The Ugly Renaissance (gnv64) torrent

The Ugly Renaissance - Sex, Greed, Violence and Depravity in an Age of Beauty
by Alexander Lee
Doubleday | October 2014 | ISBN-10: 0385536593 | ePUB | 509 pages | 20.9 mb

A fascinating and counterintuitive portrait of the sordid, hidden world behind the dazzling artwork of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, and more

In this lively and meticulously researched portrait, Renaissance scholar Alexander Lee illuminates the dark and titillating contradictions that were hidden beneath the surface of the period’s best-known artworks. Rife with tales of scheming bankers, greedy politicians, sex-crazed priests, bloody rivalries, vicious intolerance, rampant disease, and lives of extravagance and excess, this gripping exploration of the underbelly of Renaissance Italy shows that, far from being the product of high-minded ideals, the sublime monuments of the Renaissance were created by flawed and tormented artists who lived in an ever-expanding world of inequality, dark sexuality, bigotry, and hatred.
The Ugly Renaissance is a delightfully debauched journey through the surprising contradictions of Italy’s past and shows that were it not for the profusion of depravity and degradation, history’s greatest masterpieces might never have come into being.


CONTENTS
Introduction: Between Heaven and Earth
I THE WORLD OF THE RENAISSANCE ARTIST
1. Michelangelo’s Nose
2. In Peter’s Shadow
3. What David Saw
4. The Workshop of the World
5. Michelangelo in Love
II THE WORLD OF THE RENAISSANCE PATRON
6. The Art of Power
7. The Men with the Midas Touch
8. Mercenaries and Madmen
9. The Unholy City
III THE RENAISSANCE AND THE WORLD
10. Filippo and the Pirates
11. Salomone’s Crime
12. The Rising Crescent
13. Of Human Bondage
14. Brave New Worlds
Epilogue: The Window and the Mirror
APPENDIXES
A The Medici
B Renaissance Popes