Interest in fifteenth century French painting has grown considerably since it was originally revived by the exhibition "Primitifs francais" (French Primitives) a century ago. Forgotten personalities (Barthelemy d'Eyck, Andre d'Ypres, Antoine de Lonhy, Jean Hey, Jean Poyer, etc.) have been rediscovered, and there is renewed study of the activity of several interrelated artistic centres. This highly complex artistic geography is precisely what this study endeavours to map. The book is arranged in three parts. The first examines the interaction between the French courts and Paris in the period of International Gothic (1380-1435). The second explains how the ars nova (the Flemish illusionist style) spread and was selectively assimilated in France in the days of Charles VII and Louis XI (1435-1483). The third underlines the consolidation of a specifically French style based on Jean Fouquet's model and developed concurrently with the great rhetoricians under Charles VIII and Louis XII (1483-1515).

The emergence of the modern Western artwork is sometimes cast as a slow process of secularization, with the devotional charge of images giving way in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to a focus on the beauty and innovation of the artwork itself. Our understanding of art in this pivotal age is badly distorted, focused almost exclusively on religious and civic images. Even many Renaissance specialists believe that little secular painting survives from before the late fifteenth century, and its appearance becomes a further argument for the secularizing of art.

This book asks how history changes when a longer record of secular art is explored. It is the first study, in any language, of the decoration of Italian palaces and homes between 1300 and the mid-Quattrocento, and it argues that early secular painting was crucial to the development of modern ideas of art. Of the cycles discussed, some have been studied and published, but most are essentially unknown. A first aim is to enrich our understanding of the early Renaissance by introducing a whole corpus of secular painting that has been too long overlooked. Yet Painted Palaces is not a study of iconography. In examining the prehistory of painted rooms like Mantegna's Camera Picta, the larger goal is to rethink the history of early Renaissance art.

Dante's Commedia intensively influenced the concept of the afterlife for people in Italy. But how did artists react to Dante's imaginary world of images in their visual constructions of the Last Judgment? Based on cycles of wall paintings by artists from Giotto to Signorelli, the author shows how the Commedia altered the traditional picture theme of Judgment Day for the first time. Dante's landscape of the afterlife enabled painters to visualize new pictorial spaces that did not necessarily have a direct connection to the text, but make reference to it nevertheless. The consideration of this complex pictorial program that is undertaken in this book in turn opens up new ways of understanding the reception and interpretation of the Commedia, so that text and image enter into a productive dialogue.

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.

One of only a handful of extant works attributed to the anonymous Nuremberg artist, the Master of the Stotteritz Altarpiece, the Mother of Sorrows is a fine example of the heightened realism that characterised much Northern European painting during the early Renaissance. Author David Areford seeks to reveal how this little-known artist was able to create such emotional drama within the confines of one small panel originally designed as part of a portable 15th-century diptych for personal devotion. The author shows how the concept of empathy remains relevant in our world today, and examines the influence of the Mother of Sorrows on the art of subsequent centuries, drawing comparisons with, amongst others, Picasso's 'Weeping Woman'.

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.

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.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Il Riposo ... Raffaello Borghini Societa tipografica de'Classici italiani, 1807 Painters; Painting; Sculptors, Italian; Sculpture