With an engaging text by renowned Michelangelo scholar William E. Wallace, Michelangelo: The Complete Sculpture, Painting, Architecture brings together in one exquisite volume the powerful sculptures, the awe-inspiring paintings, and the classical architectural works of one of the greatest artists of all time. Including everything from his sculptures Pietàs and David to his beautiful paintings of the Sistine Chapel and the Doni Tondo, the book provides an opportunity to view Michelangelo’s work as never before, and to more fully understand the artist who, through his work, spoke of his life and times. The frescoes are specially printed on onion skin paper to recreate the actual appearance of light reflecting off of the plaster walls. The stunning black-and-white photography of the sculptures is printed in four colors to bring out the rich details of the marble.

In recent years, art historians have begun to delve into the patronage, production and reception of sculptures-sculptors' workshop practices; practical, aesthetic, and esoteric considerations of material and materiality; and the meanings associated with materials and the makers of sculptures. This volume brings together some of the top scholars in the field, to investigate how sculptors in early modern Italy confronted such challenges as procurement of materials, their costs, shipping and transportation issues, and technical problems of materials, along with the meanings of the usage, hierarchies of materials, and processes of material acquisition and production. Contributors also explore the implications of these facets in terms of the intended and perceived meaning(s) for the viewer, patron, and/or artist. A highlight of the collection is the epilogue, an interview with a contemporary artist of large-scale stone sculpture, which reveals the similar challenges sculptors still encounter today as they procure, manufacture and transport their works.

The Venetian painter known as Giorgione or "big George" died at a young age in the dreadful plague of 1510, possibly having painted fewer than twenty-five works. But many of these are among the most mysterious and alluring in the history of art. Paintings such as The Three Philosophers and The Tempest remain compellingly elusive, seeming to deny the viewer the possibility of interpreting their meaning. Tom Nichols argues that this visual elusiveness was essential to Giorgione's sensual approach and that ambiguity is the defining quality of his art. Through detailed discussions of all Giorgione's works, Nichols shows that by abandoning the more intellectual tendencies of much Renaissance art, Giorgione made the world and its meanings appear always more inscrutable.

This book includes a rich and fascinating consideration of the golden age of French printmaking. Once considered the golden age of French printmaking, Louis XIV's reign saw Paris become a powerhouse of print production. During this time, the king aimed to make fine and decorative arts into signs of French taste and skill and, by extension, into markers of his imperialist glory. Prints were ideal for achieving these goals; reproducible and transportable, they fueled the sophisticated propaganda machine circulating images of Louis as both a man of war and a man of culture. This richly illustrated catalogue features more than one hundred prints from the Getty Research Institute and the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris, whose print collection Louis XIV established in 1667. An esteemed international group of contributors investigates the ways that cultural policies affected printmaking; explains what constitutes a print; describes how one became a printmaker; studies how prints were collected; and considers their reception in the ensuing centuries.A Kingdom of Images is published to coincide with an exhibition on view at the Getty Research Institute from June 18 through September 6, 2015, and at the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris from November 2, 2015, through January 31, 2016.

'The most important art historian of his generation' is how some scholars have described the late Michael Baxandall (1933-2007), Professor of the Classical Tradition at the Warburg Institute, University of London, and of the History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley. Baxandall's work had a transformative effect on the study of European Renaissance and eighteenth-century art, and contributed to a complex transition in the aims and methods of art history in general during the 1970s, '80s and '90s. While influential, he was also an especially subtle and independent thinker - occasionally a controversial one - and many of the implications of his work have yet to be fully understood and assimilated. This collection of 10 essays endeavors to assess the nature of Baxandall's achievement, and in particular to address the issue of the challenges it offers to the practice of art history today. This volume provides the most comprehensive assessment of Baxandall's work to date, while drawing upon the archive of Baxandall papers recently deposited at the Cambridge University Library and the Warburg Institute.

This is a fascinating re-evaluation of the life and works of a hugely talented yet controversial artist. The young Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) created a major stir in late-sixteenth-century Rome with the groundbreaking naturalism and highly charged emotionalism of his paintings. "Caravaggio" is a sumptuously illustrated and engagingly written volume that takes a fresh look at Caravaggio's life and works, uncovering evidence that the efforts of Caravaggio's contemporaries to disparage his character and his artwork often sprang from their own cultural biases or a desire to promote the artistic achievements of his rivals, and that contrary to repeated claims, Caravaggio lacked neither education nor piety, but was an extremely accomplished technician who developed a successful marketing strategy.

A significant new interpretation of the emergence of Western pictorial realism When Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) completed the revolutionary Ghent Altarpiece in 1432, it was unprecedented in European visual culture. His novel visual strategies, including lifelike detail, not only helped make painting the defining medium of Western art, they also ushered in new ways of seeing the world. This highly original book explores Van Eyck's pivotal work, as well as panels by Rogier van der Weyden and their followers, to understand how viewers came to appreciate a world depicted in two dimensions. Through careful examination of primary documents, Noa Turel reveals that paintings were consistently described as au vif: made not "from life" but "into life." Animation, not representation, drove Van Eyck and his contemporaries. Turel's interpretation reverses the commonly held belief that these artists were inspired by the era's burgeoning empiricism, proposing instead that their "living pictures" helped create the conditions for empiricism. Illustrated with exquisite fifteenth-century paintings, this volume asserts these works' key role in shaping, rather than simply mirroring, the early modern world.

One of the premier artists of Renaissance Venice, Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) enjoyed a successful career creating splendid and sophisticated paintings for an elite clientele. Focusing on Veronese's materials, workshop organization, and remarkably varied techniques, this important book provides a rich examination of the artist's painting practice and how it developed throughout his career-from his initial training in Verona through the height of his fame in Venice. Diana Gisolfi's multidisciplinary approach brings together information on the physical qualities of Veronese's works discovered during recent conservation projects, a fresh look at contemporary texts from the 16th century, and a nuanced understanding of the world of Venetian artists and their patrons. This innovative approach elucidates the working life of Veronese and his circle of contemporaries in new and fascinating ways.

The Virgin Mary rises up like a giant Tower of Babel in a close-up view, separated from us by a slender railing along which runs the painter's signature. The Virgin appears to be sitting on a marble slab, slightly raised, and her right shoulder is thrust forward to show us her nude son. Madonna and Child, also known as 'Dudley Madonna', was painted in c. 1508 by Giovanni Bellini (Venice, c. 1430-1516), one of the most celebrated of Italian artists. This book tells the story of the painting, its painter and its provenance - the journey from Bellini's 16th-century Venice to Dudley's 19th-century London - and the context in which it was created, and later collected. The painting was probably acquired in Bologna by John William Ward (1781-1833), who in 1827 became the 1st Earl of Dudley. He was described by his contemporaries as a cultured and educated man, but also, especially in his later years, tending to madness. The Dudley collection was one of the most outstanding in 19th-century England. The years 1505-10 were crucial ones in Giovanni Bellini's career, and this book examines anew the part he played in Venetian High Renaissance painting - his influence upon and response to the upcoming Giorgione, Titian and Sebastiano del Piombo; it looks in particular at the importance of the visit to the Venice of the Florentine Fra Bartolommeo in 1508. Antonio Mazzotta was Pidem Curatorial Assistant at the National Gallery, London, between 2008 and 2010, and he curated the exhibition, Titian's First Masterpiece: The Flight into Egypt, at the National Gallery, London, 4 April - 19 August 2012. The Virgin Mary rises up like a giant Tower of Babel in a close-up view, separated from us by a slender railing along which runs the painter's signature. The Virgin appears to be sitting on a marble slab, slightly raised, and her right shoulder is thrust forward to show us her nude son. The Madonna and Child, also known as 'Dudley Madonna', was painted in c. 1508 by Giovanni Bellini (Venice, c. 1430-1516), one of the most celebrated of Italian artists. Recognised as an important composition by Bellini in the early 20th century, for a hundred years until its sale at auction in 2010 this picture had hardly ever been seen. This book places the painting within Bellini's career and development even though he was over 75 years old when he painted it. Bellini was extraordinarily sensitive to the new generation of High Renaissance artists, responding instantly to new ideas. The publication also discusses the earlier critical fortune of the painting, explaining how it was kept out of the limelight for so long when it is clearly an autograph Bellini. The years 1505-10 were crucial ones in Giovanni Bellini's career, and this publication examines anew the part he played in Venetian High Renaissance painting, his influence upon and response to the upcoming Giorgione, Titian and Sebastiano del Piombo. It looks in particular at the importance of the visit to the Venice of the Florentine Fra Bartolommeo in 1508, a key figure in early 16th-century Florence, who came with a wealth of important new ideas to share and disseminate. His influence on Bellini is most obviously evident in the Madonna's - for him - comparatively oblique pose. It is not known how and when the painting came from Italy to England but it is very likely that is was acquired in Bologna by John William Ward (1781-1833) who, in 1827, became the 1st Earl of Dudley. Described by his contemporaries as a cultured and educated man, he (and later his nephew William Ward) assembled one of the most outstanding collections in 19th-century England but, although talented, tended to madness especially in his later years. The collection was broken up at the end of the 19th century and the painting, having been attributed to the obscure Rocco Marconi by Berenson, was kept in a private collection in a country house in Wiltshire.

This book challenges the notion that Michelangelo, renowned for his magnificent portrayals of the human body, was merely concerned with “superficial� anatomy—that is, the parts of the body that can be seen from the outside. Christian K. Kleinbub provides a fresh perspective on Michelangelo’s art of the human figure by investigating what he calls the artist’s “inner anatomical poetics,� revealing these beautiful bodies as objects of profound intellectual and spiritual significance. Michelangelo’s Inner Anatomies illuminates how Renaissance discourses on anatomical organs and organ systems informed Michelangelo's figures, linking the interior experiences of his subjects to physiological processes associated with sex, love, devotion, and contemplation, among other thoughts and feelings. Kleinbub presents new and compelling interpretations of some of Michelangelo’s most significant works of painting, sculpture, poetry, and architecture. The book’s case studies cover the full range of Michelangelo’s prodigious output—including such iconic works as the Sistine Ceiling, Dying Slave, and Last Judgment—and reconstructs what Michelangelo knew of internal anatomy and how he projected that knowledge into his most important works. Drawing upon theological, poetic, philosophical, and scientific texts, Michelangelo created a context-dependent, adaptable practice that could be adjusted according to the needs of an individual situation or commission and manipulated to embody, literally and figuratively, a variety of meanings. Deeply researched and convincingly argued, this study heralds a significant shift in thinking about the Italian Renaissance body as it pertains not only to the work of Michelangelo but also to the era as a whole.

This generously illustrated book presents highlights from the National Gallery's display of Italian Renaissance painting, one of the richest collections of its kind in the world. Duccio to Leonardo focuses on Italian masterpieces made between 1250 and 1500, including highlights such as Duccio's Annunciation, Botticelli's Venus and Mars, and Leonardo's Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist. It begins with a short introduction on the formation of the collection, before discussing each of the chosen works. Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University Press

The 177 essays in these two richly illustrated volumes represent the cutting edge of Italian Renaissance scholarship in nearly every one of its fields and were gathered to honor Joseph Connors, Director of Villa I Tatti from 2002 to 2010. Demonstrating I Tatti's pivotal role as the world's leading center for Italian Renaissance studies, the essays cover all the branches of art history, as well as many aspects of political, economic, and social history, literature, and music, from the early Renaissance to the eighteenth century. Appropriately, the volumes also include a selection of contributions devoted to Bernard Berenson and his legacy as both a collector and a scholar. Each of the authors-a group representing dozens of countries-was a Fellow or associate of the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies during the eight years in which Connors served as Director.

The essays in Space, Image and Reform in Early Modern Art build on Marcia Hall's seminal contributions in several categories crucial for Renaissance studies, especially the spatiality of the church interior, the altarpiece's facture and affectivity, the notion of artistic style, and the controversy over images in the era of Counter Reform. Accruing the advantage of critical engagement with a single paradigm, this volume better assesses its applicability and range. The book works cumulatively to provide blocks of theoretical and empirical research on issues spanning the function and role of images in their contexts over two centuries. Relating Hall's investigations of Renaissance art to new fields, Space, Image and Reform expands the ideas at the center of her work further back in time, further afield, and deeper into familiar topics, thus achieving a cohesion not usually seen in edited volumes honoring a single scholar.

Michelangelo is best known for great artistic achievements such as the Sistine ceiling, the "David," the "Pieta," and the dome of St. Peter's. Yet throughout his seventy-five year career, he was engaged in another artistic act that until now has been largely overlooked: he not only filled hundreds of sheets of paper with exquisite drawings, sketches, and doodles, but also, on fully a third of these sheets, composed his own words. Here we can read the artist's marginal notes to his most enduring masterpieces; workaday memos to assistants and pupils; poetry and letters; and achingly personal expressions of ambition and despair surely meant for nobody's eyes but his own. "Michelangelo: A Life on Paper" is the first book to examine this intriguing interplay of words and images, providing insight into his life and work as never before.

This sumptuous volume brings together more than two hundred stunning, museum-quality reproductions of Michelangelo's most private papers, many in color. Accompanying them is Leonard Barkan's vivid narrative, which explains the important role the written word played in the artist's monumental public output. What emerges is a wealth of startling juxtapositions: perfectly inscribed sonnets and tantalizing fragments, such as "Have patience, love me, sufficient consolation"; careful notations listing money spent for chickens, oxen, and funeral rites for the artist's father; a beautiful drawing of a Madonna and child next to a mock love poem that begins, "You have a face sweeter than boiled grape juice, and a snail seems to have passed over it." Magnificently illustrated and superbly detailed, this book provides a rare and intimate look at how Michelangelo's artistic genius expressed itself in words as well as pictures."

"WINNER of The Art Newspaper / AXA Exhibition Catalogue Award 2007 Francesco Xanto Avelli da Rovigo was an intriguing artist who painted some of the most beautiful and fascinating ceramics produced in Renaissance Italy. With surfaces entirely painted with scenes from classical literature, Roman history or the Bible, his dishes were much sought after by the educated elite of his time, and continue to fascinate ceramics enthusiasts today. The colors of his works appear as fresh now as when the pieces were first made, providing a sense of immediacy that brings the culture of Xanto's Italy to life before our eyes. Accompanying an exhibition at the Wallace Collection - the first ever dedicated to the artist - this book puts the work of Xanto and his contemporaries in its historical, political and artistic context. Xanto's`cut and paste' method of incorporating figures derived from prints is explored, his artistic development is traced and the spread of his influence assessed. Included is a full transcription of Xanto's sonnet sequence, published, for the first time with an English translation. An appendix comprising a list of Xanto's works is another `first'. Accompanied an exhibition at the Wallace Collection, London, opening 25 January. John Mallet is curator of the exhibition, formerly Keeper in the Department of Ceramics and Glass in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the world authority on Xanto."