The Essential Dürer ed. by Larry Silver, Jeffrey Chipps Smith (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 242 studies of the Queen, such as that of Francisca Hernández-León de Sánchez, they do not discuss her role as “the king’s other body,” which Earenfight proposes to do: “long on governance and short on culture and ceremony,” her study intends to be “both empirical and theoretical, a political biography and an institutional history” (9). Composed of six chapters, The King’s Other Body proceeds in a partially chronological fashion, examining major episodes in the history of María’s lieutenancies. The first chapter serves as an introduction to the thesis that guides the work. Chapter 2, the most biographical, recounts her family history and explores the queenly preparation that would have been hers as a presumed queen-consort. The third chapter presents María’s first lieutenancy and the subsequent events, which in turn lead to her second and longer lieutenancy, of which the first part is the subject of chapter 4. Chapter 5 considers the latter part of the same lieutenancy, in which she was embroiled with the liberation of the remença peasants, and concludes with the circumstances of her resignation in 1453 and her death five years later. The final chapter offers concluding remarks on kingship and queenship, and serves also as an epilogue to the Trastámara dynasty’s rule in Aragon until the union of the crowns in the Catholic kings, Ferdinand and Isabel. True to her word, Earenfight offers few biographical details, but when she does, she presents them from the perspective of a dutiful royal wife separated from her husband: Earenfight’s portrayal of María is uniformly positive and laudatory. Most of the work, however, concerns the complex political maneuverings of the court and gives substantial explication thereof. Nevertheless, those accounts never descend to the purely historical, for, as Earenfight has declared , her purpose is to examine María’s rule as a legitimate extension of medieval political practice: she argues at several points that the gender of the lieutenant general was seldom questioned; the contentious object was its mere existence for those who desired a contractual kingship, not one borne of the nascent Renaissance bureaucracy (if, furthermore, gender was a serious question , it was so by virtue of María’s supposed ontological, not political, inferiority as a woman) (133, 134). From the strength and survival of María’s administration , Earenfight adumbrates the beginnings not merely of a counterpart queenship ideology, but one of co-rulership, as would explain the subsequent joint rule of Ferdinand and Isabel (141, 142). This conclusion, drawing from the evidence presented, offers to the reader a point of departure not unlike that of the larger work: the queen-lieutenant is not a marginal or inferior figure in the history of political theory; on the contrary, as María was to Alfonso, it provides a fully competent extension of the king’s body when circumstance should demand. M. R. WEINBERG, Spanish and Portuguese, UCLA The Essential Dürer, ed. Larry Silver and Jeffrey Chipps Smith (Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press 2010) 304 pp., 88 ill. As one of the most famous German artists in history, Albrecht Dürer requires continued study and consideration. Within the last two decades, new discoveries and interpretations have emerged that add to our knowledge of this artist. The editors bring together many of these new perspectives in The Essential REVIEWS 243 Dürer, a book of twelve essays by senior art historians. The text is intended to introduce the reader to Dürer’s artworks, travels, writings, and personal life, while also raising current scholarly questions. The book contains an introductory essay, six essays focused on Dürer’s artistic production, four essays that examine Dürer’s social world, and a final essay that examines his reception in the twentieth century. The text is followed by a two and a half page “Short Bibliography” that guides readers to full-length books on Albrecht Dürer and related subjects. An index directs readers to discussions of specific individuals, subjects, and Dürer’s artworks. The text is illustrated throughout with black-and-white images. In cases where an image is mentioned but not illustrated...