Resumen de Politics, monuments, and Venice's reclamation of Padua during the Cambrai War
During the War of the League of Cambrai (1509–16), Venice’s extensive mainland empire came under attack.The conflict led Venetians of all social strata to debate the value—and future—of their Stato da terra.Although many came to favor its renunciation, a small group of powerful nobles exerted their influence to pursue its recovery.This article proposes that these patricians promoted their strategy through the calculated commission of prominent sculptural projects for churches that celebrated the conflict’s greatest military success, the reclamation of Padua.These projects included three tombs for mercenaries who had participated in the Paduan campaign and a new altarpiece honoring the saint on whose day Padua had been retaken.By analyzing for the first time the connections between these artistic projects and broader wartime events and politics, this article expands our understanding of political communication through the visual arts in early modern Venice.
