When I think of cities in the United States, I think first of New York City. And one of the first things to come to mind in New York City is Central Park. This small book takes a quick look at Central Park through art. It is meant to be enjoyed by adults and students of all ages. Look through these paintings that span many decades, and notice the similarities and the differences between them...See the colors, the textures and patterns, and more. Take note of whether there are people included in the different paintings; and if so, are men, women, or children more often portrayed? Do you like certain artists or styles more than others? But, most of all, enjoy Note to parents: All of the paintings selected for the books in this series are child-friendly - but we aren't necessarily recommending all of the other paintings by these same artists If you and your children want to go exploring after this - please exercise caution.

Please enjoy the latest book in the "Enjoying Great Art" series. This one includes paintings that span over five centuries and several continents. Many are portraits of individuals, some include multiple people. Some are "posed," but others show the subjects engaged in a variety of activities. All include people of African descent. As you look through the paintings, notice the similarities and the differences between them...Do you like certain artists or styles more than others? Are there some you are familiar with and others that are destined to become new friends? But, most of all, enjoy

The newest book in the "Enjoying Great Art" series: Trains may or may not be part of our everyday life today. In fact, many of us think of them more in a historical setting. But how many of us think of them when we think of great art? Here is a picture book for adults and students of all ages...A picture book of trains in art - trains, train stations, passengers, and more. The paintings include different colors, shapes, and sizes. Look through these paintings that span almost exactly one century, and notice the similarities and the differences between them...

The newest book in the "Enjoying Great Art" Series: Great art comes in many sizes and shapes, in many colors and styles. It can also be about many different themes - real and imaginary. Other books in the series have included art arranged around many topics - including bridges, hats, and animals, to name just a few. But this book arranges the art around a geographical theme - the fifty different states of the United States. Here each state is presented through one or more pictures. They represent some combination of the landscape, flower, and/or animal of each state. Some are historical in nature, though many are of a more time-less style. Note to parents: All of the paintings selected for the books in this series are child-friendly - but we aren't necessarily recommending all of the other paintings by these

A new book in the "Enjoying Great Art" series: Today candles are generally not part of our everyday lives, often relegated to merely "emergency light" status. But before electric lights, candles and lanterns were an every day occurrence. So we probably should be surprised to see them popping up in our great art. Here is a picture book for adults and students of all ages...A picture book with candlelight in art Different colors, shapes, and sizes of candles...Some that are only small parts of the painting, some which are the focus of the painting.

Cats are a part of our everyday life. But do we think of them when we think of great art? Here is a picture book for adults and students of all ages...A picture book of cats in art Different colors, shapes, sizes...Some that are only small parts of the painting, some which are the focus of the painting. You can look through these paintings that span many centuries, and notice the similarities and the differences between them...See the colors, the textures and patterns, and more. Take note of whether there are people included in the different paintings, and if so, if men, women, or children are more often portrayed with the cats. And most of all, enjoy Note to parents: All of the paintings selected for the books in this series are child-friendly - but we aren't necessarily recommending all of the other paintings by these same artists If you and your children want to go exploring after this - please exercise caution.

The Casa del Dean in Puebla, Mexico, is one of few surviving sixteenth-century residences in the Americas. Built in 1580 by Tomas de la Plaza, the Dean of the Cathedral, the house was decorated with at least three magnificent murals, two of which survive. Their rediscovery in the 1950s and restoration in 2010 revealed works of art that rival European masterpieces of the early Renaissance, while incorporating indigenous elements that identify them with Amerindian visual traditions.

Extensively illustrated with new color photographs of the murals, The Casa del Dean presents a thorough iconographic analysis of the paintings and an enlightening discussion of the relationship between Tomas de la Plaza and the indigenous artists whom he commissioned. Penny Morrill skillfully traces how native painters, trained by the Franciscans, used images from Classical mythology found in Flemish and Italian prints and illustrated books from France--as well as animal images and glyphic traditions with pre-Columbian origins--to create murals that are reflective of Don Tomas's erudition and his role in evangelizing among the Amerindians. She demonstrates how the importance given to rhetoric by both the Spaniards and the Nahuas became a bridge of communication between these two distinct and highly evolved cultures. This pioneering study of the Casa del Dean mural cycle adds an important new chapter to the study of colonial Latin American art, as it increases our understanding of the process by which imagery in the New World took on Christian meaning.

Enjoying Great Art Series: Umbrellas are a part of our everyday life. But do we think of them when we think of great art? Here is a picture book for adults and students of all ages...A picture book of umbrellas (used to keep off the rain) and parasols (to keep off the sun) in art Different colors, shapes, sizes...Some that are only small parts of the painting, some which are the focus of the painting. You can look through these paintings that span many centuries, and notice the similarities and the differences between them...See the colors, the textures and patterns, and more. Take note of whether there are people included in the different paintings, and if so, if men, women, or children are more often portrayed. And most of all, enjoy Note to parents: All of the paintings selected for the books in this series are child-friendly - but we aren't necessarily recommending all of the other paintings by these same artists If you and your children want to go exploring after this - please exercise caution.

Enjoying Great Art Series: Food is a part of our everyday life. But do we think of it when we think of great art? Here is a picture book for adults and students of all ages...A picture book of food in art Different quantity, colors, shapes, sizes...Some where the food is only a small part of the painting, some where it is the focus of the painting. You can look through these paintings that span many centuries, and notice the similarities and the differences between them...See the colors, the textures and patterns, and more. Take note of whether there are people included in the different paintings, and if so, if men, women, or children are more often portrayed with the food. And most of all, enjoy Note to parents: All of the paintings selected for the books in this series are child-friendly - but we aren't necessarily recommending all of the other paintings by these same artists If you and your children want to go exploring after this - please exercise caution.

Bridges are clearly important structures - and not just the ones of the present day (my apologies to Whitman). But do we think of them when we think of great art? Here is a picture book of bridges (from around the world) for students of all ages...Different colors, shapes, sizes...Some that are only small parts of the painting, some which are the focus of the painting.

One of the original books in the "Enjoying Great Art" series, but it has been enlarged - with more, and bigger paintings now: Animals are a part of our everyday life. But do we think of them when we think of great art? Here is a picture book for students of all ages...A picture book of animals in art Different colors, shapes, sizes...Some that are only small parts of the painting, some which are the focus of the painting. You can look through these paintings that span many centuries, and notice the similarities and the differences between them...See the colors, the textures and patterns, and more. Take note of whether there are people included in the different paintings, and if so, if men, women, or children are more often portrayed with the animals. And most of all, enjoy Note to parents: All of the paintings selected for the books in this series are child-friendly - but we aren't necessarily recommending all of the other paintings by these same artists If you and your children want to go exploring after this - please exercise caution.

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.

FRA ANGELICO, known by various names, including Fra Giovanni Beato Angelico da Fiesole (1399?-1455), is one of the very few painters of the Italian Renaissance who painted religious pictures exclusively. Almost all Angelico's paintings are religious - he did not paint secular portraits, like, say, Giovanni Bellini or Ghirlandaio. It was Vasari who stressed Angelico's purity, holiness, faith, humility and devout nature, and this description of Angelico as a holy monk-like painter persists throughout the centuries. John Ruskin called Angelico 'an inspired saint'.

Old St Peter's Basilica in Rome stood for over eleven centuries until it was demolished to make room for today's church on the same Vatican site. Its last eyewitness, Maffeo Vegio, explained to the Roman hierarchy how revival of the papacy, whose prestige after the exile to Avignon had been diminished, was inseparable from a renewed awareness of the primacy of Peter's Church. To make his case, Vegio wrote a history founded on credible written and visual evidence. The text guides us through the building's true story in its material reality, undistorted by medieval guides. This was its living memory and a visualization of the continuity of Roman history into modern times. This volume makes available the first complete English translation of Vegio's text. Accompanied by full-color digital reconstructions of the Basilica as it appeared in Vegio's day.

New, full-color, larger size book When did Leonardo da Vinci paint the Last Supper? Why did Leonardo paint the Last Supper? How did he paint the Last Supper? Was Leonardo's Last Supper the first rendition of the Last Supper? Was it the last? Here in one convenient location you will find the answers to these, and many other, questions - with dozens of beautiful pictures of paintings that came before and after Leonardo's Last Supper - as well as many details about how he painted his mural, and the history of it over the last 500 years. A treat for art and history buffs alike Note: This book focuses on Leonardo da Vinci's well-known version of the Last Supper, with some of the before and after versions included. For even more versions of the Last Supper (with less text and more pictures), see Catherine's In Art: The Last Supper book.

Part of the "Enjoying Great Art" series by Catherine Jaime and Deirdre Fuller: Lighthouses may or may not be a part of your everyday life, depending on whether we live near a coast, or spend much time visiting in the area. But, either way, do we think of lighthouses when we think of great art? Here is a picture book for students of all ages...A picture book of lighthouses in art Different colors, shapes, sizes...Some that are only small parts of the painting, some which are the focus of the painting.

Another book in the "Enjoying Great Art" series: Self-Portraits - More than three dozen different self-portraits by artists from around the world and through the ages. Great fun for adults and students of all ages. (As with the other books in this series, all the paintings in this book are family-friendly - though, sadly, we can't say the same of all of the other paintings by the same artists.)

Word searches, drawings, quotes, and more...all arranged in both a topical and chronological order to help introduce students to the amazing work of Leonardo da Vinci. This book is a great compliment to Da Vinci: His Life and His Legacy, but it is also a great stand-alone title. Each topic - Leonardo the Mathematician, Leonardo and the Horse, Leonardo the Architect, and many others - includes a historical context and ideas for hands-on study of that topic. The ideas in the book have been classroom tested and kid-approved (This book includes everything from Catherine's Da Vinci Unit Study, Da Vinci Student Book, and more )

This publication is the first volume to appear in the catalogue series devoted to the British Isles and covers Insular and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts produced between c. 700 and c. 1100 AD. This was a period in which Britain witnessed a great blossoming of cultural awareness and artistic craftsmanship. Under the reign of King Alfred towards the end of the ninth century England experienced a renewed impetus for scholarly activity, and as a result the production of books intensified greatly. By the early tenth century, influenced and inspired by new trends and ideas from Continental Europe, English art began to flourish, and manuscript illumination especially made a great impact with the high quality of its figure style and decorated initials, and with its elegance of script and mise-en-page. Cambridge is fortunate in having a significant collection of manuscripts from this period, and the ninety-seven works catalogued and richly illustrated here are amongst the finest surviving examples of Anglo-Saxon decoration. Included here are the fragmentary yet striking remains of a once magnificent early eighth-century Northumbrian Gospels, while an early tenth-century copy of Bede's Life of St Cuthbert contains a full-page image of King Aethelstan offering a book to St Cuthbert, that may be the earliest presentation scene surviving in England. In another tenth-century manuscript, Amalarius of Metz's Liber officialis, one may see the fullest repertoire of ingenious interlace and zoomorphic initials-the high-point of Anglo-Saxon drawing skills. In yet another Gospel book, from the early eleventh century, a de luxe manuscript resplendent with gold, one can find all the characteristic features of Anglo-Saxon iconography and style, including exuberant frame ornamentation, as well as examples of drapery with agitated fluttering hemlines, the hall-mark of Carolingian-inspired draughtsmanship. In addition to the detailed catalogue of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts produced in England, Ireland and Wales, the volume also includes an Addenda to the previously published Part One of this series, listing thirteen Frankish manuscripts from the eighth to the tenth century that had not been catalogued before. Among these is the well-known copy of Hrabanus Maurus' De laudibus sanctae crucis whose place of origin and circumstances of production still remain to be established. Every manuscript catalogued is illustrated in full colour, mostly with several illustrations, and frequently with special detail images. There is also an exhaustive bibliography and the catalogue is fully indexed including a comprehensive iconographic index.

Accompanying a landmark exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, this book examines the remarkable drawings made by Du rer as a young man from 1490 to 1495, especially those made during his journeyman years, or Wanderjahre - considered the final part of a craftsman's training - and a second shorter trip which immediately followed and seems to have brought the artist to Italy. These trips form the framework for the book, which focuses on the young artist's figure studies and has at its heart the Courtauld Gallery's double-sided drawing of a Wise Virgin and Two studies of the artist's left leg. This superbly ambitious work serves as a springboard to explore in depth the role of drawing at this stage of Du rer's career. It allows us to address a series of crucial questions: how Du rer formed 'his hand', how he responded to artistic challenges presented by contemporary and earlier art (both on a stylistic and an iconographic level), how his pursuit of professional success was linked with the quest for an individual artistic identity, and how the strategy of recording his own creative achievements in drawings dovetails with his claim for a new status for the artist in his city. The scholarly and beautifully illustrated catalogue is introduced with five essays by distinguished experts. Stephanie Buck examines the documentary evidence and attempts to reconstruct the motivations and activities of Du rer's travels as a young man. David Freedberg discusses Du rer's obsessive observation and recording of himself in portraits and in studies of his limbs. These represent the first critical steps in the artist's developing understanding of the body, and of the ways in which its movements could not just show emotion, but rouse the equivalent sense of torsion, tension and pathos in the bodies and minds of his viewers. Stephanie Porras looks at Du rer's copies of drawings or prints circulating in Nuremberg workshops or acquired during the Wanderjahre, which were used as a means of seeking inspiration, of challenging himself to draw more sophisticated figures and dynamic compositions. Michael Roth asks the question of how the three strands of the art of the line- drawing, engraving and woodcut - structurally correspond in Du rer's work and, consequently, how drawing merges with certain manual aspects of printing. A final essay presents new technical research on Du rer's early drawings undertaken collaboratively in a number of leading collections of the artist's work, and aims to enrich our understanding of the young Du rer's approach to the medium of drawing.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR RENAISSANCE PORN STAR THE SAGA OF PIETRO ARETINO: THE WORLD'S GREATEST HUSTLER Sex, drugs, and the Medicis. A story of murder, revenge, art, pornography, and celebration with an all-star cast of characters: Dante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, a klatch of mafi a-don-style popes, and Shakespeare. A tale that turns deep, deep erudition into exquisite sweets for the heart and mind. -Howard Bloom, author of "The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism" If Jan Wenner had given Hunter S. Thompson an assignment to write a historical essay of Renaissance sexuality and literature, the resulting pages might have looked something like "Renaissance Porn Star": raw, uncensored, clearly mad, and quite brilliant. -Jess Winfi eld, author of "My name is Will" Like a buried treasure unearthed, "Renaissance Porn Star" sheds new light on how the Italian icon of the Renaissance, Pietro Aretino, helped shape an awakened world. Mark Lamonica mixes his amazing attention to historical detail and breathes new life into Shakespeare. -Thelma Reyna, Ph.D. author of "The Heavens Weep for Us" What art restoration has done for paintings, Mark Lamonica has done through a historical account of Pietro Aretino that wipes clean the whitewash of our puritanical perspective on the Renaissance over the past several hundred years. Not unlike a newly restored masterpiece, "Renaissance Porn Star" is both beautiful and shocking. -Adam Hall, Shakespeare scholar Mark Lamonica is an accomplished photographer and author of three highly acclaimed books: "Junkyard Dogs and William Shakespeare" (1997); co-author of "Rio LA: Tales from the Los Angeles River" (2001); named "a best book of the year" by the Los Angeles Times Book Review. "Whacking Buddha: The Mysterious World of Shakespeare and Zen Buddhism" (2005); hailed as a work of "spiritual literary dynamite." He is at work on a new book about the Devil.