Book excerpt: 'In a subject of this magnitude, the author's coverage is impeccable ... Patronage in Renaissance Italy is an absolute must.' - The Art Book A perfect read for art historians and their students and for lovers of Renaissance art and civilization. In this first comprehensive study of patrons in the Italian quattrocento, Mary Hollingsworth shows how the patron - rather than the artist - carefully controlled both subject and medium in artistic creation. In a competitive and violent age, she explains, image and ostentation were essential statements of the patron's power. As a result, perceived cost became more important than artistic quality (and buildings, bronze, or tapestry were considered more eloquent statements than cheaper marble or fresco). Since Christian teaching frowned on wealth and power, money also had to be spent on religious endowments made in expiation. But here too the patron was in control, and used the arts and other means to express religious belief, not aesthetic sensibility. Artists in the early Renaissance were employed as craftsmen, Hollingsworth concludes, and only late in the century did their relations with patrons start to adopt a pattern we might recognize today. Praise for Mary Hollingsworth: 'Many readers, specialists and non-specialists alike, will welcome this book as a reliable and straightforward introduction to an important and interesting subject' - Literary Review 'She writes authoritatively, drawing on a vast store of knowledge' - Frances Spalding, The Sunday Times 'A thorough, readable and skilfully crafted survey' - Burlington Magazine 'This book will be of interest to anyone who looks at art in fifteenth-century Italy [and] will be particularly salutary for anyone who teaches or studies art history.' - Apollo Mary Hollingsworth is an academic and an expert in Renaissance art and architecture. Her published works include The Medici, The Borgias, and The Cardinal's Hat.