Art and Authority in Renaissance Milan.

Evelyn Welch's book makes a major contribution, not just to the study of a crucial Renaissance cultural center, but also implicitly to historio-graphical reflection. Rejecting reductive accounts of the history of cultural production in Milan in terms of the patronage of successive princes and their courts, Welch explores in various contexts the roles of local institutional and social formations, enlivening her account through prosopographical accounts of key figures described as "filters" between court and city. This dialogic model situates her clearly ha the debate about the mechanisms and political instrumentality of visual culture that, in Italian historical studies, has focused on Renaissance Rome, a city often mentioned by Welch but without attention to its historiography. On the other hand, Welch cites revisionist work on the France of Louis XIV, although she does not address its methodological import.

Indeed, Welch's study, begun as a traditional patronage study, evolved in response to her findings. Something of the original conception adheres in the opening chapter, a diachronic account of Visconti self-representation and appropriations of tradition, not to speak of the patronage of others. Welch's insistence on the issue of the effectivity of the "saturation of (ducal) images" in the city leads to a synchronic discussion of the institutional structures providing the context for and on occasion enabling - princely self-representation. The discussion suffers from the lack of serviceable maps; the two Renaissance maps illustrated are merely decorative. Nevertheless, Welch convincingly shows the "complex interactions" engendered by the great building projects of the Renaissance.

The most important project was of course the cathedral, begun in the year of a crucial shift in government. The project's vicissitudes are familiar from James Ackerman's famous article "Ars sine scientia nihil est," reprinted in Distance Points (MIT Press, 1991) with a postscript apparently missed by Welch. Her sometimes unclear account of the succession of architects and designs does not supersede Ackerman (e.g., on the battle of architectural styles). But Welch documents the duke's hands-off policy, the economic implications of design choices, and a remarkable rivalry between German and Italian masters - the latter inspired by the French, not the provincial Lombards - which was exemplified in contrasting sacristy portals.

The Italians' work, expressing both divine and this-worldly authority, evoked current designs for the cathedral's external decoration; the Germans, in a losing cause, opposed to this a softer style in imagery devoted to the life of the Virgin. Welch's gendered characterization of the former (as masculine) is hard to reconcile with the Milanese masters' constant struggle to maintain their vision of the low, spreading cathedral alluding, as indicated by the fabbrica's emblem (illustrated but not discussed by Welch), to the mantle of the Madonna of Mercy. The Milanese rejection of projects marked by centered verticality does not surprise.

The final sections focus on the Sforza era. Welch's discussion of the background and realization of the hospital project demonstrates its importance to the legitimation of Francesco Sforza's nascent regime. She sheds light on the close connection with Florence in this period, especially in terms of the cultural mediation of Giovanni de' Medici; indeed, Filarete's rivals were not only Lombards, with Giovanni, for example, sponsoring Bernardo Rossellino, fresh from his achievements as papal architect.

Welch then turns to the history of princely residences in Milan, culminating with the Castello Sforzesco. Especially interesting is the account of patronage options: an ambiance saturated with visual representations of courtly and dynastic themes, or the building treated as a shell for ritual and the famous music of the Milanese court. Welch notes the elaboration of separate zones in the court and the fortress, the latter containing Bramante's image of Argos guarding both the treasury and the birthing room, in a suggestive association of princely fertility and gold. Finally, Welch provides a useful account of the relationships of artists, notably Leonardo, and the court; here too she fully demonstrates the need to attend to complexity and local circumstance.

CHARLES BURROUGHS Binghamton University