Italy Books

Wolfgang Lotz's Architecture in Italy, 1500-1600 is a wonderful introduction and survey of the majesty of Italian Renaissance Architecture. I had the privilage of studying under Richard Tuttle who is recognized in the introduction, who showed me the brilliance of Lotz's work as well as his ability to show the beauty of architecture. This book is a must for any serious academic student or architectural enthusiast. Lotz's presentation of Italian Architecture is a continuation of Ludwig Heydenreich's Architecture in Italy, 1400-1500, and when read together is certainly the definitive work on Renaissance Architecture. The marvelous pictures and diagrams are the best published images I have come across.

This book is an excellent resource for the historian or designer interested in tradition's impact on our architecture today. History has always affected all "modern" design, and this book draws valuable links and introduces us to a new way to critique modern architecture.

A wonderful book to carry around with you in Rome. The book provides very detailed maps of the City with brief descriptions of what seems like every building in Rome. It is a great format for wandering and discovering as you go.

As with each viewing of an Antonioni film (sans "Zabrieske Point"), the essays in this book make the reader appreciate and "understand" the films of Antonioni more.

Antonioni is a genius, and what he has to say about the process of filmmaking is essential to anyone who wishes to make a respectable film.

And for those of you are still begging to know: Antonioni explains how he made that-probably the greatest in film history-final tracking shot in "The Passenger". God, what a shot that is!

Wonderful book! Everything you've wanted to know about the Royal Palace at Caserta and much, much more.

This is one of the most intelligent book I've ever read about art. It's simple, complete, full of original point-of-views. In asingle word: you can't miss it if you like the Art History!

An excellent examination of the role of art in Renaissance life, including the actual day to day workings of the artists, their roles in the society as a whole, and the role of art itself in the display of "Magnificence" of the respective ruling authorities of the various Italian states. I have run across no other book with this unique perspective. It also discusses the role of women and women artists, while recognizing the extreme limits set for women, both in the society and in the creation of art works. I regret not being able to contact the author directly to offer my respect and admiration for such a formidable and at the same time completely accessible work of scholarship.

"The glory that was Rome" has become proverbial. But John R. Clarke, a professor of the history of art, argues that the monuments of that glory, like the Arch of Constantine and the portraits of emperors, are not the full story. There was other Roman art, like wall paintings and mosaics, which, especially if they were decorations in ordinary houses in Pompeii, were not previously regarded as art within art history. When Clarke first began studying Roman art, these were objects of study in the everyday life of Romans. This has changed, and "everyday" art of the Romans has become a respected target for academic study, not only for itself but for what it can tell us about the majority of Romans. In _Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans: Visual Representation and Non-Elite Viewers in Italy, 100 B.C. - A.D. 315_ (University of California Press), Clarke lays out the importance of art made or commissioned by such lowly ones as slaves, former slaves, and freeborn workers. Emperors and the wealthy represented themselves in artwork carrying out official and prestigious practices that would demonstrate their importance. Non-elites tended more to want to depict ordinary acts, working, drinking, even brawling. It isn't surprising that the "unofficial" art could tell us more about daily Roman life.

Clarke does begin by discussing how non-elites viewed the official art of the emperors, and then proceeds to the art that non-elites produced. There are many examples here of art in domestic shrines, business-advertising, status boasting, and humor-provoking. Clarke speculates, for example, that a painting from Pompeii previously thought to depict a man selling bread is actually a man giving out a bread dole. There is no evidence of commerce; the receivers of the bread are exultant and do not themselves give up money. The painting comes from a small house, not that of an elite citizen. Clarke says that most likely this is the house of a baker who was prosperous, decided that at some point he would give bread away, and wanted to be depicted in his act of charity. Viewers of his painting would have been reminded of the event, and the baker's prestige would have risen. A completely different commemoration of a particular event is the painting from another house of a riot in the Pompeian amphitheater. This depicted a real event arising somehow from hooliganism during games between the home and visiting teams, an event that caused Rome to forbid all gladiatorial shows in Pompeii for ten years. The owner of the house went to the trouble of having an event that might be thought of as shameful commemorated on his walls. Clarke gives evidence, from the placement of the picture and the subject, that the owner was a gladiatorial fan, who honored the gladiators by putting on display a commemoration of a riot held in their honor, perhaps a riot in which he himself took a glorious part. Unlike the citizen who wanted people to remember the honorable act of giving out bread, the fan (and his buddies) liked remembering how the Roman social order could be disrupted.

Clarke's book is a serious academic tome, complete with scads of footnotes and a huge bibliography. It is, however, written in an engaging style. Clarke is careful to state when he is speculating from incomplete evidence, but even when he does speculate, the evidence is good, and his argument is convincing that art commissioned by these commoners is not a trickled-down version of the works of their betters, but something vibrant and significant to be appreciated on its own. The book is beautifully produced, on glossy paper with, as is fitting, many illustrations. The wealth of the patron, and the skill of the artist, may have put limits upon these works, but they show enormous creative breadth and, in Clarke's interpretations, surprising utility.

After visiting the Royal Collection on two occassions I wanted a good reference book. This is the best on the market! The profusely detailed colored photos throughout are nothing less than superior quality. The history of each painting is explained and a lot of information about the artist, their life, and style is also discussed in great detail. This is NOT a small book. It has proven to be invaluable in researching various art works. If you cannot make a trip to visit the italian paintings of Royal Collection in person, this book is mandated. I can honestly say, this book is a masterpiece.

This is an excellent publication, which will excite the layman and the student equally. The scholarship is superb and the illustrations are exquisite.
Included are both familiar and new items integrating architecture, painting and sculpture of this most exciting period of human creativity.
Probably for the first time in a single, general introductory publication we have a book that does justice to the arts of the period, in full colour. There is much to recommend in the book which without going into great depth provides up-to-date scholarship covering the entire period of the Italian Renaissance.
There is no other book available in English to match this work, and it maintains the quality of other Konemann publications covering the Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque, Neoclassical & Romantic Periods in European Art and Architecture.
Architects should be aware that while there are some building plans in the books they are not designed to be strict architectural books and serve only to generally introduce the buildings in their time and context.
Finally for such fine large format, full colour publications the prices are unbelievably economical. Buy them all if you have even passing interest in these eras of art, you will not regret it.