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Baroque Prague is a lavish excursion through Prague's important baroque period, beginning with the defeat of Czech Protestants at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 and ending with the philosophical era of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. In this book, acclaimed art historian Vit Vlnas explores both the material and spiritual transformations the city went through during this boisterous period, treating the baroque epoch as a cultural phenomenon vital to the current genius loci of the g...

The Baroque is often thought of as a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, and music. The style began around 1600 in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent, in response to the Protestant Reformat...

" Chronological depiction of the fine arts from their origins in Rome through the late baroque and rococo Explanation of the sociopolitical background: the Counter-Reformation, the development of Protestantism, absolutism, and the French Revolution Various ways the baroque left its mark, including city planning, architecture, garden design, sculpture, painting, and emblems" "

In this highly acclaimed reference work David Watkin traces the history of western architecture from the earliest times in Mesopotamia and Egypt to the late twentieth century. For this seventh edition, revising author Owen Hopkins provides a new introduction contextualizing Watkin's approach. The final chapter on the twenty-first century has been completely rewritten by Hopkins, who brings the story right up to date with the inclusion of such topics as re-use, digital cities and virtual architec...

The eighteenth century was a golden age of public building. Governments constructed theaters, museums, hospices, asylums, and marketplaces to forge a new type of city, one that is recognizably modern. Yet the dawn of this urban development remains obscure. In Architecture and Statecraft, Robin Thomas seeks to explain the origins of the modern capital by examining one of the earliest of these transformed cities. In 1737 King Charles Bourbon of Spain embarked upon the most extensive architectural...

The definitive book on the Palace of Versailles, magnificently illustrated with new color photography One of the chief landmarks of Western civilization, a meeting-place of the arts and a repository of historical memory, the Palace of Versailles continues to fascinate its three million visitors per year, as well as students of art and history. Here, for the first time, is a book that captures the true grandeur of Versailles: its imposing facades and glittering interiors, its sumptuous art and d...

Oxford's university buildings are world-famous. Over eight centuries, starting in the twelfth century, the University - the third oldest in Europe - gradually occupied a substantial portion of the city, creating in the process a unique townscape containing the Bodleian Library, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Radcliffe Camera. This book tells the story of the growth of the forum universitatis - as the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor called it - and relates it to the broader history of the Universi...

Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) is now mostly remembered as a genius of architecture - but he was also an accomplished polymath, who only came to architecture quite late in life. Most famous as the mastermind behind the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral and more than fifty parish churches after the Great Fire of London, among his countless other projects Wren also designed the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich, and much of Hampton Court Palace. Replete with colour...

Gothic Architecture and Sexuality in the Circle of Horace Walpole shows that the Gothic style in architecture and the decorative arts and the tradition of medievalist research associated with Horace Walpole (1717-1797) and his circle cannot be understood independently of their own homoerotic culture. Centered around Walpole's Gothic villa at Strawberry Hill in Twickenham, Walpole and his "Strawberry Committee" of male friends, designers, and dilettantes invigorated an extraordinary new mode of G...

Exploring this much-loved public park reveals its story. In the Middle Ages, Gunnersbury belonged to the powerful mistress of a medieval king. Prosperous Tudor merchants and City aldermen followed; its first transformation saw the building of a huge Palladian mansion with formal gardens around 1660. After years of neglect it was reborn as a centre of Georgian society; a merchant politician and art collector and then a Hanoverian princess each softened the landscape and built follies. In 1800 the...

On the eve of its 400th anniversary, Raynham Hall is experiencing a renaissance. The present Marquess and Marchioness Townshend are breathing new life into this ancient family house, which has been passed down through generation after generation, and are sharing its treasures with the public for the first time. As one of the earliest examples of neo-Palladian architecture in England, and with significant William Kent interiors, Raynham Hall is now the focal point of an entire book devoted to i...

Reissued in trade format with a new introduction, The Architecture of Humanism offers a brilliant analysis of the theories and ideas behind much of nineteenth- and twentieth-century architecture. It discusses the classical tradition as reflected in the architecture of Renaissance and Baroque Italy and the role given the human body in that tradition. It is recommended reading for all architecture students, and essential for those interested in the revival of classical architecture.

At the mention of Vienna, many visitors think of Sachertorte, romantic open carriage trips and an evening in one of local wine taverns. But the old imperial city has much more to offer - Vienna presents a comprehensive, richly illustrated view of the art treasures to be found in the Danube metropolis. The main focus is on the baroque era with its magnificent church buildings and palaces including the Hofburg, Schonbrunn and Belvedere; historicism with its architectural highlights on the new Ring...