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Showing 1 - 25 of
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The Game
Martin Kemp
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R459
Discovery Miles 4 590
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose … A British icon delivers a
powerful blockbuster in an exhilarating London underworld thriller.
Martin Kemp, the music, film and TV legend creates fiction gold as
he introduces fictional anti-hero Johnny Klein in a breathless,
high-octane page-turner. Johnny Klein is a rock casualty, a fallen
1980s popstar who has lost everything — his family, his money and
his fame. Thrown a lifeline by an old contact in the music
business, Johnny doesn’t care what he is getting himself into.
Dragged down into East London’s dark underbelly, Johnny discovers
there is more at stake than his own shattered ego. Johnny hates
being yesterday’s man but now he’s wishing he could disappear
altogether. The party might be over, but there’s no escape from
the past…
Ticket to the World is a joyous, nostalgic celebration of 80s
culture from one man at the centre of it all. New Year’s Eve,
1979. My family and I stand arm in arm around our Formica kitchen
table, counting down to the new decade with each televised chime of
Big Ben. We have no idea what is about to hit us, no idea of the
seismic waves of change approaching. The 80s transformed life as we
knew it. Music, style and culture exploded in a haze of dayglo
colour. There were hardships, but there were opportunities too. And
I lived through – and helped to shape – Britain’s last real
youth movement. Ticket to the World is my time-warp trip down
memory lane, reliving that truly unforgettable decade. Join me as I
recall what it was like to lead the New Romantics, stay up all
night at the Blitz with Sade and Boy George, travel the world with
Spandau Ballet and contribute to the era-defining Live Aid. So,
grab that glass of Babycham and let’s toast the very best of the
80s: the creativity and the culture, the fashion and the FUN!
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Anish Kapoor: Painting (Hardcover)
James Attlee, Clare Chapman, Emma Ridgway; Text written by Homi K. Bhabha, Julia Kristeva, …
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R1,148
Discovery Miles 11 480
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Throughout his long career, David Hockney has insistently explored
diverse ways of depicting the visible world. He has scrutinised the
methods of the old masters, and explored radical departures from
their cherished assumptions. The exhibitions accompanied by this
volume are the first to focus on this central theme in his art.
'Western art' from the Renaissance until at least the late 19th
century has been dominated by the depiction of nature. Was this to
be accomplished by direct looking (called “eyeballing” by
Hockney) or with the assistance of optical theory and devices, such
as cameras? Hockney has experimented with the full range of
existing strategies, overtly using perspective in some of his
classic pictures and rigorously investigating optical aids for the
imitation of nature, including the camera obscura and camera
lucida. Yet he has come to reject the photograph as the definitive
image of what we see. Along the way, he has identified a 'camera
culture' in European painting from 1400, arguing very
controversially that the supreme naturalism of painters like Jan
van Eyck are the product of optical devices. His book, Secret
Knowledge (2001), with its majestic panorama of paintings over the
course of five centuries, claims that art historians have missed
the central aspect of painters’ practice. The 'Hockney thesis'
has been received more favourably outside the professional world of
art history than in it. His own artistic practice has been in
vigorous dialogue with his radical thesis, and he has progressively
demonstrated new and dynamic ways of characterising the visual
world without perspective and other conventional techniques. This
quest results a series of joyous challenges to our ways of seeing
in the major exhibition in Cambridge at the Fitzwilliam Museum and
in the Heong Gallery (Downing College). It will look at the whole
span of Hockney’s varied career and at the nature of the optical
devices he has tested. His vision will be explored in the setting
of traditional masterpieces of naturalistic observation, and in the
context of modern sciences and technologies of seeing. The first
section of the book looks at his thrilling experiments in seeing
and representing in broad historical and contemporary contexts.
This is followed by discussions of pre-photographic devices for
capturing the appearances of things by optical means. The third
section includes essays on Hockney’s experiments from the
perspectives of neuroscience and computer vision. In short, it
reveals in a new way the working of Hockney’s unique eye.
Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Famous Painters, Sculptors and
Architects (1550 and 1569) is a classic of cultural history. A
monumental assembly of artists' lives from Giotto to Michelangelo,
it paints a vivid picture of the progress of art in the hands of
individual masters. No Life is more vivid than that of Leonardo, a
near-contemporary of Vasari - not even Vasari's account of
Michelangelo, whom he knew and idolized. This beautiful edition
offers a literary translation that respects the 16th-century
Italian, transposing Vasari's vocabulary into its modern
equivalent. Martin Kemp is an eminent scholar, who has written on
the vocabulary of Renaissance writings on art, and has
co-translated Leonardo on Painting and Leonardo's Codex Leicester.
Translated in partnership with Lucy Russell, the text will be the
first to cover both the 1550 edition and the expanded version of
1568, and the first to integrate the texts of the two editions on
the page. Discreet endnotes will provide succinct comments in the
light of modern knowledge of Leonardo's career. Illustrated with
all the works of art discussed by Vasari and a selection of
Leonardo's studies of science and technology, this will be the
perfect accompaniment to Leonardo's 500th anniversary celebrations.
Ticket to the World is a joyous, nostalgic celebration of 80s
culture from one man at the centre of it all. New Year's Eve, 1979.
My family and I stand arm in arm around our Formica kitchen table,
counting down to the new decade with each televised chime of Big
Ben. We have no idea what is about to hit us, no idea of the
seismic waves of change approaching. The 80s transformed life as we
knew it. Music, style and culture exploded in a haze of dayglo
colour. There were hardships, but there were opportunities too. And
I lived through - and helped to shape - Britain's last real youth
movement. Ticket to the World is my time-warp trip down memory
lane, reliving that truly unforgettable decade. Join me as I recall
what it was like to lead the New Romantics, stay up all night at
the Blitz with Sade and Boy George, travel the world with Spandau
Ballet and contribute to the era-defining Live Aid. So, grab that
glass of Babycham and let's toast the very best of the 80s: the
creativity and the culture, the fashion and the FUN!
Ideas in Profile: Small Introductions to Big Topics Art has always
been part of history. But we often think of it as outside history.
When we look at a painting by Raphael, Rembrandt or Rubens it
speaks to us directly, but it's also an historical document, part
of a living world. Renowned art historian Martin Kemp takes the
reader on an extraordinary trip through art, from devotional works
to the revolutionary techniques of the Renaissance, from the
courtly Masters of the seventeenth century through to the daring
avant-garde of the twentieth century and beyond. Along the way we
encounter the great names of art history: Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo; Vermeer and Velasquez; Picasso and Pollock. We get
under the skin of the many 'isms', schools, styles and epochs. We
see the complex sweep of art history with its innovations,
collaborations, rivalries, break-throughs and masterpieces. Above
all, Kemp puts art in context; art isn't about disembodied images,
art itself is history. Part of the Ideas in Profile series,
uniquely enlivened with animations and illustrations from the award
winning studio Cognitive Media, Art in History is an indispensable,
accessible and richly detailed guide to our culture, our history,
our heritage and our art. Also available in two ebook formats.
Please note that ISBN 9781782831020 is for the usual ebook format
and 9781781254110 is for an enhanced edition with additional video
and audio which should be used only with tablet devices that are
capable of playing this additional content.
All 24 episodes from the first three series of the revived British
sitcom starring Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph.
Sisters Sharon (Quirke) and Tracey (Robson) reunite in Chigwell at
a signing for new book 'Sixty Shades of Green' and, much to their
surprise, the author turns out to be Dorien (Joseph). Series 1
episodes are: 'Gimme Shelter', 'Slave', 'Hot Stuff', 'Hearts for
Sale', 'Tattoo You', 'Blinded By Love', 'Back to Zero' and 'You
Can't Always Get What You Want'. Series 2 episodes are: 'Birds On a
Plane', 'There's Something About Sharon', 'Guess Who's Coming to
Essex?', 'The Girls With the Pearl Buttons', 'Tracey's Choice',
'The Chief, the Cook, His Mum and Her Lodger', 'Without a Trace'
and 'Spa Wars'. Series 3 episodes are: 'Knocking On Heaven's Door',
'Too Much of Nothing', 'Tombstone Blues', 'Going, Going, Gone',
'Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You', 'Abandoned Love', 'Blonde
On Blonde' and 'Forever Young'.
Documentary about the rise, fall and reunion of the British new
wave band Spandau Ballet. Featuring past performances, unseen
archive footage and interviews with the band members, this
documentary provides an insight into one of the most successful
bands of the 1980s.
This volume represents an important tool for getting to know every
aspect of Leonardo da Vinci's work: his pictorial technique, his
scientific and technological investigation, his study on anatomy,
his Codices, and every suggestion produced by his genius. All works
and paintings are accompanied by descriptive and technical sheets,
and ample space has been given to images and details, to the
updated report on his most controversial works, to those of recent
critical acceptance, and to the masterpieces that have animated the
international debate such as The Encarnate Angel, the Salvator
Mundi, and La Bella Principessa (Portrait of Bianca Sforza). The
narrative captions reveal the most curious aspects of the history
of each painting. Thanks to the direct contribution of collectors
and museums the photographic reproductions of paintings and works
reflect the last restorations. Text in English and French.
'A really emotional read... it's wonderful' - Zoe Ball, BBC Radio 2
'It's such a lovely book!' - Holly Willoughby, This Morning 'A
lovely read... it's got everything - emotion and lots of laughs' -
Alex Jones, The One Show 'A gorgeous book!' - Lorraine 'From Wham!
to Spandau Ballet, from success to chaos in the blink of an eye -
Martin and I are two ordinary people who have been on an
extraordinary adventure together. Through it all, our commitment to
each other and to our family is what has always mattered the most.'
Shirlie Kemp With a heartwarming foreword by Noel Fitzpatrick,IT'S
A LOVE STORY tells the incredible story of Martin and Shirlie Kemp
- from the moment they set eyes on each other, through their
stellar careers, to raising a family together. For the first time,
fans and readers will have an insight into their journey together,
the lessons they have learned in the spotlight and behind the
scenes, and their secrets to success, happiness and raising a
loving family. The book will uncover the personal highs and lows of
Britain's favourite couple, and the unbreakable bond that has kept
them strong, no matter how hard the fight gets. '40 years together
has been filled with incredible highs, when every teenage dream and
every wish literally came true, to the most horrifying of lows that
belonged in our nightmares. Shirlie and I are always asked, "What's
the secret to a long marriage?" - well, hopefully within the pages
of this book we all might find the answer to that question!' Martin
Kemp
'From Wham! to Spandau Ballet, from success to chaos in the blink
of an eye - Martin and I are two ordinary people who have been on
an extraordinary adventure together. Through it all, our commitment
to each other and to our family is what has always mattered the
most.' Shirlie Kemp With a heartwarming foreword by Noel
Fitzpatrick, IT'S A LOVE STORY tells the incredible story of Martin
and Shirlie Kemp from the moment they set eyes on each other,
through their stellar careers, to raising a family together. For
the first time, fans and readers will have an insight into their
journey together, the lessons they have learned in the spotlight
and behind the scenes, and their secrets to success, happiness and
raising a loving family. The book will uncover the personal highs
and lows of Britain's favourite couple, and the unbreakable bond
that has kept them strong, no matter how hard the fight gets. '40
years together has been filled with incredible highs, when every
teenage dream and every wish literally came true, to the most
horrifying of lows that belonged in our nightmares. Shirlie and I
are always asked, "What's the secret to a long marriage?" - well,
hopefully within the pages of this book we all might find the
answer to that question!' Martin Kemp
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is one of the greatest European
writers, whose untrammelled imaginative capacity was matched by a
remarkable knowledge of the science of his era. His poems also
paint compelling visual images. In Visions of Heaven, renowned
scholar Martin Kemp investigates Dante's characterisation of divine
light and its implications for the visual artists who were the
inheritors of Dante's vision. The whole book may be regarded as a
new paragone (comparison), the debate that began in the Renaissance
about which of the arts is superior. Dante's ravishing accounts of
divine light set painters the severest challenge, which it took
them centuries to meet. A major theme running through Dante's
Divine Comedy, particularly in its third book, the Paradiso,
centres on Dante's acts of seeing. On earth his visual perceptions
are conducted according to optical rules, while in heaven the
poet's human senses are overwhelmed by light of divine origin,
which does not obey his rules of mathematical optics. The repeated
blinding of Dante by excessive light sets the tone for artists'
striving to portray unseeable brightness. Raphael shows himself to
be the greatest master of spiritual radiance, while Correggio works
his radiant magic in his dome illusions in Parma Cathedral. When
Gaulli evokes the glories of the name of Jesus in the huge vault of
the Jesuit Church in Rome he does so with an ineffable light that
explodes though encircling clusters of glowing angels, whose pink
bodies are bleached by the extreme luminosity of the light source.
Published to coincide with the 700th anniversary of Dante's death,
this hugely original book combines a close reading of Dante's
poetry with analysis of early optics and the art of the Renaissance
and Baroque to create a fascinating, wide-ranging and visually
exciting study.
In this pathbreaking and richly illustrated book, Martin Kemp
examines the major optically oriented examples of artistic theory
and practice from Brunelleschi's invention of perspective and its
exploitation by Leonardo and Durer to the beginnings of
photography. In a discussion of color theory, Kemp traces two main
traditions of color science: the Aristotelian tradition of primary
colors and Newton's prismatic theory that influenced Runge, Turner,
and Seurat. His monumental book not only adds to our understanding
of a large group of individual works of art but also provides
valuable information for all those interested in the interaction
between science and art. "This beautifully made volume . . . shows
us the unity of the visual study of nature-the exalted mutual task
of Renaissance science and art."-Scientific American "[A] wonderful
book. . . . Martin Kemp has convincingly demonstrated that even the
most diverse styles of Western art from the Renaissance to modern
times remained ever enthralled by scientific optics. . . . [A]
handsome volume."-Samuel Y. Edgerton, American Scientist "An
extraordinarily ambitious, even daring, enterprise. . . . The book
leaves us in no doubt about its author's expertise in both fields.
It includes the most comprehensive account of the development of
perspective theory and practice I know."-Thomas Puttfarken, Times
Higher Education Supplement "Kemp has performed a valuable service.
. . . His style is lucid and he emerges as an honest broker who
judiciously weighs the historical evidence. He has an impressive
command of the literature of both art and optical science across
much of Europe and over a span of four centuries. . . . Kemp's
thesis is amply illustrated with several hundred plates, including
many of his own line drawings. . . . The reader is led gently
through the history of art and the details of optical science to
appreciate their interrelationship."-Geoffrey Cantor, Oxford Art
Journal
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Notebooks (Paperback, New)
Leonardo Da Vinci; Selected by Irma A. Richter; Edited by Thereza Wells; Preface by Martin Kemp
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R322
R266
Discovery Miles 2 660
Save R56 (17%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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'Study me reader, if you find delight in me...Come, O men, to see
the miracles that such studies will disclose in nature.' Most of
what we know about Leonardo da Vinci, we know because of his
notebooks. Some 6,000 sheets of notes and drawings survive, which
represent perhaps one-fifth of what he actually produced. In them
he recorded everything that interested him in the world around him,
and his study of how things work. With an artist's eye and a
scientist's curiosity he studied the movement of water and the
formation of rocks, the nature of flight and optics, anatomy,
architecture, sculpture, and painting. He jotted down fables and
letters and developed his belief in the sublime unity of nature and
man. Through his notebooks we can get an insight into Leonardo's
thoughts, and his approach to work and life. This selection offers
a cross-section of his writings, organized around coherent themes.
Fully updated, this new edition includes some 70 line drawings and
a Preface by Martin Kemp, one of the world's leading authorities on
Leonardo. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's
Classics has made available the widest range of literature from
around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's
commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a
wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions
by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text,
up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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Age of Kill (Blu-ray disc)
Patrick Bergin, April Pearson, Sebastian Street, Phil Davis, Vincent Reagan, …
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R55
Discovery Miles 550
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Out of stock
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The Brides in the Bath (DVD)
Martin Kemp, Richard Griffiths, Tracey Wilkinson, Charlotte Randle, Emma Ferguson, …
1
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R175
Discovery Miles 1 750
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Out of stock
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Martin Kemp stars as serial killer George Joseph Smith in this
made-for-TV crime drama based on a true story. In order to
accumulate wealth Smith commits bigamy under various pseudonyms and
kills three of his wives between 1910 and 1915. He tries to make it
look as though the women died by accidentally drowning in their
bathtubs but the deaths are eventually linked with Detective
Inspector Arthur Neil (Alan McKenna) working to solve the case.
To commemorate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death,
world-renowned da Vinci expert Martin Kemp explores 100 of the
master's milestones in art, science, engineering, architecture,
anatomy, and more. Leonardo da Vinci was born in the small Tuscan
town of Vinci in April 1452. Over the centuries, he has become one
of the most famous people in the history of visual culture. Spring
2019 marks the 500th anniversary of his death in May 1519, with
exhibitions and events planned across Europe and the United States.
This lavishly illustrated volume by Martin Kemp--one of the world's
leading authorities on da Vinci--offers a fresh way of looking at
the master's work. Kemp focuses on 100 key, broadly chronological
milestones that cover an extraordinary range of topic across
Leonardo's many fields of discipline: painting, where he brought
new levels of formal and emotional grandeur to his works, including
The Last Supper and Portrait of Lisa del Giocondo (the "Mona
Lisa"); anatomical studies, which are extraordinary for their sense
of form and function (Studies of the Optics of the Human Eye and
Ventricles of the Brain); engineering marvels, noted for their
range and extraordinary visual quality (Gearing for a Clockwork
Mechanism and Wheels without Axles and Designs for a Flying
Machine); and his progressive engagement with a range of
sciences--anatomy, optics, dynamics, statics, geology, and
mathematics.
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The Game
Martin Kemp
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R410
R328
Discovery Miles 3 280
Save R82 (20%)
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Ships in 5 - 10 working days
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Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose … A British icon delivers a
powerful blockbuster in an exhilarating London underworld thriller.
Martin Kemp, the music, film and TV legend creates fiction gold as
he introduces fictional anti-hero Johnny Klein in a breathless,
high-octane page-turner. Johnny Klein is a rock casualty, a fallen
1980s popstar who has lost everything — his family, his money and
his fame. Thrown a lifeline by an old contact in the music
business, Johnny doesn’t care what he is getting himself into.
Dragged down into East London’s dark underbelly, Johnny discovers
there is more at stake than his own shattered ego. Johnny hates
being yesterday’s man but now he’s wishing he could disappear
altogether. The party might be over, but there’s no escape from
the past…
This new edition of Leonardo Da Vinci's Codex Leicester is the most
comprehensive scholarly edition of any of Leonardo's manuscripts.
It contains a high-quality facsimile reproduction of the Codex, a
new transcription and translation, accompanied by a paraphrase in
modern language and a page-by-page commentary, and a series of
interpretative essays. This important endeavour introduces
important new research into the interpretation of the texts and
images, on the setting of Leonardo's ideas in the context of
ancient and medieval theories, and above all into the notable
fortunes of the Codex within the sciences of astronomy, water, and
the history of the earth, opening a new field of research into the
impact of Leonardo as a scientist after his death.
From the lazy, fiddling grasshopper to the sneaky Big Bad Wolf,
children's stories and fables enchant us with their portrayals of
animals who act like people. But the comparisons run both ways, as
metaphors, stories, and images--as well as scientific
theories--throughout history remind us that humans often act like
animals, and that the line separating them is not as clear as we'd
like to pretend.
Here Martin Kemp explores a stunning range of images and ideas to
demonstrate just how deeply these underappreciated links between
humans and other fauna are embedded in our culture. Tracing those
interconnections among art, science, and literature, Kemp leads us
on a dazzling tour of Western thought, from Aristotelian
physiognomy and its influence on phrenology to the Great Chain of
Being and Darwinian evolution. We learn about the racist
anthropology underlying a familiar Degas sculpture, see paintings
of a remarkably simian Judas, and watch Mowgli, the man-child from
Kipling's "The Jungle Book," exhibit the behaviors of the beasts
who raised him. Like a kaleidoscope, Kemp uses these stories to
refract, reconfigure, and echo the essential truth that the way we
think about animals inevitably inflects how we think about people,
and vice versa.
Loaded with vivid illustrations and drawing on sources from Hesiod
to La Fontaine, Leonardo to P. T. Barnum, "The Human Animal in
Western Art and Science" is a fascinating, eye-opening reminder of
our deep affinities with our fellow members of the animal kingdom.
From jewellery designers to scientists, graphic artists to
naturalists, the range of people inspired by Ernst Haeckel's
illustrations continues to grow. Following up on Prestel's Art
Forms in Nature and Art Forms from the Ocean, this new collection
features startlingly beautiful images created by Haeckel, who was
commissioned to contribute to the report of the HMS Challenger
expedition, which circumnavigated the world from 1872-76. The
Challenger's achievements were unparalleled, with nearly 5,000 new
species discovered and catalogued from the depths of Earth's
oceans. Full-page reproductions bring these organisms colourfully
to life, drawing readers into a world at once hypnotic and highly
ordered. Divided into three sections-Siphonophores, Medusae and
Radiolarians-these illustrations display Haeckel's remarkable
artistic skill and understanding of the architecture of organic
matter. The authors provide a brief history of the Challenger
expedition, background on Haeckel's scientific and artistic
accomplishments, as well as informative texts on each group of
organisms.A guide to the natural world and an inspiration to
artists of every stripe, this collection of Haeckel's work is a
fitting tribute to a 19th century genius.
The Roman author Pliny tells the story - well known in the
Renaissance - of the famous Greek painter Apelles hiding behind one
of his pictures to overhear the comments of spectators. Martin Kemp
takes this motif as an effective point of entry into the problem of
what lies behind the business of picture-making in the Renaissance,
in particular the role of the artist and the function of works of
art in relation to their various kinds of audience. Kemp examines a
wealth of visual and written evidence, making sense of the often
contradictory implications of the contemporary sources that survive
for the same artist and indeed for the same work of art. He points
out that whereas artists' contracts suggest the cobbler at work and
inventories suggest that the products of painters were considerably
less valued than those of bed manufacturers, the rise of written
theory and the web of criticism woven by humanist authors
increasingly depict the artist as an intellectual, as a
philosopher-poet with respect to subject matter, and as a
scientific investigator of natural appearances.Kemp provides us
with an introductory text on Italian Renaissance art that brings
the period alive through extensive quotations from original
sources. Giving access to a range of traditional and more recent
concerns in art history through the application of various
approaches to specific sets of raw material, this book is an
important and illuminating contribution to current debates in
cultural history. Martin Kemp is professor of art history at the
University of Oxford and author of 'Leonardo on Painting',
'Leonardo da Vinci' and 'The Science of Art', all published by Yale
University Press.
Read this book and the world's most famous image will never look
the same again. For the world's greatest cultural icon still has
secrets to reveal - not the silly secrets that the 'Leonardo
loonies' continue to advance, but previously unknown facts about
the lives of Leonardo, his father, Lisa Gherardini, the subject of
the portrait, and her husband Francesco del Giocondo. From this
factual beginning we see how the painting metamorphosed into a
'universal picture' that became the prime vehicle for Leonardo's
prodigious knowledge of the human and natural worlds. We learn
about the new money of the ambitious merchant who married into the
old gentry of Lisa's family. We discover Lisa's life as a wife and
mother, her association with sexual scandals, and her later life in
a convent. We meet, for the first time, previously undiscovered
members of Leonardo's immediate family and discover new information
about his early life. The tiny hill town of Vinci is placed before
us, with its widespread poverty. We find out about the career and
possessions of his father, a notable lawyer in Florence. The
meaning of the portrait that resulted from these human
circumstances is vividly illuminated though Renaissance love poetry
and verses specifically dedicated to Leonardo. We come to
understand how Leonardo's sciences of optics, psychology, anatomy
and geology are embraced in his poetic science of art. Recent
scientific examinations of the painting disclose how it evolved to
assume its present appearance in Leonardo's experimental hands.
Above all, we cut through the suppositions and the myths to show
that the portrait is a product of real people in a real place at a
real time. This is the book that brings back a sense of reality
into the creation of the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. And the
actual Mona Lisa, it turns out, is even more astonishing and
transcendent than the Mona Lisa of legend.
The Salvator Mundi is the first Leonardo painting to be discovered
for over a century. Following its re-emergence, it played a leading
role in the landmark Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery in
London in 2011, after which it was purchased by a Russian oligarch.
In 2017 it was auctioned by Christie's in New York, fetching the
world record price of $450m, and now forms part of the collection
of Louvre Abu Dhabi. The Salvator Mundi may be seen as the
devotional counterpart to the Mona Lisa, having an extraordinary,
communicative presence. The artist has reformed the very
traditional subject matter in a number of ways. The elusiveness of
Christ's expression suggests his spiritual origins beyond the world
of the senses. The traditional sphere of the earth has been
transformed into a rock-crystal orb and signifies a crystalline
sphere of the heavens. In addition to its spiritual dimension, the
image exploits Leonardo's optical knowledge and his growing sense
of the illusiveness of seeing. Only the blessing hand is in
reasonably sharp focus, with his features softly veiled. The
scintillating curls of his hair are characterised in line with his
theory that the physics of the curling of hair is analogous to
vortex motion in water. This book looks at evidence of Leonardo's
Salvator Mundi in the collections of Charles I and Charles II. It
explores the appraisal of works by Leonardo at the Stuart courts,
and proposes that how works attributed to Leonardo were first
encountered and understood in seventeenth-century Britain would
shape the wider evolution of Leonardo as a cultural icon. This
volume gives a dramatic first-hand account of the modern-day
discovery of the painting, from its purchase in a minor New Orleans
auction house, to the cleaning of the picture that would disclose
it as Leonardo's startling original, and the research processes
that would uncover illustrious and obscure former owners. The book
presents the definitive study of the new masterpiece.
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