Anthony Blunt – författare

This book seeks to broaden the comprehension of the student of Italian Renaissance painting by concentrating not on the works of art themselves, but on the various artistic theories which influenced them or were expressed by them. Taking Alberti's treatises as his starting-point, Anthony Blunt traces the development of artistic theory from Humanism to Mannerism. He discusses the writings of Leonardo, Savonarola, Michelangelo, and Vasari, examines the effect of the Council of Trent on religious art, and chronicles the successful struggle of the painters and sculptors themselves to elevate their status from craftsmen to creative artists.

Francesco Borromini is one of the great geniuses of Baroque architecture, perhaps the greatest in inventiveness and in use of spatial effects. Here is the first book in English to survey the whole work of the master. The author, former Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, is known internationally for his many works on French and Italian architecture and painting.In this lucid and fully illustrated account, Anthony Blunt charts Borromini’s career and analyzes and assesses his art. Mr. Blunt tells of Borromini’s training, relating his style to that of Bernini, under whom he worked, and to the architecture from which he learned, for example Michelangelo’s. Borromini’s patrons allowed him freedom to evolve his own ideas, and his originality and imagination in inventing new architectural forms become apparent as the author studies individual commissions. His imagination was apparently limitless, but his inventions evolved in terms of rigidly controlled geometry. It is this combination of revolutionary inventiveness and intellectual control that gives Borromini’s work particular appeal in the twentieth century.

A landmark account of the work, thought, and life of the seventeenth-century French painterIn this book, Anthony Blunt presents a rich account of the paintings, life, and development of the great seventeenth-century French classicist Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), addressing the artist’s entire oeuvre alongside his theory of art. Blunt shows why Poussin holds a central place in the great French humanist line that produced Racine, Molière, Voltaire, the Parnassians, and Mallarmé. At the same time, he examines how Poussin looks back to Raphael and ancient Rome, while pointing forward to Ingres, Cézanne, the Cubists, and Picasso.

Anthony Blunt’s Guide to Baroque Rome, the fruit of a lifetime’s work, was a pathbreaking book when it was originally published, and was called ‘the greatest architectural guidebook ever written’. Each of the over 300 entries discusses in detail the history of the church, its design and construction, as well as its significant features and decoration (including paintings). Much new information has been amassed since the original edition appeared and in this revised edition care has been taken to make this material as accessible as possible, whether it is an appraisal of the patronage history of a particular chapel, a new attribution, or the full significance of a fresco cycle. Full references and indexes are provided in a clearer format than hitherto. Dr Michael Erwee worked on this new edition for 15 years. Editorial support was provided by Lisa Adams, Sebastian Wormell and Dany McNutt of the Courtauld Institute.