Anne B. Barriault - Böcker

This book explores the rich literary character and rhetorical strategies of Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, which tells the story of Italian art as it unfolded from its beginnings in the fourteenth century to its pinnacle in Michelangelo and the art of the Academy in the mid-sixteenth century. The contributors of Reading Vasari propose ways to understand Vasari's text in the light of recent disputes over what is fact, fiction, or biography, and who may have read Vasari's editions when they were first published. The book isolates and analyses select threads from Vasari's luxurious textual tapestry: these range from architecture, cosmology and philosophy to biography, comedy, elegy and travelogue.

Including an updated introduction to VMFA's history as well as full-color reproductions of art from the permanent collection, this newly designed, revised, and expanded edition of ""Selections from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts"" features more than 148 highlights selected by the museum's curators and staff. Spanning more than five thousand years and representing a wide array of world cultures, this volume includes works from the ancient Mediterranean, Byzantine, ancient American, Asian, African, European painting, European sculpture and decorative arts, modern and contemporary art, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century decorative arts, and American art collections. For visitors to the museum and art connoisseurs, this book presents a sampling of the diverse objects in VMFA's collection through color illustrations and lively, informative descriptions and discussions of art.