Gilio's Dialogo, first published in 1564, is not only the earliest treatise on art published in the post-Tridentine period; it is also, as Michelangelo scholars know well, the most sustained critique of the painter's Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel. Penned by a cleric from Fabiano and dedicated to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, it addresses the practices of contemporary painting in the form of a fictional dialogue among six interlocutors—an ecclesiastic, three lawyers, a medical doctor, and a letterato—who lament the fact that most modern painters are ignorant and thus fail to understand the subjects they need to treat or—no less dangerous—are primarily interested in showing off their intellect (ingegno) and imaginative ideas (capricci). Appearing within months following the conclusion of the Council of Trent, the Dialogo is a text that speaks directly to what was at stake for painters at the time, especially regarding sacred subjects, which demanded both decorum and truth to scripture so as to fulfill the mission of religious art (primarily to teach and to arouse devotion) and to avoid, at all cost, derision. Michelangelo's Last Judgment becomes the focus of the interlocutors’ discussion of “errors and abuses,” criticized for its lack of fidelity to scripture, “capricious” representation of individual figures (a beardless Christ, a fearful Virgin Mary, and angels without wings who look like “jesters and acrobats”), mixing of pictorial modes (historical and poetic), contorted (sforzate) figures, and, perhaps worst of all, pervasive nudity; these last two attributes, in addition to being indecorous, were seen as mere demonstrations of Michelangelo's knowledge of anatomy and “mirabile ingegno.”

Notwithstanding Julius von Schlosser's dismissal of the treatise as “revealing a meager and limited intellect” and being of interest “only as a mirror of its time” (La letteratura artistica [1964], 426), the Dialogo is widely recognized as one of the most important primary sources on the reform of art in the second half of the sixteenth century, influencing virtually all of the major art treatises of the period, notably those by Raffaele Borghini, Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Giovanni Battista Armenini, Gregorio Comanini, and Federico Borromeo. While scholars of Michelangelo and, more generally, of post-Tridentine art and other related fields who possess sufficient knowledge of early modern Italian have long read and mined Gilio's treatise, especially in the excellent critical edition by Paola Barocchi (Trattati d'arte del Cinquecento, vol. 2 [1961]), those without such linguistic ability, especially undergraduates, have lacked access to this indispensable source. With the publication of the volume under review, however, we now have a superb English translation of the Dialogo, which will certainly fulfill the editors’ mission of “open[ing] this fascinating text—and the important questions it raises—to as wide an audience as possible” (3).

A brief introduction and three essays precede the translated text. The first essay, by Michael Bury, presents as much as can be reconstructed about Gilio and the origins of his treatise; considers the scope of the Dialogo, with an emphasis on sacred painting and issues of decorum; and situates the text in relation to the Council of Trent's decree on sacred images. Carol M. Richardson then takes up the critical reception of Gilio's treatise among recent art historians, revisits the relationship between the Dialogo and the Tridentine decree, and—perhaps most importantly—underscores the extent to which, through the dialogue structure, Gilio is able to present multiple perspectives, both in praise and in censure of Michelangelo's fresco, without necessarily arriving at definitive conclusions. And Lucinda Byatt (a professional translator) discusses the original edition of Gilio's treatise, language issues and other significant challenges faced by the translator(s), and the fictional context (place and time) in which the dialogue is set. In addition to extensive notes that clarify and augment the translation, a short section presents the dramatis personae (the interlocutors) in the Dialogo and their points of view within the debate, a glossary defines key Italian terms that figure prominently in the text, and an index and thirty-five illustrations of works discussed (or relevant to the text) round out the critical apparatus of what is unquestionably a welcome addition to the Getty's Texts & Documents series.