Infinite Jest: Wit and Humor in Italian Renaissance Art

by Paul Barolsky

The author discusses satire, parody, irony, travesty, and burlesque, drawing parallels with Castiglione's book of the Courtier and the tradition of servio ludere, and finds sources for Renaissance playfulness in Ovid and Lucian. He relates the themes of Italian art to the literature of the period, in Italy and in the North, including the works of Lorenzo de' Medici Berni, Folengo, and Aretino as well as Erasmus, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Shakespeare.

Genres: Art

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 28, 1978

About the author

An internationally renowned scholar in the field of Renaissance Art.