The Brill's Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History93-The Mannerist Altarpiece

Formally elegant, stylistically refined, rarefied in their display of knowledge and skill, Mannerist altarpieces are endlessly fascinating. Whereas previous scholarship aligns Mannerism with the world of secular concerns, the authors included in this volume chart a different course of interpretation. According to our argument, Mannerist altarpieces offer spectators a type of religious experience so stylized, so exquisitely beautiful that it becomes a work of art itself. In this respect, The Mannerist Altarpiece raises new possibilities for thinking about the field of Italian Renaissance art history, its past, present, and future.

Contributors include Mattia Biffis, Steven J. Cody, Sally J. Cornelison, Alexis Culotta, Marcia B. Hall, Tiffany Lynn Hunt, Stuart Lingo, Celeste McNamara, Caroline Paganussi, Giorgio Tagliaferro, and Mary Vaccaro.