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Description: The Italian Renaissance Nude
~It is not always easy being a mother (on occasion single-handed) and writing a book; it involves doing two hugely rewarding but incredibly daunting things at the same time. I’ve found both are better with help. My many scholarly debts of gratitude are mainly acknowledged in the text itself. I would like to acknowledge others here.
PublisherYale University Press
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Acknowledgments
It is not always easy being a mother (on occasion single-handed) and writing a book; it involves doing two hugely rewarding but incredibly daunting things at the same time. I’ve found both are better with help. My many scholarly debts of gratitude are mainly acknowledged in the text itself. I would like to acknowledge others here.
Thanks, first of all, to the Leverhulme Trust. I would not have been able to write this book if it weren’t for a Philip Leverhulme Prize awarded to me in 2009–11. This gave me the great gift of time: two years to focus on research. Gillian Malpass at Yale University Press, despite the many years of waiting, was patient and encouraging throughout. I’d like to thank her for sticking with this project and handing over so gracefully and helpfully to her new colleagues at the Press. My thanks to all at Yale, especially Lydia Cooper, for so ably helping me through the publication process. Just as I had finished the final draft of this book, Stephen Campbell and Thomas Kren contacted me to see if I could work with them on an exhibition on the Renaissance nude at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, in 2018, and then the Royal Academy, London, in 2019. It has been a huge privilege to work with such generous and erudite scholars.
I’m hugely grateful to my own colleagues in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh who covered for me in my absence, and who have been wonderfully supportive since then. Carol Richardson deserves a special mention for saving my bacon on many occasions, both professionally and personally. Halle O’Neal, Heather Pulliam, and Richard Williams have all raised my spirits (and occasionally plied me with spirits) just when I needed it. This book simply would never have happened without the many coffees, lunches, and drinks shared with Stephen Bowd and Sarah Cockram, who are both brilliant historians and brilliant friends. Irene Mariani and Alex Collins have acted as research assistants over the last few years, and I’m grateful for all their hard work. The cost of illustrations in this volume was covered by the honorarium I receive as Associate Editor of the journal Renaissance Studies. My thanks to the Society for Renaissance Studies council and particularly to Jenny Richards, the journal’s editor, who has been both inspirational and encouraging during difficult times.
For tea, coffee, wine, and many happy hours over the last decade or so, thanks to my friends Anna Canning, Rose France, Beckie Marsland, Moira McFarlane, and Joachim and Natascia Gentz. My sister Lucy Burke, who is preternaturally wise and amazingly kind, brings laughter even to the most difficult of situations. My sons, Joe and Zac, have taught me more than they can possibly know; I’m so proud to be their mother. As for Gary Ferguson — his steadfast and unwavering love and support have been genuinely lifesaving. Words are not enough.
My father, Mark Burke, died suddenly and unexpectedly in August 2014. He was incredibly proud of his daughters and their journeys in academia — and may well have been the only person to have read all of my publications all of the way through. I miss him. This book is dedicated to him and to my mother, Barbara Burke. Her kindness, erudition, dedication to social justice, and ability to get to the bottom of a laundry basket still leave me gasping for breath.
Acknowledgments
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