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Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > 1400 to 1600
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1900 Edition.
There is no shortage of books and booklets about Leonardo da Vinci,
including by this very author. So what makes this one different?
This small, full-color book joins Catherine's growing set of
"Enjoying Great Art" books that concentrate on the art itself, with
very little verbal interruption. And just like the other booklets
in this series, this one is in chronological order. But this
booklet's focus is on the art of Leonardo da Vinci, showcasing each
of the paintings currently attributed in part or in whole to the
great master. It also includes a number of his sketches, which are
also extremely artistic, and several paintings by other authors
that relate to Leonardo da Vinci and his work. Maps, quotes, and
"job" titles have been added to round out the extras included. So
whether you are starting a study of Leonardo da Vinci or just
looking for another great book to add to your da Vinci collection,
you are likely to enjoy this little tribute to the genius of this
one man - who packed much into his sixty-seven year life.
This little picture book brings you New York City through dozens of
beautiful paintings - paintings from a variety of artists from the
19th and 20th centuries. Each painting includes the title of the
painting, the artist's name, and the approximate date of its
completion.
One of the many books in the new "Enjoying Great Art" series: In
the past, particularly during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,
religion was a common theme for paintings. So it should be no
surprise that different themes of Christmas were captured often by
painters of these times. Enjoy this pictorial look at different
aspects of the Christmas story - the angel's proclamation to Mary,
Mary and Elizabeth, the shepherds, and the Wise Men - as you've
likely never seen them before.
Robert W. Burns lives in an ordinary house in Brighton, England.
Except it's not an ordinary house. Not at all. On the outside, it
seems like any other dwelling, but on the inside, it's been
transformed into an incredible art gallery, a shrine to and
celebration of Renaissance art, containing wonderful reproductions
of classic works from centuries gone by; portraits, wall frescos,
lunettes and friezes alike. This picture book is packed with them.
Just turn the pages - you won't believe your eyes. The house also
contains original Renaissance-style portraits of Russell Brand and
Wayne Rooney.
As featured by BBC's 'The One Show', ABC, Channel 9 Australia and
AFP. Certain images are from Robert W. Burns, others included by
kind permission of legendary international photographer Facundo
Arrizabalaga.
A treat for art connoisseurs and historians everywhere, and a real
bargain, given the immense quality of the artwork on show.
One of the original books in the "Enjoying Great Art" series, but
now bigger and better: Hats - ordinary things we see every
day...But are they always ordinary? Here is a picture book for
students of all ages...A picture book of hats and other head
coverings Different styles, colors, shapes, and sizes...Some worn
by men, some by women, and some by children...Many representing
status or station in life...Some that look like they are just being
worn for the fun of it. Look through the paintings that span many
centuries and come from different parts of the globe. Notice the
similarities and the differences...See the colors, the textures and
patterns. Observe whether the hats seem to be a primary focus of
the painting, or merely a smaller, insignificant portion. But, most
of all, enjoy
Originally published in Dutch and translated to Spanish for the
fourth centenary celebration of the death of El Greco in 2014, this
book is a comprehensive study of the rediscovery of El Greco --
seen as one of the most important events of its kind in art
history. The Nationalization of Culture versus the Rise of Modern
Art analyses how changes in artistic taste in the second half of
the nineteenth century caused a profound revision of the place of
El Greco in the artistic canon. As a result, El Greco was
transformed from an extravagant outsider and a secondary painter
into the founder of the Spanish School and one of the principle
predecessors of modern art, increasingly related to that of the
Impressionists -- due primarily to the German critic Julius
Meier-Graefe's influential History of Modern Art (1914). This shift
in artistic preference has been attributed to the rise of modern
art but Eric Storm, a cultural historian, shows that in the case of
El Greco nationalist motives were even more important. This study
examines the work of painters, art critics, writers, scholars and
philosophers from France, Germany and Spain, and the role of
exhibitions, auctions, monuments and commemorations. Paintings and
associated anecdotes are discussed, and historical debates such as
El Greco's supposed astigmatism are addressed in a highly readable
and engaging style. This book will be of interest to both
specialists and the interested art public.
Leon Battista Alberti made several references to miracoli della
pittura (miracles of painting) in two of his early works, Vita
(Life) and De Pictura (On Painting). After extensive research,
author Jim Egan has concluded that these "miracles of painting"
were the amazing full-detail and full-color images seen in a camera
obscura. In Latin, camera obscura means "dark room." In a dark room
with one small hole, the image of what's outside appears projected
on the interior wall upside-down and reversed left-to-right. The
room can be a people-sized room or a small box, like a pinhole
camera. Nowadays, with slide shows, movies, TV, and computers,
we're quite accustomed to seeing projected images. But over 575
years ago, back in the 1430s, a camera obscura image would have
blown the socks off people. However, there was a down side: this
was risky business. Creating full-color, full-motion, magical
images inside a dark room might be considered heretical. You might
find yourself on the wrong side of a barbecue. If you're so excited
that you must share your knowledge, there's a solution: write about
it cryptically. Only those "in-the-know" will catch your gist.
That's what Egan thinks Alberti did. Alberti, whose books On
Painting and On Architecture revolutionized these two fields, has
been explored extensively by art historians for years. Surely they
saw that Alberti was talking about a camera obscura. But no. Dozens
of the top art historians of the 20th century write that Alberti's
description of his "small box" was definitely not a reference to a
camera obscura. Instead, they think it was a "show box," a small
dark box with a small hole through which you viewed a picture,
which was painted on glass and backlit to make it luminous, like a
photographic slide. Who is Jim Egan to challenge great art
historians like Kenneth Clark, Helmut Gernsheim, Samuel Edgerton,
Anthony Grafton, and Robert Tavernor? For 40 years, Egan has been
an in-the-trenches guy: a professional photographer, spending hours
viewing upside-down images under the dark cloth of 4x5 and 8x10
view cameras. He has built dozens of pinhole cameras, camera
obscura rooms, and even a camera obscura building. Plus, he's
written ten books involving Renaissance optics, mathematics and
architecture. How did the art historians get it wrong? The short
answer is: "lost in translation" and "follow the leader." Egan
thinks Alberti not only had a camera, but that he also had a lens
to sharpen the image. And that Alberti had another camera obscura,
which was a "Lucy" machine, used to enlarge and reduce artwork. And
that Alberti hid clues expressing his understanding that "the eye
is a camera obscura" in the design of his "Winged Eye" symbol and
his bronze self-portrait plaque (both shown on the front cover).
A few years ago a learned bibliophile, stumbled on a 500 years old
manuscript hidden among the funds of an Italian library and
recognized it as the handwritten draft of a mythical book, thought
lost and for centuries, actively but vainly sought after. "DE LUDO
SCACHORUM" lost opus of Luca Pacioli, Franciscan friar, father of
modern accounting, friend, counsellor, teacher & contributor to
the century's incomparable genius, Leonardo da Vinci. The booklet
is mesmerizing. It is a hand sketched draft of hundreds of
complicated chess studies that Luca Pacioli must have been
collecting over a long span of time. Now, perusing the booklet
something catches your attention and the more you look at it the
more it becomes evident. While the writing is Pacioli's, two hands
instead had been there penning in the chess pieces, the first with
scholarly diligence the second with artistic swiftness. Whose?
Luca's and Leonardo's. They were friends, congregating and
travelling together, they had a history of partnership Leonardo
having illustrated Luca's DE DIVINA PROPORTIONE. It is clear: Luca
was set to prepare another yet of his popularising textbooks and
Leonardo had lent to his friend his "incomparable left hand" once
again. Obviously the possible implication of Leonardo da Vinci in
the drafting of the manuscript could not, not to be taken into
consideration. And it was rejected. Rightly, at times like ours,
adept to Dan Brown's like flights of fancy, doubt is a virtue and
suspicion should be "de rigueur" which means that a lasting grudge
must not be held to the "expert" who, possibly startled by the
news, not having been warned or seen the manuscript, quipped, "the
silly season on Leo never closes." In reality the discovery of Luca
Pacioli's lost manuscript heralds, without doubt, that the "a la
rabiosa" problems therein reported are of Leonardo's hand and we
well know that Leonardo penned between 1487 and 1490 a rebus "I a
roccha ro'" (I shall castle) confirming his perfect knowledge of
the games new rules. These can be traced back to the coronation of
queen Isabella of Spain in the year 1474 and to her crowning are
dated the new powers attributed to the Bishop and the Queen whose
status of most powerful piece on the chessboard justified the new
rules nickname of "mad queen" or "a la rabiosa." Yet nothing is
said at that time about castling, that important move absolutely
necessary in modern chess to counterbalance the overpowering new
status of the Queen. Nothing, from 1474 until Leonardo's rebus of
1487. Would it be its inventor Leonardo should then be considered,
if such hypothetical case were true, not only the co-author as he
is, of "DE LUDO SCACHORUM" and designer of the chess pieces therein
drafted but, as well and rightfully, one among the major: FATHER OF
MODERN CHESS. Time flies; while the excitement due to the discovery
of Luca Pacioli's lost work is ineluctably subsiding, so the focus
on this other of Leonardo's prodigious accomplishment is quietly
worming its way into the cosy corners of expert knowledge and world
oblivion. To avoid this fate this book, LEONARDO & LUCA PACIOLI
- THE EVIDENCE, is set to confirm that the chess design is indeed
the work of Leonardo. That two hands have been drawing the
booklet's chess pieces and that, so great was his genius and so
swift his incomparable left hand, that "the season on Leo still
brings beautiful fruits." Supporting the evidence, you'll find, in
appendix, a study of the Vitruvius Man showing its exacting
geometrical structure, further to a deep reflection and elaboration
of the principles Leonardo and Luca Pacioli outlined in DE DIVINA
PROPORTIONE. In truth, the design of the Vitruvian Man, based on an
extraordinary conception of the Golden Section, stands as a
paradigm for the geometric structure and proportions of the DE LUDO
SCHACORUM chessmen set. Wonder and enjoy
In this collection of nine essays some of the preeminent art
historians in the United States consider the relationship between
art and craft, between the creative idea and its realization, in
Renaissance and Baroque Italy. The essays, all previously
unpublished, are devoted to the pictorial arts and are accompanied
by nearly 150 illustrations. Examining works by such artists as
Michelangelo, Titian, Volterrano, Giovanni di Paolo, and Annibale
Carracci (along with aspects of the artists' creative processes,
work habits, and aesthetic convictions), the essayists explore the
ways in which art was conceived and produced at a time when
collaboration with pupils, assistants, or independent masters was
an accepted part of the artistic process. The consensus of the
contributors amounts to a revision, or at least a qualification, of
Bernard Berenson's interpretation of the emergent Renaissance ideal
of individual ""genius"" as a measure of original artistic
achievement: we must accord greater influence to the collaborative,
appropriative conventions and practices of the craft workshop,
which persisted into and beyond the Renaissance from its origins in
the Middle Ages. Consequently, we must acknowledge the sometimes
rather ordinary beginnings of some of the world's great works of
art--an admission, say the contributors, that will open new avenues
of study and enhance our understanding of the complex connections
between invention and execution. With one exception, these essays
were delivered as lectures in conjunction with the exhibition The
Artists and Artisans of Florence: Works from the Horne Museum
hosted by the Georgia Museum of Art in the fall of 1992.
Rembrandt's Code - From the Attic of Civilization can best be
described by quoting a reviewer: 5 out of 5 stars "Dr. Girsh has a
wonderful grasp of the complex nuances of Rembrandt's works, tying
together Biblical references to other important figures in history.
He shines light on hidden concepts that eludes even the most
analytical of readers. A strong theme of "the origin of thought"
branching into many subjects: languages, human thinking and
behavior. Truly a masterpiece " The book also serves as a guide to
the paintings in exhibition form enabling readers to enjoy the
reproductions of great masterpieces of European art on Biblical
themes, from Genesis to Deuteronomy. These are artistic
interpretations of scenes in Genesis: Creation, Noah and the Flood,
Abraham and the Binding of Isaac, Jacob Blessing the Sons of
Joseph. Rembrandt, Poussin, Rubens and West are but a few of the
prominent artists represented in Rembrandt's Code - From the Attic
of Civilization. For example, Rembrandt's masterpiece, "Isaac and
Rebecca," sensitively depicts the love that Isaac had for his wife,
Rebecca. The Biblical scenes are depicted by these classical
artists whose art is part of our cultural evolution. Rembrandt's
Code - From the Attic of Civilization has been honored by being
sold at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National
Gallery of Art in Scotland. This book has been presented in
exhibition format throughout the country and has been very well
received. To quote a visitor present at an exhibition, "We were
treated to a 'feast for our eyes' with some of the greatest
Biblical art ever produced."
During Pope Sixtus V's reign at the end of the Roman Cinquecento
(1585-1590), counter-reformed Rome underwent a significant
transformation of its liturgy and of the way in which its religious
monuments were approached by the faithful. The changes implemented
by the pope affected the decoration of monuments on the various
estates over which the Vatican has historically held dominion.
"Renovatio Christiana" is a scholarly study detailing the many
building projects Pope Sixtus V carried out in order to provide
clergy, residents, and pilgrims better access to Rome's main
basilicas and churches, as well as to grant the clergy new
processional pathways across the major churches. It also emphasizes
the relationship between patron and artists, showing how Pope
Sixtus V reshaped the Holy Steps, for instance, from a private
chapel exclusively for papal use to a stand-alone building open to
anyone seeking penance.
A highly academic and original text, "Renovatio Christiana" is a
thoroughly informative and insightful must-read for anyone looking
for a more detailed history and understanding of Rome's art during
the late Italian Renaissance period.
When we think of the Last Supper and art, we often think
immediately of Leonardo da Vinci. But the Last Supper has actually
been the subject of paintings by artists for many centuries. Here
is a collection of more than three dozen versions of the Last
Supper - many by well-known artists (such as Peter Paul Rubens and,
of course, Leonardo da Vinci), and many by lesser-known artists. As
with the other books in the "Enjoying Great Art" series, this book
is a pictorial journey for adults and students of all ages. Words
are kept to a minimum - with an introduction to the book, and then
artists and dates for each painting. For more details on Leonardo's
famous version, you may also be interested in Catherine's
"Exploring Da Vinci's Last Supper."
The Kunstkammer was a programmatic display of art and oddities
amassed by wealthy Europeans during the sixteenth to the eighteenth
centuries. These nascent museums reflected the ambitions of such
thinkers as Descartes, Locke, and Kepler to unite the forces of
nature with art and technology. Bredekamp advances a radical view
that the baroque Kunstkammer is also the nucleus of modern
cyberspace.
This small book was originally designed to help students slow down
and enjoy a specific exhibit about the genius of Leonardo da Vinci.
But it has been redone to be useful for students anywhere -
students who have access to websites or books about Leonardo da
Vinci. It includes a scavenger hunt that gives a good overview of
Leonardo da Vinci as artist, architect, inventor, mathematician and
more Then there are several other hunts that delve into some of
those other "job titles" that Leonardo held during his very busy
67-year life. Happy Hunting
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