Workshop with Antonio Urquízar Herrera

The existence of a correlation between public image and noble status was a shared belief in Early Modern Europe. Some fifty years ago, the so-called “theory of magnificence” and the notion of “splendor” offered a historical interpretation for the emergence of the sumptuous artistic decorations of 15th- and 16th-Century Italy. These ideas have been widely used to explain the spread of courtly splendor across Europe. However, magnificence alone does not give us the full picture...