Bildliche Darstellungen des Propheten Mohammed gab es in Europa schon lange vor dem sogenannten "Karikaturenstreit". Bereits im fruhen Buchdruck erscheint Mohammed als Personifikation der abendlandischen Vorstellungen vom Islam und zugleich als eine faszinierende, schillernde Figur von gesellschaftlicher Relevanz. Anhand von Druckgraphiken in Koranubersetzungen und Biographien des Propheten aus funf Jahrhunderten beschreibt die Studie die Konstanten und Wandlungen der Mohammedbilder in ihrem jeweiligen historischen Kontext. Damit leistet das Buch einen bildwissenschaftlichen Beitrag zur Eroerterung von Alteritatskonstruktionen, zur Frage von Religionsdarstellungen in der bildenden Kunst und zur Geschichte des Islambildes in Westeuropa.

Perhaps the most imaginative writer on art in the sixteenth century, Giovan Paolo Lomazzo was also an ambitious painter, well-informed critic, and sarcastic wit: he proved a lively adversary for Vasari, Dolce, and even Aretino. His greatest contribution to the history of art is his special treatment of expression and, in its more mature form, self-expression. The image of the Temple of Painting embodies all his essential thoughts about art. Housing statues of Michelangelo, Gaudenzio Ferrari, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Leonardo, Raphael, Mantegna, and Titian--paradigms of style and, for Lomazzo, the seven greatest painters in the world--it guides the novice in the discovery of a unique style that matches his own temperament. Idea of the Temple of Painting (1590), written as a pithy introduction to the encyclopedic Trattato dell'arte della pittura, demonstrates why art is all about expressing an individual style, or maniera. Neither spontaneous nor unconscious, style reflects the rational process of adapting all the elements of painting into a harmonious whole. This treatise also represents a rare historical document. Presiding over an original confraternity of artists and humanists, Lomazzo actively participated in the Milan art scene, which is vividly brought to life by his personal commentaries. This is the first translation of any of his treatises into English.

Robert Payne, author of some of the most widely read biographies of our day, now brings us a new and fascinating portrayal of Leonardo da Vinci. This is the third volume of our recently released Robert Payne Library series.

Focusing on artists and architectural complexes which until now have eluded scholarly attention in English-language publications, Apostolic Iconography and Florentine Confraternities in the Age of Reform examines through their art programs three different confraternal organizations in Florence at a crucial moment in their histories. Each of the organizations that forms the basis for this study oversaw renovations that included decorative programs centered on the apostles. At the complex of GesA(1) Pellegrino a fresco cycle represents the apostles in their roles as Christ's disciples and proselytizers. At the oratory of the company of Santissima Annunziata a series of frescoes shows their martyrdoms, the terrible price the apostles paid for their mission and their faith. At the oratory of San Giovanni Battista detta dello Scalzo a sculptural program of the apostles stood as an example to each confratello of how Christian piety had its roots in collective effort. Douglas Dow shows that the emphasis on the apostles within these corporate groups demonstrates how the organizations adapted existing iconography to their own purposes. He argues that their willful engagement with apostolic themes reveals the complex interaction between these organizations and the church's program of reform.

Lorenzo il Magnifico de' Medici was the head of the ruling political party at the apogee of the golden age of Quattrocento Florence. Born in 1449, his life was shaped by privilege and responsibility, and his deeds as a statesman were legendary even while he lived. At his death he was master of the largest and most famous private palace in Florence, a building crammed full of the household goods of four generations of Medici as well as the most extraordinary collections of art, antiquities, books, jewelry, coins, cameos, and rare vases in private hands. His heirs undertook an inventory of the estate, a usual procedure following the demise of an important head of family. An anonymous clerk, pen and paper in hand, walked through the palace from room to room, counting and recording the barrels of wine and the water urns; opening cabinets and chests; unfolding and examining clothes, fabrics, and tapestries; describing the paintings he saw on the walls; and unlocking jewel boxes and weighing and evaluating coins, medals, necklaces, brooches, rings, and cameos. The original document he produced has been lost, but a copy was made by another clerk in 1512. Richard Stapleford's critical translation of this document offers the reader a window onto the world of the Medici family, their palace, and the material culture that surrounded them.

This book evokes the art of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Northern Europe in all its richness and splendour. The works of Van Eyck, Bosch, Bruegel, Durer and other masters are considered within the larger context of a changing society in which church and state, Protestant and Catholic, man and woman, artist and patron, independent mercantile city and noble chivalric court all played a part. Craig Harbison considers these and many other facets of the Renaissance world, drawing them together into a unified narrative that illuminates the complexity and brilliance of the art and its times.