The focus of this study is the dilemma of artistic freedom versus the rules of art. It is a dilemma that mainly arose when artists sought new ways of giving expression to their imaginative power and of impressing the viewer with their creative ability, once they had acquired a reputation sufficient fot them to lay claim to the freedom that was needed to realise thode ambitions.á
This development occurred during the renaissance, when artists like Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian endowed the artistic calling with a status that would previouly have been considered impossible. But it was precisely these new claims to artistic freedom that highlighted the need to define its limits. Criteria were formulated in the literature on art which good art had to conform, according to the authors, and it was made implicity or explicity clear where the limits of artistic freedom lay. When artists went "too far" they provoked reactions from these authors, some of theme very violent. It is these reactions whitch testify to the field of tension between theory and practice, between what the writers about art expected and what the artists did, which are examined in detail in this book.
The period studied extends from the middle of sixteenthh to the beginning of the nineteenth century, when ideas about artistic freedom aquired a new dimension. Taking an overview of such a long period affords the possiblity of identifying patterns in the form of criticism which become apparent over the years. At the same time, the changes in ideas about art and, with them, in the expectations to be met by artists acquire extra relief againts the background of this continuity.
In the discussion of texts from the art literature the author has consistently chosen those texts which relate to specific artworks or to a particular manner of working. This is based on the conviction that studying ideas and theories about art in relation to artistic practice can offer an insight into how people thought about art and how they loocked at it.