Author Description

For over twenty years, Frederick Hartt's History of Italian Renaissance Art has been considered the best book ever written on this important period in Western art. Comprehensive, well-illustrated, and entertaining, it is also a model of clarity and scholarly precision. Now, the fourth edition of this unrivaled classic is provided for another generation of readers. This newly designed edition includes an extended presentation of the Quattrocento and Cinquecento in Florence, Rome, and Venice, as well as additional pictured works by north Italian artists and by Florentine artists of the Maniera. The revising author, David Wilkins, has remained sympathetic and sensitive to Hartt's vision and approach while drawing upon the latest research to bring the text up to date. There are many new colorplates, including fourteen details of Michelangelo's freshly cleaned, resplendent Sistine Ceiling frescoes. A portfolio of full-page color room views has been added as well, showing major works of art in situ. Many paintings and sculptures have been rephotographed specially for this edition since they were cleaned and restored, and many more are now illustrated in larger size. Because context is so important to the understanding of Renaissance art, information has been added to the captions indicating when a work is still in its original location. And, when known, the name of the patron who commissioned a work has been added. Frederick Hartt writes with authority and eloquence on the sculpture, architecture, and painting of more than four centuries, and David Wilkins has respected and maintained his high standards. The Renaissance was an extraordinarily fertile era, when, in a burst of staggering creativity, humanist painters rediscovered and gave new meaning to portraiture and landscape painting; sculptors fashioned life-sized freestanding figures with remarkable virtuosity and revived the classical ideal of the nude; and architects planned and built edifices of rare grace and invention. Beautiful illustrations, fine writing, and authoritative scholarship bring into focus all the elements of this multifaceted period. Fully indexed, and including an extensive glossary and an updated bibliography, the fourth edition of History of Italian Renaissance Art offers a fresh and inviting design, displaying the extraordinary visual and textual material to full advantage.