Exotic animals in the art and culture of the Medici court in Florence / / by Angelica Groom.

• Superior document: Rulers & elites : comparative studies in governance, volume 16
• VerfasserIn: Groom, Angelica,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2019]; 2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Rulers & elites ; v. 16.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (360 pages) :; illustrations (some color).

"The book examines the role rare and exotic animals played in the cultural self-fashioning and the political imaging of the Medici court during the family's reign first as Dukes of Florence (1532-1569) and subsequently as Grand Dukes of Tuscany (1569-1737). The book opens with an examination of global practices in zoological collecting, and cultural uses of animals. The Medici's activities as collectors of exotic species, the menageries they established and their deployment of animals in the ceremonial life of the court and in their art are examined in relation to this wider global perspective. The book seeks to nuance the myth promoted by the Medici themselves that theirs was the most successful princely seraglio in early modern Europe"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

Introduction and global perspective of animal collecting and menageries -- Zoological collecting at the Medici court: practices of exchange -- And processes of procurement -- Menageries and aviaries in Medicean Florence -- The sport of the chase: "exotic hunts" at the Medici court -- Spectacles of slaughter and courtly pageants: exotic beasts -- As symbols of power and colonial ambitions -- Animal imagery in the service of political imaging -- Medici patronage and early modern naturalism: tensions -- Between scientific and decorative naturalism -- The Ambrogiana series of animal paintings.