Grace and Favour

This chapter shows that the life of Renaissance grace begins in earnest with Baldassare Castiglione's Libro del cortegiano (Book of the Courtier, 1516) and Raphael's portrait of Castiglione (1514–1516). It does so because preoccupations with grace and its multiple senses are central to both the book of manners and the painting, so much so that Castiglione came to be known as the great theorist of grace while Raphael was identified as its painter. Both have been referred to in countless studies from the sixteenth century to today as the embodiments of Renaissance grace. In addition, the network of interconnections between them makes Castiglione and Raphael a promising point of departure. It is an ideal testing ground for observing how grace behaves in different media and examining the extent to which it can be said to contribute to those interdisciplinary rivalries and friendships that allowed Renaissance learning, literature, and arts to flourish.