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Nature and Its Symbols
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 370

Nature and Its Symbols

  • Categories: Art

Nature and Its Symbols is the fifth volume in the series A Guide to Imagery, reference guides whose goal is to explain the symbols used in art. This volume includes chapters on plants, flowers, fruits, and animals of the earth, air, and water, as well as fantastical creatures such as centaurs, griffons, and dragons. The vivid illustrations, which include paintings and tapestries from some of the world's premier museums, are accompanied by texts that offer a careful analysis of the artists' depictions of the natural world. fruit, or animal portrayed, its mythic or literary origins, and the episodes or individuals associated with it. These salient points are also called out in summary form within each entry, making the information easily accessible. The reader discovers, for example, that the iris can represent Jesus or the purity of the Virgin Mary as well as the kings of France or the city of Florence. The monkey, which can be symbolic of the devil, heresy, or bad temper, is also associated with the three wise men who travelled to Bethlehem to pay homage to the infant Jesus.

Gods and Heroes in Art
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 384

Gods and Heroes in Art

  • Categories: Art

As archetypes of human virtue and vice, the gods and heroes of ancient Greece and Rome have figured prominently in Western culture. In art, they have been portrayed time and time again, especially during the Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical periods. Gods and Heroes in Art aims to help museum patrons and art lovers recognize the legendary characters of classical antiquity in art. The characters are each described in entries summarizing their distinctive stories, their special attributes, and the ways in which artists have depicted them. Each entry is richly illustrated with reproductions of works of art in which the god or hero is pictured, giving readers a chance to examine images of the character and to understand the work of art better. The informative guide first surveys the pantheon of the Greco-Roman world, then focuses on characters from the Trojan War and The Odyssey. The next sections describe kings, philosophers, warriors, and other historical figures. The book concludes with useful indexes, including a list of iconographic symbols associated with the subjects, and a bibliography of essential resources.

Italian Gardens of Lake Como
  • Language: en

Italian Gardens of Lake Como

An outstanding volume celebrating the most beautiful villas and gardens of Lake Como, a must-have book for lovers of spectacular landscapes, design, and historic Italian architecture. This is a tribute to the jewel of Italian lakes and the splendid gardens of the stately mansions and villas standing on the Lake Como shores. Surrounded by mountains, Lake Como combines breathtaking scenery with lush flowering gardens, which are renowned all over the world. Incredible and gorgeous photographs take the readers inside fourteen of the most beautiful villas and gardens of Lake Como. The author, an historian of architecture and gardens, explains why prominent Italian families have chosen Lake Como t...

Villas and Gardens of the Renaissance
  • Language: en

Villas and Gardens of the Renaissance

A stunning collection of photographs celebrating the excellence of the Italian Renaissance period through palaces and gardens built between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The book illustrates nine locations of extraordinary artistic and architectural interest, conceived by prominent Italian families and dynasties as urban villas or country houses centered around the pursuit of entertainment and leisure. These lavishly decorated and frescoed palaces are adorned with handcrafted furniture and works of art and surrounded by gardens that retain their original layout to this day--a very rare feature. An historical text introduces each property, giving an overview of its origins. The villa...

Gardens of Beauty
  • Language: en

Gardens of Beauty

A tribute to the beauty of the famed Italian gardens of Isola Bella and Isola Madre, two precious jewels of Italy’s Lake Maggiore. The islands of Isola Bella and Isola Madre have belonged to the Borromeo family since the sixteenth century. From the very beginning, this noble Italian family aimed to transform these fishing islands into small earthly paradises boasting lush gardens. With stunning photography and informative texts, this book explores the enchanting scenery of both islands. Named after Countess Isabella Borromeo, Isola Bella is an attractive terraced pyramid of formal gardens with baroque scenery of monumental stairs, statue-topped balustrades, and obelisks. Isola Madre, the largest of the lake islands, has a beautiful Renaissance palace surrounded by a botanical garden, famous for its variety of flowers and plants due to the mild climate. The exquisite flora includes azaleas, rhododendrons, magnolias, ancient camellias, water lilies, lotus flowers, and Mediterranean citrus plants. So magical that they even once fascinated the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, the Borromeo Gardens are breathtakingly represented in this lavishly illustrated tome.

Perfect Likeness
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 356

Perfect Likeness

  • Categories: Art

Diminutive marvels of artistry and fine craftsmanship, portrait miniatures reveal a wealth of information within their small frames. They can tell tales of cultural history and biography, of people and their passions, of evolving tastes in jewelry, fashion, hairstyles, and the decorative arts. Unlike many other genres, miniatures have a tradition in which amateurs and professionals have operated in parallel and women artists have flourished as professionals. This richly illustrated book presents approximately 180 portrait miniatures selected from the holdings of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the largest and most diverse collection of its kind in North America. The book stresses the continuity of stylistic tradition across Europe and America as well as the vitality of the portrait miniature format through more than four centuries. A detailed catalogue entry, as well as a concise artist biography, appears for each object. Essays examine various aspects of miniature painting, of the depiction of costume in miniatures, and of the allied art of hair work.

Symbols and Allegories in Art
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 384

Symbols and Allegories in Art

  • Categories: Art

"The purpose of this volume is to provide today's readers and museum-goers with a tool for orienting themselves in the world of images and learning to read the hidden meanings of certain famous paintings."--Introduction.

Angels and Demons in Art
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 384

Angels and Demons in Art

  • Categories: Art

This sumptuously illustrated volume analyzes artists' representations of angels and demons and heaven and hell from the Judeo-Christian tradition and describes how these artistic portrayals evolved over time. As with other books in the Guide to Imagery series, the goal of this volume is to help contemporary art enthusiasts decode the symbolic meanings in the great masterworks of Western Art. The first chapter traces the development of images of the Creation and the Afterworld from descriptions of them in the Scriptures through their evolution in later literary and philosophical works. The following two chapters examine artists' depictions of the two paths that humans may take, the path of ev...

Death and Resurrection in Art
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 344

Death and Resurrection in Art

  • Categories: Art

"This book will examine the iconography of death as well as that of its symbolic opposite - resurrection and rebirth."--Introduction.

Symbols of Power in Art
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 386

Symbols of Power in Art

  • Categories: Art

This volume examines the ways that sovereign rulers have employed well-defined symbols, attributes, and stereotypes to convey their power to their subjects and rivals, as well as to leave a legacy for subsequent generations to admire. Legendary rulers from antiquity such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Constantine have been looked to as models for their display of imperial power by the rulers of later eras. From medieval sovereigns such as Charlemagne and France's Louis IX to the tsars of Russia and the great European royal dynasties of the Hapsburgs, the Bourbons, and the Tudors, the rulers of each period have appropriated and often embellished the emblems of power employed by th...