. Zuffi – författare

In the sixteenth century, the humanist values and admiration for classical antiquity that marked the early Renaissance spread from Italy throughout the rest of the continent, resulting in the development of a number of local artistic styles in other countries. Artists were highly valued and richly compensated during this period, with many receiving lucrative commissions from papal, royal, and private patrons. Among the sixty artists whose works are presented in this volume are towering figures of Western art, such as Michelangelo, Raphael, El Greco, and Titian. Venetian painters led the way, as oil on canvas supplanted fresco as the most popular medium. Italian Mannerists, such as Pontormo, deviated from classical forms, creating figures with elongated proportions and exaggerated poses. In countries that experienced the Protestant Reformation, such as England, many artists turned to portraiture and other secular subjects. This second volume in the "Art through the Centuries" series is divided into three sections that discuss the important people, concepts, and artistic centres of this innovative period.Important facts are summarized in the margins of each entry, and key facets of the illustrations are identified and discussed. New in the "Art Through the Centuries" series, it contains 400 full colour illustrations.

Influenced by a revival of interest in Greco-Roman ideals and sponsored by a newly prosperous merchant class, fifteenth-century artists produced works of astonishingly innovative content and technique. The International Gothic style of painting, still popular at the beginning of the century, was giving way to the influence of Early Netherlandish Flemish masters such as Jan van Eyck, who emphasized narrative and the complex use of light for symbolic meaning. Patrons favoured paintings in oil and on wooden panels for works ranging from large, hinged altarpieces to small, increasingly lifelike portraits. This beautifully illustrated guide analyzes the most important people, places, and concepts of this early Renaissance period, whose explosion of creativity was to spread throughout Europe in the sixteenth century. Divided into three sections, the first examines key terms, including: styles, concepts, and techniques; the second looks at four regions - Northern and Central Europe, France and Flanders, The Western Mediterranean, and Italy - and key cities within each area; and the third section highlights approximately fifty individual artists.Important facts are called out in the margins of each entry, and key elements are pointed out on each illustration.

This is a magnificently illustrated and enlightening journey through the visual portrayal of love and sexuality in Western art. Even in the modern world where explicit imagery is manifest, an erotic painting from half a millennia ago can still manage to create a sensation. This new addition to the highly-acclaimed "Guide to Imagery Series" takes readers on a fascinating romp through the portrayal of love and sexuality in Western art - ranging from chaste tenderness to overwhelming frenzies of the senses, and from Classical allusion to sexual fantasy. Individual chapters focus on specific themes, with a detailed and informative reading of the significance and symbolic content of the individual works illustrating each theme.