Poetry and the Rise of the Renaissance Artist: An investigation into the interdisciplinary nature of the Renaissance

Abstract

This thesis investigates the role poetry played in the rise of the Renaissance artist. It argues that the poetic technique ekphrasis influenced the theoretical writings of Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) and became the basis for Giorgio Vasari’s praise of Michelangelo as ‘divine’ (1550). It shows how poetry became a source of inspiration, in subject matter and in technique, of Sandro Botticelli’s illustrations of the Divine Comedy (1480-1500). It investigates how Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci argued that painting should be considered a dignified profession in wider society and how their arguments were confounded by the failed Accademia di San Luca (1590) because of the lack of artists who saw themselves as intellectuals.