Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio’s Shipping Sculptures from Early Modern Italy: The Mechanics, Costs, Risks, and Rewards focuses on enormous amounts of sculptures moved from Italy to Spain from ca. 1500-1750. An analysis of an important body of unpublished archival documentation regarding the practical issues involved in making and transporting sculpture, provide the basis for this study of the development of technologies, infrastructure, and labor organization necessary to make such challenging transports of moving sculptures by land and sea possible. Artists, patrons, and agents had the eventual movement to a destination at the center of decision making when new sculptures were commissioned to send. Sending antiquities or second-hand works required even more planning and care.

Miranda Melcher (New Books Network) interviews Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio on the genesis of her book and the economics and the study of cross-cultural artistic exchange, state gifts, collecting and patronage in this fascinating trade.