The Florentine Tondo.

Roberta J. M. Olson, The Florentine Tondo 

New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. xxxi + 12 pls. + 376 pp. ISBN: 0-19-817925-X.

As a direct critique of Moritz Hauptmann's pioneering study (Der Tondo, 1936), Olson's The Florentine Tondo eschews formalism for a contextual approach. By providing documentary evidence for the creation, purpose, and placement of the tondo and using a number of iconographic strategies, Olson creates varied means for understanding these ubiquitous, but underappreciated, works of art.

Her thesis is straightforward: "Specific cultural, social, intellectual, and religious trends in Florence encouraged the flourishing of the form, and that when they ceased to exist as dominating forces its popularity declined." In eight major chapters and an appendix -- actually an annotated catalog of works organized by artists -- this well organized and carefully indexed study provides ample support of her thesis. In the opening chapters, Olson provides a visual background and prototypes for tondi by drawing heavily upon texts by Johannes Bolten and Rudolf Winkes, among others, concerning the imago clipeata. She broadens these preliminaries -- actually following the structure and content of Hauptmann's book -- by considering a stupefying variety of visual forms (deschi da parto, medals, plates, mirrors, medallions, and roundels), literary sources, and intellectual theories, all of which are interesting and useful to students of Renaissance art. What follows in the next chapter is a reformulation of her 1993 article on the tondo that becomes a springboard for her discussion of the cultural, social, intellectual, and religious trends in Florence. As her argument moves from evidence to interpretation, the speculations become increasingly layered and complex. Her fundamental interpretation of the tondo is that, as a format for religious imagery, it "immediately implied holiness, as had the tabernacle, signaling overtly a profound religious statement. However, as her exegesis becomes more multi-layered while pressing her basic point, her interpretations seem less compelling. In effect, anything can mean whatever she wants it to mean.

The remaining chapters present, in considerable detail, the most significant or representative examples of tondi, first in portraiture and then in religious imagery, with the latter category more greatly represented. An examination of tondi outside of Florence and in the first decades of the sixteenth century brings the core text to its conclusion. This main body of the book is followed by the mammoth catalog that expands and extends the discussion, providing meticulous detail and extensive analyses of individual works of art. Black and white illustrations and selected color plates of the most notable works support the text.

Olson gives ample attention to major and minor Florentine artists. From Fra Filippo Lippi through Sandro Botticelli, Lorenzo di Credi, and Piero di Gosimo to Michelangelo, Raphael, and Giuliano Bugiardini, she notes that tondi flooded the Florentine market as part of the idealization of domestic life and the celebration of family relationships. Olson also links this development to broader artistic concerns, such as the architecture of Filippo Brunelleschi and Gianbattista Alberti, by noting that tondi further reflected the humanism of the Quattrocento and its adulation of the circular form. Olson maintains that the tondo became one of the most popular formats for Quattrocento Florentine painting and some relief sculpture, and her catalog and illustrations reinforce this judgment. Regarding the virtual disappearance of the Florentine tondo around 1520-25, she notes that for a variety of complex reasons, including religious unrest of the Reformation and the onset of Mannerism, it lost the vital cultural connota tion it had held for Florentines during the Renaissance. The amassed evidence from her visual, documentary, and literary sources is impressive although some readers may not be completely persuaded by her interpretations.

Olson has created a fine, readable, and erudite study. With her ample background in Renaissance studies and extensive publications on such diverse topics as the representation of comets, Italian drawings, and Italian Renaissance sculpture, she has synthesized every pertinent printed work (the bibliography is a virtual guide to Renaissance studies) and put them to good work in support of her thesis. Her book will serve as a scholarly reference or a textbook for specialized courses. The handsome production will also make this book a valuable addition to any personal or institutional library.