Rovelli, Marina; (2023) Forging Reputations: Working and Understanding Metals in Sforza Milan (1450 - 1499). Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis addresses the circulation of metals and the production of metalwork in Milan under the Sforza rule (1450-1499), exploring how gold, silver and copper alloys (brass and bronze) were understood and worked in a city that was at the crossroads between northern and southern Europe and their respective cultural and material traditions. This research provides the first insight into the fundamental role played by the arts of metals in the city, taking into consideration also their impact on the Milanese social and working structures. By looking at and thinking through metals and their meanings, this thesis is also an innovative study of the characteristic visual and material culture of the Sforza court and of fifteenth-century Milan more broadly, a context little explored by scholarship in the panorama of Renaissance Italy. New and revised documents located thanks to extensive archival research, as well as a thorough analysis of sources, allow to open original perspectives on this generally little explored context.

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