Visual Cultures of Foundling Care in Renaissance Italy

The first to consider the visual culture of foundling hospitals in Renaissance Italy, this book focuses on four institutions in central Italy that possess significant surviving visual and archival material. This study draws on a range of fields and examines a wide variety of visual forms -including book illumination, altarpieces, fresco cycles, institutional insignia, processional standards, prints, and reliquaries - to elucidate the pivotal role played by visual culture in framing and promoting the charitable succor of foundlings.