Order #483877 Topic: [Revision] Arts Patronage in the Renaissance Era

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Essay Plan Template The research essay plan is worth 20% of your grade for this unit and should represent a reasonably developed stage of your thinking about the essay. A plan that reveals you haven’t begun to research, read, and think about the topic yet will not pass. As a guide, expect to spend 8 hours of solid work preparing this assessment and a minimum effort would be around 1,000 words excluding bibliographical details. Fill in the various aspects of your plan beneath each heading. This plan template asks you not only to outline your proposed arguments and sources, but also to articulate and reflect on your research and essay writing strategies. This will aid your tutor in giving you guidance on the research process as well as your argument and structure and is your opportunity to secure constructive feedback on your approaches and ideas before submitting the essay itself, so complete the template in as much detail as you can. Please submit this template as a Word document via Moodle. You will find the submission spot under the Assessment tab. Feedback will be provided via Moodle, so make sure to check this regularly.

Your name: Bryan (Ari) Tampubolon

Tutorial/ Lectorial day & time: Tuesday 1PM

Your tutor’s name: Emma Nicholls

Full wording of your selected question: What factors besides aesthetic impulses motivated

the patrons of renaissance culture to commission works of art?

Your overall contention/argument in response to the question (1-2 sentences): The

practice of utilising culture as a medium for achieving capital is no stranger to social

diplomacy, with cultural productions of image often being at the forefront of local and

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international political agenda. This essay will discuss the cultural production of art in the

Renaissance period and its underlying motivations aside from aesthetic impulse; social

capital and the enforcement of a class-based hierarchical structure.

A description of how you will approach your research and what you have done so far (i.e.

what search strategies will you use to identify primary sources; secondary sources? How will

you go about analyzing these sources, e.g. what questions do you plan to ask of them? How

will you keep records and distinguish your ideas from those of other scholars?):

The research I have done so far has been led on from my general research practice in my

wider degree, being across sociology and fine art curatorship. I have particularly been

looking at soft power politics and how it has influenced cultural production. I am aiming to

present this research from a sociological perspective, using Foucauldian theory on power,

and Bourdieu’s theory of social capital as a framework to explore the negotiation of cultural

works as a negotiation of power and social hierarchy. Sociology will become the

methodological approach to research and writing, establishing rationale behind

commissioning works for social capital before historical analysis is implemented.

This has pushed my research, so far, to establish a theoretical framework regarding the

construction of cultural power, looking into the capital it produces on a nationalistic scale. I

have been looking into events such as the cultural cold war, the emergence of documenta,

and East Asian contemporary media, as general reference points. The challenge will be to

localise the sociological framework and contextualise it within the Renaissance art period,

implementing it in order to rationalise the need for art patronage beyond aesthetic impulse.

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My research, admittedly, has been shy in approaching historical texts given my inexperience

with the discipline. Thus my next step, post-essay planning, will be to delve deeper into

historical primary and secondary sources.

A list of the key points you propose to argue - in other words, the topic sentences of each

paragraph (in a 1500 word essay, normally approximately 4-5 short paragraphs plus

introduction and conclusion):

1. Research groundwork: Introduction to Bourdieu’s social capital theory

2. Case study: Resolution of the Wool Guild of Florence to Commission the Statue of St.

Stephen from Lorenzo Ghiberti.

3. Above source and it’s links to Foucauldian power theory, and Bourdieu’s social capital

theory: looking at cultural soft power in the context of local structures, mainly the

Florence Wool Guild (or possibly Donatello’s David).

4. Palpable effects of art as social capital, and on a wider scale, power.

An annotated list of the primary sources you propose to use, stating which of your points

above you anticipate they will help you to support and how (N.B.: Also identify if there are

points of argument that you are yet to find sources for):

D’Este, Isabella. ‘Instructions of Isabella d’Este to Pietro Perugino, 19 January 1503’ in

Patrons and Artists in the Italian Renaissance, ed. by D. S. Chambers (Columbia, SC:

University of South Carolina Press, 1971), pp. 135-139.

D’Este’s letter to Perugino provides a contrast to the Wool Guild of Florence’s

approach to commissioning work. Her instructions provide a clear vision of what

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exactly she wanted in the artwork down to the placing of subjects and colour

schemes. Further analysis and research is needed for an understanding of this source

in the scope of art as cultural power and social diplomacy, particularly research into

d’Este and her history and social status in Florence. (B)

Ghiberti, Lorenzo. Resolution of the Wool Guild of Florence to Commission the Statue of St.

Stephen in Patrons and Artists in the Italian Renaissance, ed. by D. S. Chambers (Columbia,

SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1971), pp. 42-46.

Lorenzo’s letter represents the Guild’s status and position within Florentine society

during the time, an essential text for the essay as it presents a first person

perspective into the dynamics of producing social status during the Renaissance era.

(A)

Maffei, Timoteo. ‘On the Magnificence of Cosimo de’ Medici of Florence Against (his)

Detractors’ in Creating Magnificence in Renaissance Florence, ed. by P. F. Howard (Toronto,

ON: Victoria University Press, 2012), pp. 139-150.

Admittedly, this is a source I have yet to touch on, and only included in the

bibliography since it was in the reading list for this question. From what I understand,

this work touches on Cosimo de’ Medici and the works which he commissioned

during the Renaissance era. The source could potentially be very useful if the essay

discusses Donatello’s David. (TBD)

An annotated bibliography of secondary works which you have read or plan to read,

including how you propose to use them to support, inform or frame your points of

argument (N.B.: Secondary works of an academic standard normally include journal articles,

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book chapters, or monographs; websites are not necessarily regarded as appropriate

sources – check with your tutor on a case by case basis.) Use MHRA citation style to provide

full details of each item (Chicago is also acceptable). Rate each item in your list as A, B, C

(essential, desirable, or ‘if time’).:

Ashtor, Eliyahu. ‘The Wool Guild in Medieval Florence’, Journal of European Economic

History, 12:1. (1983). 197-201.

The journal article outlines the history of the Wool Guild, albeit during medieval

times. This source provides a great deal of insight on how the Guild operated and

what expectations the Guild had to uphold in the public eye. (B)

Baldwin, Robert. ‘Triumph and the Rhetoric of Power in Italian Renaissance Art’, Notes in the

History of Art, 9:2. (1990). 7-13.

Baldwin’s journal article delves into the hierarchical social structures which religion

primarily constructed during the Renaissance period, and finds where art has further

pushed their rhetoric during the time. This article, albeit focussing more on theology,

provides good understanding to how art was utilised as a tool in presenting image.

Deeper analysis still needed with this work in order to relate theory to the evidence

provided in this article. (B)

Bourdieu, Pierre. ‘The Forms of Capital’, 241-258 in Handbook of theory and research for the

sociology of education, ed. Richardson, J. G. New York: Greenwood Press.

Bourdieu’s work here collectivises power in the scope of social hierarchy, seeing how

it is implemented in the production of capital. Bourdieu’s work will serve as

theoretical groundwork for my essay, establishing a framework in which we view art

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being utilised as social capital. Further analysis is still needed with this work in order

to present the argument at the nexus of empirical evidence found in primary sources.

(A)

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: the birth of a prison. London: Penguin. (1991)

A pillar in the discipline of sociology, Foucault’s work here shifts our understanding of

power from the collective to the pervasive, wielded from accepted and established

forms of knowledge. Art was a significant factor in the construction of knowledge

during the Renaissance, and thus a form of power we can understand to be used in

social diplomacy. Producing hierarchical structures of social relations, and capital. (A)

Gaventa, John. Power after Lukes: a review of the literature, Brighton: Institute of

Development Studies. (2003)

Gaventa’s work further contextualises Foucault’s theory of power beyond

governmental structures, allowing for a broader understanding of the concept of

power on a social scale. Gaventa discusses power as a tool for structural social

change, and thus delves into hierarchical implications of power. This article was

crucial to my understanding of Foucauldian power. (B)

George, Adrian. Paper leaves and concrete trees: the diplomatic art of commissioning. pp.

153-181. in Art, Power, Diplomacy. ed. Dorment, R. London: Scala Publishing. (2011)

This chapter in the book outlines the British government’s relationship to art

production, particularly looking at how commissioned works have been utilised to

negotiate diplomacy between culture and governance. The chapter takes on a

historical perspective firstly before delving into the significance of particular works

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commissioned, looking into the logistical challenges of commissioning works and

social implications after the fact. The source discusses the importance of cultural

works in negotiating diplomacy and capital, albeit on a global scale, perhaps

applicable to localised productions of social capital. (C)

A schedule for how you propose to complete the essay on time (hint: set goals for when

you will aim to complete your library research, reading, analysis of sources, first draft,

editing, proof reading, etc.):

Essay writing schedule

Week 6: Research sources to be finalised, reading and analysis half underway.

Week 7: Primary stage of research completed, cross reference across works for any further

sources.

Week 8: First draft completed, consult tutor for feedback.

Week 9: Draft to be reworked, edited.

Week 10: Final draft completed, week allocated to editing: refining and proofreading.

Week 11: Essay to be submitted.

A reflection on your past essay writing experience (You have written essays before, and

have been given a good deal of feedback. Reflect on your experience – e.g. read back over

previous essays’ comments if it helps – and then identify and write down the challenges

which you wish to address when researching and writing this major essay.)

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My past written essays have tended to be over-ambitious in its argumentative scope and

lacking a streamlined direction; often the trouble with a conceptually expansive point of

contention. Hence, I have chosen to write on a simpler topic, focus on few sources and

allocate more room for the discussion of these. I’m a big fan of cross referencing within

secondary sources and my research process has always taken an unnecessarily large portion

of my writing process as a result. Cross referencing will be kept to a minimal, only utilised

when truly necessary. Admittedly, my research tends to lean towards the theoretical,

evident with my research for this work so far, the challenge will be to hone this theoretical

grounding and focus more of my energy into the empirical. I am yet to push myself in history

research, and perhaps further editing of my theoretical research will be needed in order to

produce a cohesive and centred argument.

Reminders about essay submission

Your essay must be double spaced. You must use footnotes to indicate your references. Use MHRA style (Chicago is an acceptable alternative). Harvard or ‘in text’ citation is not accepted in this unit. Your essay must include an alphabetical bibliography of works cited, separated into primary and secondary source categories. Footnotes and bibliography are not included in the word count. Refer to Moodle for further guidance on citation and essay writing tips in general. Submit your essay to the Moodle submission spot (under the Assessment tab) by the due date and time – no hard copy is required. If you require an extension, be sure to apply for this prior to the due date either by emailing your tutor (for extensions of up to two days) or applying to the special consideration office (for longer extensions). Good luck!