Renaissance Conspiracies in Nineteenth-Century Italian Art: The Rediscovery of History between Literature and Visual Culture

This article investigates the revitalization of the literary theme of Renaissance conspiracies in nineteenth-century Italian art. The topic of political plots enjoyed widespread diffusion in Italian Renaissance literature, especially in the second half of the 1400s, when it was chosen as the subject of several texts. It is significant that four centuries later this topic was resurrected and reframed in a number of artistic works, becoming a pivotal theme of both Romantic visual culture and the later artistic movement of the Macchiaioli. In this evolution, the issue of conspiracies acquired new overtones, placed within the context of a turbulent period of political transition. It becomes a vehicle for modern political ideologies and an artistic pattern able to convey a new cultural sensibility. Thus the fertile relationship between literature and art brings new life into the recovery of Renaissance history, enriching the early modern tradition and continuously reviving it.