The Story Of Art Luxury Edition

Exquisite cloth-bound edition of the classic art-history text – the perfect gift for every art connoisseur and student For more than 60 years Ernst Gombrich's The Story of Art has been a global bestseller – with more than 8 million copies sold – the perfect introduction to art history, from the earliest cave paintings to art of the twentieth century, a masterpiece of clarity and personal insight. This classic book is currently in its 16th edition and has been translated into more than 30 languages, and published in numerous formats and editions. Now, for the first time, this Luxury Edition is the ultimate gift purchase for all art lovers – a perfect keepsake to treasure, and to inspire future generations.

The most famous and popular book on art ever published, this quintessential "introduction to art," now in its sixteenth edition, has been a worldwide bestseller for over four decades.

In the popular imagination, possibly no other artist’s work is more recognizable than that of Salvador Dalí. Indeed, for many he is the ultimate mad artist, whose singular vision remorselessly probed his own psychological depths. His nightmarish visions and bizarre landscapes express the angst and turbulence of the twentieth century. Dalí’s creativity embraced many different modes of expression and was never constrained by any one style. Over eight decades, the prodigious range of Dalí’s activity spanned every conceivable medium, from painting and drawing to sculpture, film, furniture, books, stage design and jewelry, not to mention his highly eccentric public persona, which could be considered an art form in itself.

In this intimate history, James Elkins demonstrates that there is - and can never be - only one story of art. He opens up the questions that traditional art history usually avoids.

Exquisite cloth-bound edition of the classic art-history text - the ideal gift for every art connoisseur and student For more than 70 years Sir Ernst Gombrich's The Story of Art has been a global bestseller - with more than 8 million copies sold - the perfect introduction to art history, from the earliest cave paintings to art of the twentieth century, a masterpiece of clarity and personal insight. This classic book is currently in its 16th edition, and has been translated into more than 30 languages and published in numerous formats and editions. This luxury edition, with its bespoke cloth cover and preface by Professor Gombrich's granddaughter Leonie, is the ultimate gift purchase for all art lovers - a keepsake to treasure, and to inspire future generations. A global bestseller for over five decades, this luxury edition is perfect for collectors, connoisseurs, and the millions of people who have grown up reading and loving this classic companion.

Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.