ABSTRACT
The intention of delineating the perfect courtier links Baldassare Castiglione to one of the important cultural impulses of his time. Given the expressed political intention of Castiglione—the task of the perfect courtier is in the last analysis that of giving political advice to his ruler—some readers have pointed to the fact that Castiglione is remarkably unrealistic or unconcerned about the way affairs of state are actually conducted. Castiglione manages to convey the underlying cultural, social, and human harmonies which support their debates, the identity of context in which their discourse takes place, the similarity of their assumptions and allusions. Courtly society in Castiglione’s time developed an essentially aesthetic world-view even though there was little or no conscious separation from the dogmas and teachings of the church. In turn the idea of the artist or of art came to be applied to the prince and the courtier and, finally, to the self.
