Art Patronage, Family, and Gender in Renaissance Florence: The Tornabuoni

This beautifully illustrated book examines the extraordinary body of art work commissioned by male members of the patrician Tornabuoni family in late fifteenth-century Florence. The objects that they intended for domestic and religious spaces were impressive in both number and form, ranging from portraits, medals, and panel paintings to frescoes, intarsia work, and stained glass. Marking this collective patronal oeuvre was a fascination with portraiture, a passion for classical learning, a concern with salvation, and “a dedication to celebrating and remembering their female relatives” (204). By gathering the artistic commissions of three generations of Tornabuoni men into a comprehensive study, the author attempts to advance Renaissance patronage studies beyond the Medici, who have dominated Florentine inquiries of this type, and to highlight familial works of art honoring women. The latter of these two claims is more significant: Art patronage by affluent Italian families abounded, whereas works celebrating women of the...