David Alan Brown – författare

This beautifully illustrated and exquisitely designed volume of paintings, sculpture, medals, and drawings celebrates the extraordinary flowering of female portraiture, mainly in Florence, beginning in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Included are many of the finest portraits of women (and a few of men) by Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Botticelli, Verrocchio, and Leonardo da Vinci--whose remarkable double-sided portrait of Ginevra de' Benci, which departs notably from tradition, is the focus of special attention. It was in Florence during this period that portraiture expanded beyond the realm of rulers and their consorts to encompass women of the merchant class. This phenomenon, long known to scholars, is here presented to a larger audience for the first time. The catalogue, which accompanies an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, traces how the humanist praise of women influenced and enlivened their depiction. It also considers how meaningful costumes and settings were chosen.Works from outside Florence by such masters as Pisanello, Rogier van der Weyden, and Ercole Roberti shed additional light on the evolution of female portraiture during the century from c. 1440 to c. 1540. An introduction by editor and exhibition organizer David Alan Brown and four engaging essays by other experts on Renaissance art--Dale Kent, Joanna Woods-Marsden, Mary Westerman Bulgarella and Roberta Orsi Landini, and Victoria Kirkham--perfectly complement the more than one hundred illustrations, which include ninety-seven full-color plates. The catalogue entries are concise while revealing the key aspects of each portrait--from style and sources to ongoing scholarly debates. This elegant, enlightening book is itself a telling portrait not only of the art but also of the broader issues of women's freedom, responsibility, and individuality in a most exceptional era. EXHIBITION SCHEDULE National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. September 30, 2001-January 6, 2002

Daniel suffered many trials of both the world’s making as well as his own, but all along he really believed that he’d be able to circumvent the Apostle John’s Revelation which unequivocally states that anyone who takes the mark of the beast during the Great Tribulation would surely be slain upon the return of the King. Daniel had done it only for his family’s sake, and he’d imagined that this noble motive for accepting the cursed mark would grant him a reprieve. Unfortunately for him, he was wrong...dead wrong. Even so, and providentially for the universe, the thoughts of man are not God’s thoughts and the ways of man are not God’s ways. The Omega Gambit tells of Daniel Bradford’s struggles and fall in his attempt to exploit an ambiguity in God’s eternal Law. En Passant not only explains why this had to be, but details the final disposition of his soul at the end of time.

Twilit Tales are 50 short fantasy, science fiction, western, horror, Christian, adventure, suspense, mystery, thriller, contemporary, and historical fiction stories by the author of the Omega Gambit, En Passant, and the Paladin, that will make you rethink man''s place in a strange and twisted universe!

Rosette was nearly finished with her college journalism degree when she was thrust into a series of events to stop a plot that threatened to destroy America as she knew it. While covering a protest in Washington D.C., a Christian crusader in shining armor appeared out of thin air to stop a deadly terrorist bombing. In her quest to find out more about this supernatural superhero from eighth century France dubbed by the public as the Paladin, this young budding Jewish reporter finds herself working as a member of his team. Her role as both public relations director and squire is augmented by a Muslim lawyer who works for a secret organization known only as the Guild. This unusual Christian, Jewish, and Muslim threesome work together to fight evil and introduce this new tunic-wearing vigilante to the modern world in “Paladin: Dawn of a Champion.”

A masterpiece by Canaletto leads a young art historian on the trail of an unsolved mystery. A young art historian pursuing academic success. A painting by the most famous eighteenth-century painter of vedute, Canaletto. A gondola once possibly belonging to the poet Robert Browning – and who else before him? These are the key elements of the novel. When Jeremy Allyn is assigned Canaletto’s Vedute by his teacher as the topic for his dissertation – a subject many have already written about – he realizes he must find an original perspective. He therefore decides to focus on Canaletto’s figures, a secondary feature of his celebrated architectural scenes. This marks the beginning of an adventure with unexpected turns that will lead Jeremy to make some astonishing discoveries and to uncover a crime which had remained buried for centuries.