RVF lxxvii–lxxviii and the rhetoric of painted words

Petrarch intensively examined the visual arts of his time. He possessed a Madonna painting by Giotto and commissioned Simone Martini to create the unique frontispiece of his codex on Vergil. His works are key texts with respect to the discovery of the landscape and humanistic villa culture as well as the female portrait and the triumphant iconography of the Renaissance and the Baroque. The myth of the poet-prince associated with Petrarch has continued to offer a productive projection screen for both literati and artists up to modern times. The texts in the book open up new perspectives on central aspects of Petrarch’s life and work and his importance as a charismatic phenomenon in the history of European art in a dialogue between literary studies and art history.