Stefanie Solum is Professor of Art History at Williams College, USA.
'Solum presents a fresh, innovative interpretation of a familiar masterpiece by Filippo Lippi, illuminating our understanding of a series of related works. This erudite and lucid text offers a new paradigm for the definition of the nature of the artist-patron relationship, especially important for future work on female patronage.' Bruce Edelstein, New York University in Florence 'Stefanie Solum opens this stimulating book by discussing a question fundamental for those interested in artistic patronage in Renaissance Florence: whether or not laywomen commissioned significant paintings, sculptures, or buildings in the city during the fifteenth century. ...Lucrezia certainly pursued a religious ideal embodied by the saints, exemplified in religious texts, and outlined in devotional literature. Solum's ingenious utilization of such evidence yields a fascinating hypothesis concerning Lucrezia's role in influencing the creation of a major fifteenth-century painting, as well as a reconstruction of her inner life of prayer and rich religious imagination.' CAA.Reviews