Jacopo Sansovino: Architecture and Patronage in Renaissance Venice

Rating:
Summary: Engaging Read, Great Historical Writing
Review: Deborah Howard's 1975 book, here re-issued and in paperback, is one of the best architectural studies written on Venice. She takes Sansovino as her figure of interest, but she gives much more than a monographic study of the buildings he produced. We get to see the workings of Venetian politics and culture of the sixteenth-century, various personalities, and it is as much a history of human interaction, and how human relationships help to give the city form. The book is divided into chapters based on building types: churches, palazzi, civic projects, and in each she discusses Sansovino's various commissions and projects. Highly organized, thouroughly researched, well-written.