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.The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry (Oxford World's Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Bestsellers
by: Walter Pater

July 02, 1998
With this slim collection of essays, Walter Pater defined the scope of British Aestheticism. It was described by Oscar Wilde as 'my golden book, the very flower of decadence', and it profoundly influenced his aesthetics as well as those of Arthur Symons, Yeats, etc. Having said this, it's well to remember that Pater is no Wilde: his spidery sentences often confound the senses first time round and one may give up amidst the, perhaps, unfamiliar textures of Ancient philosophy and Renaissance art. This is not for the faint-hearted. It is difficult in style and aesthetic philosophy, but stick with him! It is a pity that people only really seem to come to Pater out of compulsion, forced by undergraduate courses, because Pater is not only speaking ... Read More:
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.The Da Vinci Notebooks
City Travel Guides > Books > Bestsellers
by: Leonardo da Vinci

August 04, 2005
I read and loved the Da Vinci Code and then saw this book in a bookshop. The Da Vinci Code had really fuelled my interest in Da Vinci so I immediatly bought it. I found it to be stimulating and informative. It is remarkable to see what went on in the mind of a genius!
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.The Lives of the Artists (Oxford World's Classics)
City Travel Guides > Books > Bestsellers
by: Giorgio Vasari

April 02, 1998
This is a long, long book with a great deal of information. Clocking in at over five hundred pages and covering about thirty artists of the Italian Renaissance, it is fairly comprehensive and detailed.

Some of Vasari's 'facts' have been discredited over the years and so the reader should not take everything here as gospel and indeed should be using this as a supplementary text with other material to get the best use out of it. Nevertheless it remains an important contemporary text and one of the first books on 'art history' ever produced.

I have to admit that I found it extremely hard going. There are great long lists of works and their subjects and the patrons of artists which it is easy to get bored or confused by ... Read More:
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.Leonardo (Taschen 25th Anniversary)
City Travel Guides > Books > Bestsellers
by: Frank Zollner, Johannes Nathan

October 05, 2007
This is a long, long book with a great deal of information. Clocking in at over five hundred pages and covering about thirty artists of the Italian Renaissance, it is fairly comprehensive and detailed.

Some of Vasari's 'facts' have been discredited over the years and so the reader should not take everything here as gospel and indeed should be using this as a supplementary text with other material to get the best use out of it. Nevertheless it remains an important contemporary text and one of the first books on 'art history' ever produced.

I have to admit that I found it extremely hard going. There are great long lists of works and their subjects and the patrons of artists which it is easy to get bored or confused by ... Read More:
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.Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance
City Travel Guides > Books > Bestsellers
by: Paul Strathern

October 04, 2007
this book is such an intresting read i would highly recomend this book to anyone who has fallen in love with florance or has an intrest in the history of the renaissance. Strathern wrights in such a way that you do not feel as if you are reading an history book, it is a wonderfull story about an amazing period in time. i am an art history student with prior knowlage of the medici but this book is perfectly writen for both readers with some knolage of the family and thoughs without. i would not recomend this book to people who are not intressted in the renaissance.
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.Architecture in Britain, 1530-1830 (Yale University Press Pelican History of Art)
City Travel Guides > Books > Bestsellers
by: J Summerson

October 20, 1993
This book, for many years now, the standard text, is always readable and generally reliable. Not much of interest architecturally speaking, passed by Summerson's eye, without him noting it. In an age like ours, when plain speaking scholarship is long gone, probably due to lack of new material than lack of talent, this book is likely to offend due to its bland format and refusal to delve beyond the surface. But this lack of depth is actually its strength as a text. If you want a book on the subject without frills, this will be the one for you. As a historian and not an architect, Summerson sometimes gets caught up in details that architects would be unlikely to find useful, but nevertheless, even those bits are informative.
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.The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance (World of Art)
City Travel Guides > Books > Bestsellers
by: Peter Murray

1969-11
I have many books on the Italian Renaissance (60+) and this ranks near the top. Concise, authoritative and with innumerable insights not found in many much longer and more expensive books.

Cannot recommend it too highly. I have immediately ordered the companion volume on art in the renaissance.

Buy it.
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.Architecture in Italy, 1500-1600 (Yale University Press Pelican History of Art)
City Travel Guides > Books > Bestsellers
by: W Lotz

October 04, 1995
I have many books on the Italian Renaissance (60+) and this ranks near the top. Concise, authoritative and with innumerable insights not found in many much longer and more expensive books.

Cannot recommend it too highly. I have immediately ordered the companion volume on art in the renaissance.

Buy it.
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.Jan Van Eyck: The Play of Realism
City Travel Guides > Books > Bestsellers
by: Craig Harbison

October 02, 1995
I have many books on the Italian Renaissance (60+) and this ranks near the top. Concise, authoritative and with innumerable insights not found in many much longer and more expensive books.

Cannot recommend it too highly. I have immediately ordered the companion volume on art in the renaissance.

Buy it.
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.Van Der Weyden
City Travel Guides > Books > Bestsellers
by: Lorne Campbell

October 15, 2004
I have many books on the Italian Renaissance (60+) and this ranks near the top. Concise, authoritative and with innumerable insights not found in many much longer and more expensive books.

Cannot recommend it too highly. I have immediately ordered the companion volume on art in the renaissance.

Buy it.
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Used Price: £9.16