During the first half of the 17th century, Haarlem was a flourishing center of the arts and Frans Hals was its preeminent artist. This catalog demonstrates the variety of topics and genres painted, as well as the leading role of Haarlem artists in innovations in Dutch painting. German text.

Portraits were the most widely commissioned paintings in 18th-century France, but most portraits were produced for private consumption, and were therefore seen as inferior to art designed for public exhibition. The French Revolution endowed private values with an unprecedented significance, and the way people responded to portraits changed as a result. This is an area which has largely been ignored by art historians, who have concentrated on art associated with the public events of the Revolution. Seen from the perspective of portrait production, the history of art during the Revolution looks very different, and the significance of the Revolution for attitudes to art and artists in the 19th century and beyond becomes clearer.

This comprehensive study of the sculptures of Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) follows in twelve chapters his development as an artist and the area in which he excelled: portraits, the likeness of which astonished his contemporaries; the sculptures for St Peter in Rome; his extraordinary fountains; the timeless beauty of his renderings of mythological figures. German text. Die umfassende Monographie ueber die Skulpturen Gianlorenzo Berninis (1598-1680) beleuchtet in zwolf Kapiteln die Stationen seiner Entwicklung und die Gebiete, in denen er brillierte: die Portrats, deren -sprechende- Ahnlichkeit die Zeitgenossen verblueffte, die Werke fuer den Petersdom, die grandiosen Brunnen und seine Heiligen und zeitlos schonen Gestalten der antiken Mythologie. Den ausgefuehrten Werken gegenuebergestellte Vorzeichnungen, Tonskizzen und Modelle erlauben einen faszinierenden Einblick in den kuenstlerischen Schaffensprozea.

This fascinating catalogue documents the English obsession with marble sculpture, during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The display of classical sculpture was an essential requisite of every grand house in Britain during that period, and shaped the nature of the English country house - Holkham Hall, Kedleston Hall, Syon House, and many other equally famous examples. The master example was the Arundel collection, which itself drew on Italian precedents. There sculpture had been mounted in gardens, and the exedra as a means of display was taken over into English practice. The entrance hall with sculpture was then developed in unique form alongside the long gallery. Also to be considered are crypts and grottos, and study collections in the houses of men like Charles Townley, and indeed John Soane. This fascinating survey by Ruth Guilding gives valuable insight into an essential aspect of English 18th-century taste and culture. "...never forget that the most valuable acquisition a man of refined taste can make is a piece of fine Greek sculpture", as Hamilton wrote to Townley in 1771."

Images of Thought is an entirely new approach to understanding non-Western art. Supported by a wide reading in anthropology, theology and philosophy, it provides an intellectual context for reading the visual language of Indian and Persian miniature art. By decoding artistic conventions, and with searching visual analyses, the book attempts to transform our understanding of art as an illustration of history to art as a reflection of the intellect. Images of Thought should be of interest to the general reader, students and scholars of art and critical theory, as it shows that one of the world's richest painting traditions can offer important insights into issues of visual perception and intellectual production generally.

The essays in this collection range across literature, aesthetics, music and art, and explore such themes as the dynamics of change in eighteenth-century aesthetics; time, modernity and the picturesque; the function of graphic ornaments in eighteenth-century texts; imaginary voyages as a literary genre; the genesis of children's literature; the Italian opera and musical theory in Frances Burney's novels; Italian and British art theories; and patterns of cultural transfers and of book circulation between Britain and Italy in the eighteenth century. Collectively they epitomise the concerns and approaches of scholars working on the long eighteenth century at this challenging and exciting time. In the absence of universally agreed, overarching interpretations of the cultural history of the long eighteenth century, these papers pave the way for the ultimate emergence of such explanations.Authors discussed here include Margaret Cavendish, David Russen, Francis Hutcheson, Reverend Gilpin, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Dugald Stewart, Dorothy Kilner, Frances Burney, Anna Gordon Brown, Saverio Bettinelli, Henry Ince Blundell, Francesco Algarotti, Ugo Foscolo and Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi.

This book is the first complete study of the life and work of the 17th century Dutch painter Pieter Codde (1599-1678). Alongside Rembrandt, Codde was active in Amsterdam, the largest and busiest city of the Netherlands. Codde belonged to the first generation of painters who took part in the cultural phenomenon known as the Dutch Golden Age and therefore this monograph makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the early stages of development of the Dutch school of painting and its influence on later developments. The book includes a biography of the painter as well as a systematic and comparative iconographical and stylistic study of his work with an attached extensive critical oeuvre catalogue. This book is an important tool for both art enthusiasts and collectors as well as art professionals such as students, scholars, auctioneers and art dealers.

The age of the Baroque--a time when great strides were made in science and mathematics--witnessed the construction of some of the world's most magnificent buildings. What did the work of great architects such as Bernini, Blondel, Guarini, and Wren have to do with Descartes, Galileo, Kepler, Desargues, and Newton? Here, George Hersey explores the ways in which Baroque architecture, with its dramatic shapes and playful experimentation with classical forms, reflects the scientific thinking of the time. He introduces us to a concept of geometry that encompassed much more than the science we know today, one that included geometrics (number and shape games), as well as the art of geomancy, or magic and prophecy using shapes and numbers.
Hersey first concentrates on specific problems in geometry and architectural design. He then explores the affinities between musical chords and several types of architectural form. He turns to advances in optics, such as artificial lenses and magic lanterns, to show how architects incorporated light, a heavenly emanation, into their impressive domes. With ample illustrations and lucid, witty language, Hersey shows how abstract ideas were transformed into visual, tactile form--the epicycles of the cosmos, the sexual mystique surrounding the cube, and the imperfections of heavenly bodies. Some two centuries later, he finds that the geometric principles of the Baroque resonate, often unexpectedly, in the work of architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. A discussion of these surprising links to the past rounds out this brilliant reexamination of some of the long-forgotten beliefs and practices that helped produce some of Europe's greatestmasterpieces.