PERFECTION/ THE ESSENCE OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE

Whether a painting, a sculpture, or a building, works of art in early modern Europe must achieve the highest degree of perfection. I f in the Middle Ages perfection is mostly perceived as a technical quality inherent in craftsmanship--a quality that can be judged a ccording to often unspoken criteria agreed upon by the members of a guild--from the fifteenth century onwards perfection comes to in corporate a set of rhetorical and literary qualities originally extraneous to art making. Furthermore, perfection becomes a transcen dent qua...[Read more]