Product Description
A landmark survey and analysis of Italian Renaissance architecture by an internationally renowned expert in the field.

The literature on Italian Renaissance architecture is vast, but every popular account is out-of-date almost before it is written. Once in a generation, however, there is a scholar who is a master of both the documentary evidence and the buildings themselves. In this new study, Christoph Luitpold Frommel, who has won a worldwide reputation through his contributions to specialist journals in Germany and Italy, distills his scholarship into a new synthesis that is both up-to-date and securely based on primary sources.

Avoiding the straitjacket of fashionable theory, he organizes the book traditionally by period and architect. Social context, technical innovation, and aesthetic judgment are all given due weight, with particular emphasis on the way in which each architect balanced individual inspiration with the accepted Vitruvian canon. Generously illustrated throughout with photographs, drawings, plans, and reconstructions, it brings into vivid relief the extraordinary flowering of architectural genius between the birth of Brunelleschi and the death of Michelangelo, a turning point in Western culture whose riches and pleasures prove themselves yet again to be literally inexhaustible. 290 illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

L. Mark Taylor (Kingston, Jamaica)
Now six years into the 21st century we should demand a general book on the architecture of the Italian Renaissance, in English, worthy of our time. Unfortunately this is not it.
We have had classic books that have endured over generations and now are in need of revision and update, making room for more recent scholarship to assert itself and supplant these revered but outdated tomes. Books by Jacob Burckhardt, Peter Murray and Heinrich Klotz have dominated the English speaking market from the late 19th century until today.
This book by Thames and Hudson gives us little that is new and in fact almost mocks us with their contempt. For certain Prof. Frommel is knowledgeable and a master of his subject but this is not enough. My disappointment in fact is not directed so much at the author who has proven his worth (see contributions in "The Renaissance from Brunnelleschi to Michelangelo" published by T&H in 1994) but at the publishers. The promise of the cover photographs is not met inside the book, which has b/w photos throughout and insufficient drawings for a work on Architecture (and indeed no new ones).
Let us be clear, to experience the full polychromatic display of the interior of a renaissance palace is something never to be forgotten. We must therefore have full colour photos of the more important interiors of the Renaissance. Recent books reproducing the original drawings of masters of the past have understood that to copy them large and in full colour is to transmit the true majesty of the creation (books on Bernini's architecture and Leonardo's drawings amongst others).
Knowledge and scholarship are very important but publishing values are equally important. The bar must be raised. If the target audience is architects or architectural students then the books must have clear plans, sections, elevations, sketches and diagrams to illustrate the buildings (eg. why not incorporate some of Letarouilly,s drawings of Roman buildings). They must also be accompanied by the best photos (these should be colour photos wherever possible unless historic b/w photos better illustrate the point) of the whole or the part, sufficient to illustrate the point being made.
I suspect that for a work worthy of this century we need to tell the story in 2-4 large volumes and directed at the architect. The publishers and authors must do more work if they expect us to purchase their work and provide us with new, expanded and uplifting scholarship worthy of the 21st century.
For this project Konemann remain my publishers of choice as they have consistently proven that they can produce works of a very high standard at an affordable price, without dropping their standards.
Obviously I cannot recommend this book to potential purchasers especially not at the price quoted. I await the production in English of the definitive contemporary text(s) on the Architecture of the Italian Renaissance. ... Read more

Product Description
In exploring the impact that the extensive cultural exchange between the Old and the New Worlds during the sixteenth century had upon artistic practice and discussion of art at that time, distinguished Renaissance art historians reevaluate the Eurocentrism of Italian Renaissance art history and envision how the history of Renaissance art would look if cultural interaction and the conditions of reception became the primary focus. ... Read more

Product Description
A lively account of how life was lived behind the imposing doors of the sixteenth-century Renaissance palaces of Venice

This book offers an engaging and original perspective on the private lives and material culture of patrician families in sixteenth-century Venice. Distinguished art historian Patricia Fortini Brown takes us behind the elegant façades of grand palaces built along the Venetian canals and examines the roles of both fine and applied arts in family life as well as the public messages that these impressive homes conveyed.

Illustrated with hundreds of varied and unusual images, the book provides a lively picture of the aristocratic lifestyle during a period of changing definitions of nobility. The author considers such wide-ranging themes as attitudes toward wealth and display, the articulation of family identity, and the visual culture of Venetian women—how they decorated their homes, dressed, undertook domestic tasks, entertained, and raised their children. Recapturing the interplay between the public and private, she offers an account of Venetian households unequalled in vividness and detail.

Patricia Fortini Brown is professor and chair of the department of art and archaeology at Princeton University.

Also available by Patricia Fortini Brown

Venice and Antiquity:
The Venetian Sense of the Past
ISBN 0-300-06700-3$75.00sc

Venetian Narrative Painting in the Age of Carpaccio
paper ISBN 0-300-04743-6$40.00sc


... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Private lives in Renaissance Venice: Art, Architecgture, and family
A very well documented book with a deep knowledge of the social conditions of Venice in the Renaissance period it covers. I found it a little bit dense sometimes. The illustrations are good. Hector Cardenas

Must-have for lovers of Renaisance Venice
Another great book about Renaissance Venice by Patricia Fortini Brown.Filled with many large colored pictures and black + white drawings, this book is a must for recreationists + others obsessed with 16th century Venice. Lots of information on the small details of daily life: art, architecture, music, furnishings, clothing, utensils, games of chance and fortune-telling.This author is one of the bests on the subject ofdaily life in Renaissance Venice. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Pricing
I have not actually had a chance to review this book, but I just had a family member tell me that they saw the same exact book at Barnes and Noble for around $10.00 which means it is priced too high here.

Great pictures, Anodyne text
If you want a coffee table book with high quality reproduction of Renaissance masterpieces...buy this book. If you want to know "the secret language" of the "hidden symbolism of Italian Art", then you don't need it. Simply ask the nearest Catholic priest or go to the Catholic Encyclopedia website. The author gives precisely the same information...so how "secret" can it be?

Essentially this is an appreciation of art from the perspective of a dyed in-the-wool Vaticanite. It is fine if you accept the notion that Leonardo, Boticelli, Raphael, Crivelli, etc were pious Catholics who rigorously adhered to traditional Church doctrine. But it seems to me that they were free-thinkers. Doubters were classed as heretics and were not free to openly express their views. That explains why there are so many symbols in these works of art..not because they affirm Church dogma but they deny it.

To give an example, the author mentions that a swallow was a common feature in religious paintings. Swallows migrate every year, nobody knew where they went, and then they suddenly returned. Therefore, the swallow makes an excellent symbol of the resurrection, because Jesus disappeared after his crucifixion, before miraculously re-appearing. It's insulting, isn't it?How about the meaning, widely understood, behind Aesop's fable, "one swallow does not a summer make"? Beware of false assumptions! Things are not what they seem. The inclusion of a solitary swallow into a piece of religious art suggests the artist's true intent is to cast aspersions on common creeds not to fortify them.

the best cheat sheet for art history class
Finally figured out what to say when walking into an italian church or museum and have to explain to friends what this or that is all about.Always wanted to know why christ is holding an apple or why there is a bird on the corner, or why this saint is holding this particular object.Could have given it 5 stars, but held back, since the names of art and literal references are all english-based, with little mention of the original names in italian or latin.The illustrations are of superb quality, and so is the paper and book binding. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a new, enlarged edition of Wolfflin's work on some of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance: Leonardo; Michelangelo; Raphael; Fra Bartolommeo; Andrea del Sarto. It concludes with an exposition of the guiding principles of High Renaissance art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Biased Opinions
This is wonderfully written and easy to read for anyone familiar with art history and its lexicon.However, I would not recommend this book to a beginning art history student not familiar with the problems associated with earlier art historians (even modern art historians should be considered carefully).Wofflin is rather biased on the part of the High Renaissance artists and he does not look upon other artists immediately before or after very fairly.Wofflin does very successfully capture the High Renaissance and its style in this book.Read carefully, this is a must read for any student of art history.

Classical Book about Classic Art
Although this book mainly focus only in Italian Renaissance, it contains enough issues must be addressed for this fascinating art reflorishing period as a whole. The analysis method used in this book is full of sparkling, with a perfect combination of technical points as well as passion. I began to love the classical art because of this book. And, believe me, when now I'm interested in photography, still I can find my viewpoint be influenced by this book, say, which combination of light and construction of the picture will render a BEAUTIFUL feeling. Any top art book should combine ration and passion. And here is a perfect example. ... Read more

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Part of Prentice Hall's new Perspectiveseries of moderately priced, heavily illustrated, high-qualitypaperback books on specific subjects in art history, this bookdiscusses the art of Rome in the Renaissance in the context of itspatronage.It accounts the extraordinary works ofart and architecture sponsored by the popes and Roman noblefamilies—churches, palaces, villas, paintings, frescoes,fountains, sculptures, and illustrated books.Amazon.com Review
Loren Partridge is no newcomer to art of the Renaissance or the artof Italy, with a list of books to his credit that includes Michelangelo: The Sistine Ceiling,Rome, Arts of Power: ThreeHalls of State in Italy, 1300-1600, and Renaissance Likeness: Art andCulture in Raphael's Julius II. His latest, The Art of RenaissanceRome makes use of unexpected chapters headings to guide the reader alongon an exploration of the arts of Rome between 1400 and 1600. This opulentcollection of work is further enhanced by maps, artist and royal familyhistories, chronologies, biographical dictionaries and brief, but telling,artist histories. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Lovers of Rome, read this book!
This book is very well researched and written in a manner all lovers of Roman renaissance history, art and architecture will find rewarding.The author finds within the art and architecture of Rome new details andsubtleties which often seem lost in the grand depictions of this highlyresearshed subject.The book contains excellent reproductions of the art -especially the Sistine Chaple and the Alter pieces, a very useful map and achronological table toward the end which is valuable for quick reference. My only negetive criticism of this fine book would be concerning thehistory of the earlier buildings which existed before the grand palazzoswere erected.For example, I have a sub-passion for the history of thePiazza del Campidoglio (Capitoline).I know the present Palazzo delSenatore was formerly a palace or large building constructed over theTabularium built by Lucius Cornelius Sulla.I was looking for moreinformation explaining Michelangelo's planning and vision (which heaccomplished) for this important site.This very well may have beenoutside the author's parameter but I am looking for a detailed discussionof the layers of history around the buildings of the Capitol.Nonetheless,I loved this book and will often refer to it and bring it with me on mynext trip to the Eternal City. ... Read more

Product Description
Tapestries-the art form of kings-were a principal element in the ostentatious magnificence used by powerful Renaissance rulers to broadcast their wealth and might. During the period between 1460 and 1560, courts and churches lavished vast sums on costly weavings in silk and gold thread from designs by leading artists.In this beautifully illustrated book, contributors analyze some of these gorgeous tapestries, examine the stylistic and technical development of tapestry production in the Low Countries, France, and Italy during the Renaissance, and discuss the contribution that the medium made to art, liturgy, and propaganda of the day.The first major survey of tapestry production between 1460 and 1560, the book presents forty-five surviving tapestries along with some twenty preparatory drawings and cartoon fragments. Featured are examples designed by Italian masters Raphael, Giulio Romano, and Perino del Vaga. In addition, works by Netherlandish designers such as Bernaert van Orley and his followers are included, demonstrating how elements of the northern design tradition were fused with Italianate innovations, resulting in an extraordinarily rich aesthetic, ideally suited to the medium.Amazon.com Review
Often slighted by art historians, tapestries were actually the most widely commissioned figurative art form in Europe in the 1500s. In Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence, Thomas P. Campbell and other scholarly contributors survey the elaborate woven hangings produced primarily by Flemish workshops for the palaces and cathedrals of Italy and Northern Europe. The authors discuss the designers' careers, patrons' motives, symbolic meanings of the imagery, and stylistic features unique to the labor-intensive medium. Initially, the need to lessen skilled weavers' workloads led designers to arrange elaborately costumed figures in manageable rows. Raphael's cartoons (full-size drawings) for the monumental "Acts of the Apostles" tapestries, commissioned by Pope Leo X, moved the art form into a new era. Flemish designers incorporated Raphael's spatially persuasive treatment of the figure into sophisticated narratives full of anecdotal detail. The 250 color photographs, specially commissioned for this catalog for an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in spring 2002, vividly illuminate the technical brilliance of these works. --Cathy Curtis ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence
This book is 'sumptuous'.Beautifully bound and a really first class book with lots of beautiful illustrations.

Excellent Introduction to the Medium
This is an ideal "starter book" for anyone interested in tapestries. Although not as complete as La Tapisserie by Verlet & others, it'll give the reader a reasonable understanding of the art as a whole.

Incredible Work
Having marveled at the tapestry I purchased from Simply Tapestries, I went to the Museum of Modern Art to see their recent exhibit of Flemish tapestries.This book can almost act as a companion of this exhibit. I am amazed at the quality and quantity of the full color artwork.This book is a must for anyone who has purchased or intends to purchase a tapestry. The authors are obvious experts in their field. A wonderful art book of the highest quality. I learned so much about the history of these wonderful pieces of art.

Truly magnificient!
I had no idea how important a medium tapestry was prior to stumbling on the Met exhibition during a recent visit to NYC and then reading this book.I was amazed to learn the amount of money spent to produce (and purchase!) them, and how important the industry was to the economy of the time .Anyone who thinks of tapestries as beige, boring and historically insignificant is in for a surprise.

As for this book itself, the photography is stunning and lavish. Each time you look at one of these magnificent works you see something new--it's hard to believe that these are woven objects, the detail and color is so vivid...no wonder the NY Times listed it as a holiday gift buy.(I think they rated the accompanying exhibition one of the year's best too)

Best collection available
This collection depicting the tapestry exhibit recently held at theNY Met Museum is an indisputable gem. Entries are consise and thorough. Photographs are well done, some a bit too grey, but overall usable to all textile artists.
Well worth the price and a steal at Amazon's price. ... Read more

Product Description
Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

good buy
good book--was a little older/worn than i expected but no real damage so its still a good copy. fast delivery & a great price. solid purchase.

THE American Study
It is hard to find a more seminal work on American Literature than American Renaissance. Until today, any self-respecting American Studies scholar or expert for American Literature has to come to terms with this massive shedding of ink on some of the best American texts ever published.
Though I find myself at times lost in the wealth of Mr. Matthiessen's allusions and remarks, especially when he weaves all too great a narrative from the swatches he collected, I remain fascinated with this genuinely passionate account of a harmony where many believed (and still today believe) to hear only cacophony. Suspiciously quiet about his personal leanings and politics (a fact that, with all due respect, could simply not remain untouched by more recent cultural, gender, and Marxist critics), Matthiessen takes us back to an age that holds more of today than we sometimes think, and that already foreshadows in its depth what more superficial ages would later repeat ad nausea.
It is not a novel, nor a Michener book, but if you are seriously interested in 19th century American literature (and he does give Whitman the respect he deserves), this may very well be one of the most readable studies on the subject. Sadly shortcutting Dickinson, Poe, and other authors that are excavated only today, this book still points calmly and self-assuredly to those novels and poems that stand out. All these dead, white men wrote texts that we simply cannot ignore, and whether we love Cervantes, Joyce, DeLillo, whether Tan, Faulkner, Burroughs, or Lacan, we have to see that the whale's whiteness and Walden's silence are with us always.

A great work of American scholarship
The American Renaissance 1850-1855 was the time in which American Literature truly came into greatness. Melville( Moby Dick 1851) Whitman ( Leaves of Grass 1855) Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne. Matthiessen identifies the phenomenom understands that this is the real birth- note of American literature not simply as an insular provincial form but as a world- waking work. He writes with great understanding of the works themselves.
It has been many years since I read this work in graduate- school but I have no doubt it holds up , despite the waves of various critical schools that have tried to undermine its authority.
It is as literary criticism a great work which identifies and interprets great creative works.
It is an essential item in the American library , and a real help to anyone who wants to understand one of the great moments in the history of world- literature. ... Read more

Product Description
This book focuses on a puzzling but ubiquitous feature of Renaissance art: continuous narrative, in which several episodes, each including the characters, are shown in a single space or setting. Continuous narratives have often been considered to be incompatible with the new system of representing space, one-point perspective, which has been traditionally understood to freeze time as it unifies pictorial space. In this study, Lew Andrews reassesses the problem and offers a new interpretation of continuous narrative. By looking afresh at the visual narratives of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries within the context of the visual and narrative theories of those times, this study shows that continuous narrative is a progressive feature of Renaissance art, inextricably linked to the expansion of space through one-point perspective. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good Thesis - Pretty Good Execution
Lew Andrews expands his Doctoral thesis here into a book-length argument: that the use of 'continuous narrative' in Renaissance painting was *not* an accidental holdover of medieval style. Rather, it was a legitimate, useful, deliberate development of renaissance narrative technique.

Andrews marshals his arguements well, but a few links are tenuous. His sense of the strong theoretical and practical basis for continuous narrative is thorough and convincing. Indeed, the 1400's saw a flowering of the technique in the work of some of the greatest master from Masaccio (e.g. his "Tribute Money"), Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, Piero della Francesca, up through Michelangelo, Raphael, and especially Botticelli later in the century.

The weakest part of the book is the explanation for the decline of continuous narrative. Andrews offers no detailed or convincing explanation of why Mannerist and Baroque artists abandoned the technique. He is sketchy at this point, and his sources are obscure. It's apparent that he simply didn't do the deep research for the period after 1500 that would have led to a fuller, more continuous narrative of the technique.

Overall, a nice little book, with a useful thesis. ... Read more

Product Description
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 Renaissance sources, is followed by a series of case studies that illustrate ways in which Renaissance artists revived conventional animal imagery in unprecedented contexts, investing them with new meanings, on a social, political, ethical, religious or psychological level, often by applying exegetical methodology in creating multiple semantic and iconographic levels. ... Read more

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For Italian city builders more than a thousand years ago, the urban realm was the great theater where their best aspirations were played out, the place where society said the most substantial things about who they were and what they longed for. In this masterful blend of art and cultural history, architect David Mayernik reveals how the very different cities of Venice, Rome, Florence, Siena, and Pienza were all literally designed to be both models of the mind and images of heaven. Mayernik takes the reader on a journey into the past in Timeless Cities, but he also explains why these city-building ideas remain relevant today. For those travelling on vacation or appreciating the art and architecture of Italy from home, Mayernik helps bring the wonder and beauty of the Renaissance mind a little closer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Original!
The idealistic author argues that cities require a predetermined purpose, a self-image that will be transcribed in its development through time.Conversely, a city's architecture and layout embody its memory and reveal its true nature.To illustrate this, the author discusses at some length the pre-18th century development of Rome, Venice, Florence, Sienna and Pienza.

Needless to say, the approach is highly intellectual. The author for instance draws various conclusions from the «architectural pun» created in ancient Rome by the construction, back to back, of a temple to Venus, goddess of love (AMOR in Latin) and a temple to the city per se (ROMA in Latin).In Venice, he likens all of piazza San Marco to an open-air church _ the Basilica acting as the sanctuary _ whereas the shape of Sienna's Campo is described as an analogy to the Virgin's protective cloak.

This requires of course on the reader's part a good prior knowledge of the cities discussed and the book would in fact definitely benefit by being more systematic and extensive.

Unfortunately, illustrations are in black and white and not up to par with what is now expected for such a topic.Even the image on the cover page is strangely unappealing!

Despite these shortcomings, many planners and city-lovers in general will find this book worthwhile.

A memorable lesson
Mr. Mayernik transports the reader to the glorious past of Rome, Venice, Florence, Siena, and Pienza; a past in which city builders sought to make their cities into reflections of the perfect heavenly City of God; a past in which every stone, every building, every piazza was an episode of the larger urban narrative that played itself for its citizens as a great "theatre of the mind."

Mr. Mayernik's writing allows us to view the urban mythologies of these places not as History, events frozen in by gone times and no longer capable of speaking to present generations, but as living lessons in city building; he invites his audience to learn the 'language' of these five cities so that we too can build memorable places.

Wonderful Journey Across Time and Ideas
Timeless Cities is indeed a wonderful journey, a voyage across time and ideas.The author tells a poetic, scholarly and delightful story of five Italian cities and how they became meaningful and memorable places, remaining so to this day.

For those who have experienced the magical, transforming impact Rome, Florence, Venice, Siena and Pienza have on their visitors, David Mayernik unlocks the richly poetic ideas which are their very essence.An architect and traveler, his writing is filled with the passion of one who truly loves and understands the tradition of those great cities: the tradition of humanism.

For all for whom life is, above all, a cherished series of discoveries and experiences, Mayernik extends a masterful invitation to explore those places which stir our souls and which demonstrate the highest fulfillment of our collective potential for cultural and artistic achievement.He then challenges us to again seek to create cities "through which dance the Muses", cities which are "built Ideas suffused with cultural Memory".Accept his gracious invitation.It is a journey you will treasure. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

beautiful book
It is a very useful guide to the vatican palace and to st peter.
It is centered in a very particular period. The tremendous richess of ancient art in the palace is completelly absent. ... Read more

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The principal elements of High Renaissance art, first formulated by Leonardo da Vinci in the 1490s, came to their true flowering in the brilliant achievements of Bramante, Raphael and Michelangelo in Rome, of Michelangelo in Florence and Giorgione and Titian in Venice.After the death of Raphael in 1520, the next generation in Italy was to see the rise of the complex and refined sensibility summed up in the term "Mannerism." In this uniquely comprehensive guide to sixteenth-century Renaissance art, Linda Murray examines the manifold achievements of Italian artists and identifies the individual forms taken by artists in Northern Europe and in Spain, including Durer, Bruegel and El Greco. ... Read more

Product Description
Considering the reception of the early modern culture of Florence, Rome, and Venice in other centers of the Italic peninsula, this book reexamines the Renaissance as a form of translation of a past culture. It assumes that the Renaissance attempted to assimilate the lost, or fragmentary, worlds of the Roman emperors, the Greek Platonists, and the ancient Egyptians. These essays, accordingly, explore how the processes of cultural self-definition varied between the Italian urban centers in the early modern period, well before the formation of a distinct Italian national identity. ... Read more

Product Description
This book deals specifically with sixteenth-century depictions of the Olympian deities, the twelve supreme deities of ancient Greece and Rome. As the Renaissance revived several aspects of antiquity, some great works of art represented the Olympians in imitation of the classical style. These deities were rendered as autonomous figures, in the form of representation adapted for depicting saints and Christian rulers. This form of depicting the Olympians, or the pagan gods, was not unanimously accepted by sixteenth-century viewers. The book highlights the problematic framework surrounding the creation, display and acceptance of such thought-provoking works of art. ... Read more

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Product Description
A work of great learning and skilful synthesis, beautifully illustrated. SUNDAY TIMESThe spectacular festivals mounted by the princes of the Renaissance were both a marriage of the arts and a complex and subtle expression of political theory. From the Renaissance festivals ballet, opera and even the proscenium arch theatre are derived.Festivals are therefore a vital part of European cultural history. Here Roy Strong provides a guide to their origins and purpose, and their lasting influence. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Final Word on this Particular Subject
Just in case you are looking for a book that puts to rest, once and for all, the debate over whether there was one "Renaissance" or multiple renascences in western art, Prof. Panofsky is here.

Though written in the 50's, this book retains its relevance.After all, he's covering a period of time from the 10th to the 15th century. His basic answer is that there were "reanscences" prior to the Renaissance, but that the Renaissance was unique in that it was akin to a cultural "mutation" whereas the earlier renascences were more like revivals.

Panofsky is not afraid to quote latin without translation, nor is he afraid to put greek in the text without providing the alphabetical version of the word or words. Also, he quotes books from at least four different languages in his subtitles.

I understand that one does not read Panofsky for his easy accesibility, one reads him for his mastery.None the less, the "readability" issues in this book prevent me from giving the full five stars;; just as his obvious mastery of the subject prevent me from giving it three stars.Truly, it was the longest 200 page book I ever read, and I doubt I shall dabble further in the Renaissance (or renascences), but at least now I have a firm idea of the parameters surrounding the long running debate.

I had the occasion to reread this book during a recent trip to Florence, Rome, etc. and I was pleased to find even more interesting and relevant then the first time.Truly a five star book.

Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art
E. Panofsky's book about the antique reviewal is excellent reading by the leading art historian. The book is based on the lectures he held after the war.
Our concept of renaissance is still based on that times writers and historians who strongly emphasized their own times supremacy over the "dark ages" they so much loathed.
Panofsky takes under the focus in his book the Carolingian renaissance and the 12th century proto-renaissance when prooving that the world of antique ideals were still among the painters, sculptors, writers and architects.
I will strongly recommend the book to everyone who is interested in renaissance and its roots. ... Read more