Background
Goffen, Rona was born on June 7, 1944 in New York City. Daughter of William and Stella (Friedman) Goffen.
( This enthralling book views the lives and greatest work...)
This enthralling book views the lives and greatest works of the Renaissance masters through the prism of their ardent rivalry. Rona Goffen, one of the most highly respected scholars of the Italian Renaissance today, brings Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and Titian to life in this lively account of their passionate strivings to outdo both living competitors and the masters of antiquity. Who would have thought that the serene masterpieces of the High Renaissance owed so much of their vitality to backstage brawling? Only Rona Goffen knows enough to trace these labyrinthine rivalries. In her book the artists take on cinematic vitality, making us see the artifacts produced by such creative brawlers in entirely new ways. They are knockouts. So is her book.”Garry Wills A handsome, copiously illustrated book.”Virginia Quarterly Review This lively and appealing book is an important achievement. . . . Magnificently researched and handsomely produced, Renaissance Rivals advances the discussion of a central aspect of early modern culture. In doing so, it has no rivals.”Werner Gundersheimer, American Scholar
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300105894/?tag=2022091-20
(Giovanni Bellini is considered one of the most important ...)
Giovanni Bellini is considered one of the most important figures in Italian Renaissance art. This text considers the artist's work both stylistically and in full cultural and historical context.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300043341/?tag=2022091-20
(Few saints have received so much attention as Francis of ...)
Few saints have received so much attention as Francis of Assisi and few artists so much attention as Giotto di Bondone and yet the master s cycle of Saint Francis in the Bardi Chapel of Santa Croce in Florence has been little discussed. Similarly, the remarkable panel that now serves as the chapel s altarpiece has been given only cursory consideration by historians and art historians even though this panel, with its twenty narrative scenes of the saint s life, represents the most complete visualization of mid-13th-century Franciscan spirituality which has survived. In this book Goffen shoes how the history of Santa Croce itself, which contains both of these works of art, parallels and summarizes the early history of the Order of Friars Minor. Santa Croce was and is the most important Franciscan church of Florence and, like the order itself in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it was bitterly divided into opposing factions, the Spirituals and the Conventuals. We see here that, tragically, the source of their disagreement lay in the character of Saint Francis himself. Unlike the Dominicans and, indeed, unlike all other contemporary religious orders the Friars Minor fostered a cult of personality of their founder. Precisely because Francis provided the example for his friars, the way in which his character was presented in art and in literature became of the utmost concern to the order, a matter requiring deep consideration and, eventually, careful control. But despite their disagreements, the factions were agreed about one central point: Francis was unique in having received the wounds of Crucifixion as a sign of divine approbation.Goffen considers the church of Santa Croce, the Bardi Dossal, and Giotto s cycle of Saint Francis both in relation to each other and in the context of the history and spirituality of the Franciscan order during its first century. The dossal is the visual equivalent of the writings of Celano, the first biographer of Saint Francis. The hero of the dossal is the Spiritual ideal, but by the time the Bardi family had commissioned its chapel of Saint Francis, almost a century after the dossal was painted, the Conventuals had effectively taken over the church and friary of Santa Croce. Giotto s cycle of Saint Francis in the Bardi Chapel is understood as the representation of the Conventual Saint Francis, the purposeful and controlled hero of Bonaventure s biography, which had been imposed as the only official life of a saint.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0271006218/?tag=2022091-20
Goffen, Rona was born on June 7, 1944 in New York City. Daughter of William and Stella (Friedman) Goffen.
AB cum laude, Mount Holyoke College, 1966. Master of Arts, Columbia University, 1968. Doctor of Philosophy with distinction, Columbia University, 1974.
Lecturer department fine arts, Indiana U., Bloomington, 1971-1973;
lecturer department art and archaeology, Princeton (New Jersey) U., 1973-1974;
assistant professor art, Princeton (New Jersey) U., 1974-1978;
assistant professor department art and art history, Duke U., Durham, North Carolina, 1978-1980;
associate professor art, Duke U., Durham, North Carolina, 1980-1986;
department chairman art and art history, Duke U., Durham, North Carolina, since 1983;
professor art, Duke U., Durham, North Carolina, 1986-1988;
Distinguished professor, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1988-1998;
department chairman art history, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1990-1996;
Board of Governors professor, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, since 1998. Visiting associate professor Barnard College Columbia University, New York City, fall 1980. Visiting scholar American Academy Rome, 1976.
Robert Sterling Clark visiting professor Williams College, 1997.
(Few saints have received so much attention as Francis of ...)
( This enthralling book views the lives and greatest work...)
(Giovanni Bellini is considered one of the most important ...)
Member College Art Association, Renaissance Society.