How To Read Italian Renaissance Painting

Zuffi reveals the world of the Renaissance masters in a new and rich light. Each spread uses an important painting as a way to explain a key concept. Includes brief biographies of the major artists, provided an accessible introduction to the art and culture of the Italian Renaissance.

Filled with great masterpieces, each spread uses an important painting as a way to explain a key concept, with numerous large details. There are also brief biographies of the major artists.

Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897) was one of the first great historians of culture and art. In his manuscript on the genres of Italian Renaissance painting-still unpublished in the original German and published here in English for the first time-Burckhardt assayed a transformative approach to the study of art history. Rather than undertaking a biographical or a chronological reading of artistic development, Burckhardt chose to read the source materials and extant works of the Italian Renaissance synchronically, by genre. Probably written between 1885 and 1893, this manuscript takes up twelve different categories of paintings, ranging from the allegorical to the historical, from the biblical to the mythological, from the glorification of saints to the denunciation of sinners. Maurizio Ghelardi's introductory essay analyzes Burckhardt's innovative treatment of his subject, establishing the importance of this text not only within Burckhardt's oeuvre but also within the continuum of art historical research.

A new edition--now in two volumes--of the largest and most comprehensive textbook about Italian Renaissance art. Now in its second edition, Italian Renaissance Art presents an updated and even more accessible history. The book has been split into two volumes: the first, covering the period 1300 to 1510; the second, 1490 to 1600. The volumes retain the same innovative decade-by-decade structure as the first edition, and a number of chapters have been revised by the authors to reflect the latest scholarship. The coverage of the Trecento has been expanded, and a new appendix section explains all the key Renaissance art-making techniques, with illustrations and step-by-steps for such processes as lost-wax casting. This book tells the story of art in the great cities of Rome, Florence, and Venice while profiling a range of other centers throughout Italy--including in this edition art from Naples, Padua, and Palermo.

The Italian Renaissance is one of the most important eras in western art. Painters like Masaccio, Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Titian brought about a fundamental renewal that influenced all of Europe. More than fifty of the most important artists up to 1600 are presented in this book with more than 270 color illustrations.

"This knowledgeable, useful and up-to-date survey of one of the greatest periods in Western painting, from Masaccio through Titian, covers some fifty artists and their work and includes nearly 400 illustrations integrated with the text. James Beck of Columbia University gives biographical information on each artist and discusses and analyzes his artistic style, achievement and most significant works." /

"Many famous artworks of the Italian Renaissance were made to celebrate love, marriage, and family. They were the pinnacles of a tradition, dating from early in the era, of commemorating betrothals, marriages, and the birth of children by commissioning extraordinary objects - maiolica, glassware, jewels, textiles, paintings - that were often also exchanged as gifts. This volume is the first comprehensive survey of artworks arising from Renaissance rituals of love and marriage and makes a major contribution to our understanding of Renaissance art in its broader cultural context. The impressive range of works gathered in these pages extends from birth trays painted in the early fifteenth century to large canvases on mythological themes that Titian painted in the mid-1500s. Each work of art would have been recognized by contemporary viewers for its prescribed function within the private, domestic domain."--BOOK JACKET.