The Renaissance proved to be a time of great transformation of the artist as they came to occupy a different place in society, for art was becoming more than just a craft. The French term Renaissance emerged in the 19th century and was used to describe an entire period of rebirth. Artists of this time looked back to those before them while incorporating a greater sense of light and color through new mediums.

"Spanning the period from the thirteenth century to Vasari's own time, the Lives opens a window on the greatest personalities of the period, including Giotto, Brunelleschi, Mantegna, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian. This Modern Library edition, abridged from the original text with notes drawn from earlier commentaries as well as current research, reminds us why The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects is indispensable...

"Today few would think of astronomy and astrology as fields related to theology. Fewer still would know that physically absorbing planetary rays was once considered to have medical and psychological effects. But this was the understanding of light radiation held by certain natural philosophers of early modern Europe, and that, argues Mary Quinlan-McGrath, was why educated people of the Renaissance commissioned artworks centered on astrological themes...

"Richly illustrated, and featuring detailed descriptions of works by pivotal figures in the Italian Renaissance, this enlightening volume traces the development of art and architecture throughout the Italian peninsula in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A smart, elegant, and jargon-free analysis of the Italian Renaissance - what it was, what it means, and why we should study it. Provides a sustained discussion of many great works of Renaissance...

John Shearman makes a plea for a more engaged reading of art works of the Italian Renaissance, one that will recognize the presupposition of Renaissance artists about their viewers. His book is the first attempt to construct a history of those Renaissance paintings and sculptures that are by design completed outside themselves in or by the spectator, that embrace the spectator into their narrative plot or aesthetic functioning, and that reposition...

While the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance are usually associated with Italy's historical seats of power, some of the era's most characteristic works are to be found in places other than Florence, Rome, and Venice. They are the product of the diversity of regions and cultures that makes up the country. In Endless Periphery, Stephen J. Campbell examines a range of iconic works in order to unlock a rich series of local references in Renaissance...

"From the New York Times bestselling author of the Gabriel series comes a dark, sensual tale of romance in a city shrouded in mystery. Raven Wood spends her days at Florence's Uffizi gallery restoring Renaissance art. But an innocent walk home after an evening with friends changes her life forever. When she intervenes in the senseless beating of a homeless man, his attackers turn on her, dragging her into an alley. Raven is only semiconscious when...

This richly illustrated study of the sack as a cultural and artistic phenomenon reveals the ambiguities of preceding events and the traumatic contrast between the flourishing world of art under Clement VII and the city as it existed after the troops of Emperor Charles V had looted Rome in 1527.

Mantegna; humanist, geometrist, archaeologist, of great scholastic and imaginative intelligence, dominated the whole of northern Italy by virtue of his imperious personality. Aiming at optical illusion, he mastered perspective. He trained in painting at the Padua School where Donatello and Paolo Uccello had previously attended. Even at a young age commissions for Andrea's work flooded in, for example the frescos of the Ovetari Chapel of Padua. In...

From 1501—1505, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti both lived and worked in Florence. Leonardo was a charming, handsome fifty year-old at the peak of his career. Michelangelo was a temperamental sculptor in his mid-twenties, desperate to make a name for himself. Michelangelo is a virtual unknown when he returns to Florence and wins the commission to carve what will become one of the most famous sculptures of all time: David. Even though...