Although the Gospels of Matthew and Luke support the tradition that there were two Jesus children, the idea was not adopted by the Church. Something of the idea lingered on in Christian art and symbolism, but the full tradition was preserved only in the literature of such esoteric sects as the Gnostics, who did not adopt all the official teachings of institutionalized Christianity. David Ovason explores the literature and art in which these symbols have been preserved, in particular, the ancient...
Anthony Whitelands, an English art historian, is invited to Madrid to value an aristocrat's collection. At a welcome lunch he encounters Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder and leader of the Falange, a nationalist party whose antics are bringing the country ever closer to civil war. The paintings turn out to be worthless, but before Whitelands can leave for London the duque's daughter Paquita reveals a secret and genuine treasure, held for years in the cellars of her ancestral home. Afraid tha...
Philip IV of Spain (ruled 1621 - 1665) was known as the 'Planet King', shining as brightly in the sphere of the arts as would Louis XIV the Sun King after him. The Buen Retiro Palace (though how largely destroyed) was a model for Versailles, but surpassed any palace ever built in Europe for the collection of paintings it contained, especially those commissioned in the 1630s from the finest painters in Europe at the time. These included the court painters Velazquez and Zurbaran (Spanish), the hon...
Sense Knowledge and the Challenge of Italian Renaissance Art (Visual and Material Culture, 1300-1700, #17)
by Giles Knox
Giles Knox examines how El Greco, Velaizquez, and Rembrandt, though a disparate group of artists, were connected by a new self-consciousness with respect to artistic tradition. In particular, Knox considers the relationship of these artists to the art of Renaissance Italy, and sets aside nationalist art histories in order to see the period as one of fruitful exchange. Across Europe during the seventeenth century, artists read Italian-inspired writings on art and these texts informed how they con...
Renowned as a period of cultural rebirth and artistic innovation, the Renaissance is cloaked in a unique aura of beauty and brilliance. Its very name conjures up awe-inspiring images of an age of lofty ideals in which life imitated the fantastic artworks for which it has become famous. But behind the vast explosion of new art and culture lurked a seamy, vicious world of power politics, perversity, and corruption that has more in common with the present day than anyone dares to admit. In this liv...
Voynich Manuscript the Code Unchopped Volume II (Voynich Manuscript the Code Unchoped Volume II, #2)
by Thomas Edward O'Neil
A Critical Old-spelling Edition of the Birth of Merlin (Q1662) (MHRA Texts & Dissertations, v. 31)
by Joanna Udall
Michelangelo's creation of the monumental frescos in the Sistine Chapel marked a revolutionary event in Western art. Now, another revolutionary event has occurred: a nine-year restoration, carried out by experts at the Vatican Museums and described and illustrated in this incredible work. 312 illustrations, 293 in full color; gatefold.
In a book that draws attention to some of our most familiar and unquestioned habits of thought—from "framing" to "perspective" to "reflection"—Rayna Kalas suggests that metaphors of the poetic imagination were once distinctly material and technical in character. Kalas explores the visual culture of the English Renaissance by way of the poetic image, showing that English writers avoided charges of idolatry and fancy through conceits that were visual, but not pictorial. Frames, mirrors, and wind...
Koerper-Bilder in Der Fruhen Neuzeit (Schriften Des Historischen Kollegs, #107)
Birdman of Assisi: Art and the Apocalyptic in the Colonial Andes (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, #476)
by Jaime Lara
The relationship between medieval animal symbolism and the iconography of animals in the Renaissance has scarcely been studied. Filling a gap in this significant field of Renaissance culture, in general, and its art, in particular, this book demonstrates the continuity and tenacity of medieval animal interpretations and symbolism, disguised under the veil of genre, religious or mythological narrative and scientific naturalism. An extensive introduction, dealing with relevant medieval and early R...
A Companion to Cosimo I de’ Medici (The Renaissance Society of America, #17)
Mining the rich documentary sources housed in Tuscan archives and taking advantage of the breadth and depth of scholarship produced in recent years, the seventeen essays in this Companion to Cosimo I de' Medici provide a fresh and systematic overview of the life and career of the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, with special emphasis on Cosimo I's education and intellectual interests, cultural policies, political vision, institutional reforms, diplomatic relations, religious beliefs, military entrep...
Understanding Art in Antwerp (Groningen Studies in Cultural Change, v.45)
On January 23-24, 2008 the University of Groningen hosted an international symposium entitled 'Understanding Art in Antwerp. Classicising the Popular, Popularising the Classic (1540-1580)', where art historians, literary historians and musicologists explored how art was understood in Antwerp in the sixteenth century, how that art understood itself and conveyed such understanding to others, and how students of early modern Antwerp should understand that concept of art historically. Attention was...
Renaissance in Italy (Renaissance in Italy, #3) (Anglistica & Americana S., #98)
by John Addington Symonds
"James Ackerman's essays are nuggets of pure gold in the mainstream of American cultural history. They exemplify the very best art history has achieved in our time." -- Irving Lavin, The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University These essays by one of America's foremost historians of art and architecture range over theory and criticism, the search for connections between art and science in the Renaissance, and specific works of Renaissance architecture. The largest group of essays, dea...
Art of the Italian Renaissance