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Born Under Saturn is a classic work of scholarship written with a
light and winning touch. Margot and Rudolf Wittkower explore the
history of the familiar idea that artistic inspiration is a form of
madness, a madness directly expressed in artists' unhappy and
eccentric lives. This idea of the alienated artist, the Wittkowers
demonstrate, comes into its own in the Renaissance, as part of the
new bid by visual artists to distinguish themselves from craftsmen,
with whom they were then lumped together. Where the skilled artisan
had worked under the sign of light-fingered Mercury, the ambitious
artist identified himself with the mysterious and brooding Saturn.
Alienation, in effect, was a rung by which artists sought to climb
the social ladder. As to the reputed madness of artists-well, some
have been as mad as hatters, some as tough-minded as the shrewdest
businessmen, and many others wildly and willfully eccentric but
hardly crazy. What is certain is that no book presents such a
splendid compendium of information about artists' lives, from the
early Renaissance to the beginning of the Romantic era, as Born
Under Saturn. The Wittkowers have read everything and have
countless anecdotes to relate: about artists famous and infamous;
about suicide, celibacy, wantonness, weird hobbies, and whatnot.
These make Born Under Saturn a comprehensive, quirky, and endlessly
diverting resource for students of history and lovers of the arts.
This classic survey of Italian Baroque art and architecture focuses
on the arts in every center between Venice and Sicily in the early,
high, and late Baroque periods. The heart of the study, however,
lies in the architecture and sculpture of the exhilarating years of
Roman High Baroque, when Bernini, Borromini, and Cortona were all
at work under a series of enlightened popes. Wittkower's text is
now accompanied by a critical introduction and substantial new
bibliography. This edition will also include color illustrations
for the first time. This is the third book in the three volume
survey.
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