by Michael Riddick
As the first full-length monograph dedicated to the artist, Moderno: The Immortal Brand of a Renaissance Goldsmith offers an unprecedented, comprehensive portrait of Galeazzo Mondella. For centuries, Mondella—operating under the humanist pseudonym “Moderno”—has been recognized as the most prolific and accomplished artist of the Italian Renaissance bronze plaquette, yet he has traditionally been treated as a disembodied name attached to a static list of small bronze reliefs. Building upon the foundational scholarship of Douglas Lewis and Luciano Rognini—whose work remains essential to the field—this monograph transcends the traditional catalogue format to present a living, breathing portrait of an ambitious Veronese patrician, master lapidary, and pioneering humanist whose serial inventions permeated the visual culture of Renaissance Europe.
What sets this book apart is its tripartite methodology, integrating rigorous archival excavation, formal stylistic critique, and technical material analysis. Rather than viewing Moderno as an isolated craftsman, the text reconstructs the highly specialized, mercantile reality of the multi-generational Mondella ditta (family workshop). By synthesizing civic tax registers, guild records, and newly interpreted notarial documents across Verona, Mantua, and Brescia, the book identifies the collaborative division of labor—including the specific contributions of his brothers, Lancillotto and Girolamo—that powered the family enterprise. Furthermore, it explores the “haptic Renaissance”—the creation of tactile objects meant to be handled and exchanged—by examining Moderno’s hierarchy of production, from unique gilt silver masterworks to serial bronze plaquettes that functioned as “talismanic” or protective artworks.
The book systematically confronts the thorny historiography of the anonymous masters traditionally clustered in Moderno’s orbit, dismantling pseudonymous constructions like the “The Master of the Herculean Labors,” “Lucretia Master,” and “Master of the Orpheus and Arion Roundels.” It reattributes these works to the Mondella family or his documented pupils, such as the gem-engraver Matteo del Nassaro. The narrative tracks Moderno’s evolution from the Veneto to the zenith of his career in papal Rome, where he translated the muscular tension of the Laocoön into intimately scaled masterworks.
By recovering the man behind the monogram, this work redefines Galeazzo Mondella not simply as a master of the bronze plaquette, but as a central architect of sixteenth-century Europe’s shared visual vocabulary. It serves as a vital resource for collectors of Renaissance metalwork, curators of decorative arts, and historians of the High Renaissance.
Book Specifications:
Extent: 141 pages
Scholarly Apparatus: Includes a comprehensive Timeline, Bibliography, and Index of Names.
Evidence Base: Grounded in granular analysis of civic tax registers, guild records, and notarial documents across three major Italian centers of production.
Renaissance Bronze 
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