Florence -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of Figures -- Table of the Medici Dynasty -- Introduction and Global Perspective of Animal Collecting and Menageries -- Part 1: Cultural Uses of Animals at the Medici Court -- 1 Zoological Collecting: Practices of Exchange and Processes of Procurement -- 2 Menageries and Aviaries in Medicean Florence -- 3 The Sport of the Chase: "Exotic Hunts" -- 4 Spectacles of Slaughter and Courtly Pageants: Exotic Beasts as Symbols of Power and Colonial Ambitions -- Part 2: Exotic Animals in the Art of the Medici Court -- 5 Animal Imagery in the Service of Political Imaging -- 6 Medici Patronage and Early Modern Naturalism: Tensions between Scientific and Decorative Naturalism -- 7 The Ambrogiana Series of Animal Paintings -- Conclusion -- Appendices -- 1 Medici Archive Project Database of Documents Relating to "Exotic and Unusual" Animals -- 2 Transcribed Extract from Vincenzio Follini and Modesto Rastrelli, Firenze antica e moderna illustrata-Describing the Serraglio de leoni near San Marco, in Florence -- 3 Transcribed Extract from Cesare Agolanti's La Descrizione di Pratolino del Ser.mo Gran Duca di Toscana Poeticamente Descritto da M. Cesare Agolanti Fiorentino -- 4 Transcribed Extract from Gateano Cambiagi's Descrizione dell' Imperiale Giardino di Boboli-Describing the Serraglio degli animali rari -- Bibliography -- Index.

An examination of the diverse roles exotic animals, both living species and depicted as motifs in art, played in the fashioning of the Medici's courtly identity.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.