The vast range of these riches is illustrated in this complete account of Byzantine art from the reign of Justinian to the fall of Constantinople David Talbot Rice, one of the greatest authorities on Byzantine art, traveled as far afield as the rock churches of Cappadocia and Cilicia, the tufa monuments of Armenia and Georgia, and the thirteenth-century ceramic factories of Bulgaria, now buried in the alluvial mud of the Danube. His book is a masterly survey of an art of magnificence and power that belonged to a great and sophisticated society.

The Renaissance began in Italy, but it grew out of European civilization, with roots in Antiquity, in Christian dogma, and in Byzantium. The artistic ferment which had taken hold of Florence by 1420 was also reflected in the regional schools of Siena, Umbria, Mantua and Rome; and the new ideas spread from Italy through France, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain and Portugal. The book includes artists as diverse as Piero della Francesca, Van Eyck, Durer, Mantegna and Bellini, as well as the High Renaissance masters Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. With superb illustrations of the...

Baroque and Rococo art and architecture have become popular once more, after a century and a half of neglect, misunderstanding and scorn. This radical shift in taste has led to a rapid growth of detailed knowledge about the artists who created these exhilarating styles. The famous masters have been reassessed and whole areas of achievement--Italian Baroque painting, German Rococo architecture--have been brought to a new, enthusiastic public. Germain Bazin's engaging survey of this rich subject ranges over all Europe and traces the origins and effects of these two periods of art--from the...

Pop Art embodied the spirit of the 1960s. Despite its carnival aspects, its orgiastic color and giant scale, it was based on a tough, no-nonsense, no-refinement standard appropriate to its time. Here several critics, each involved in Pop Art, but with different backgrounds, vividly bring the movement to life. Lucy Lippard examines Pop's precursor and related styles, ranging from folk art, Surrealism and Dada, to Assemblage, Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Lawrence Alloway contributes a chapter on the development of pop in England; Nancy Marmer considers Californian pop; Nicolas Calas, a member...

The splendor of Gothic art can be seen in the magnificent cathedrals of Notre Dame, Chartres, Rouen, Salisbury and Lincoln and in their sculpture. But also between 1140 and 1400 a vast quantity of very fine paintings, stained glass, manuscript illuminations, metalwork and tapestries were produced. Andrew Martindale writes of all these great achievements in one of the best available concise surveys of this highly creative period in Western art.

The story of the life and work of the visionary poet and artist, William Blake.

The principal elements of High Renaissance art, first formulated by Leonardo da Vinci in the 1490s, came to their true flowering in the brilliant achievements of Bramante, Raphael and Michelangelo in Rome, of Michelangelo in Florence and Giorgione and Titian in Venice.

In this illuminating history, text and illustrations combine to offer a view of furniture not as a succession of collectors' pieces, but as a statement about the society that created it. Edward Lucie-Smith offers insights into almost every period, from the prehistoric to the postmodern--from Neolithic tables to 1960s conversation pits, and from the ceremonial chairs of Egypt in the thirteenth century BC to the designs of John Makepeace.

When the original edition of this book was published, John Russell hailed it as "a massive contribution to our knowledge of one of the most fascinating and mysterious episodes in the history of modern art." It still remains the most compact, accurate and reasonably priced survey of sixty years of creative dynamic activity that profoundly influenced the progress of Western art and architecture.

Born in Yorkshire in 1903, Barbara Hepworth was determined to become a sculptor despite the misgivings of her parents and the common attitude at the time that a woman studying sculpture was not to be taken seriously. She was part of the generation of British artists that included Henry Moore (with whom she studied in Leeds) and Ben Nicholson (whom she married), and her sculpture explored the forms of life -- especially human life -- as well as those of mathematics.From the beginning, her work displayed a monumental power, and after World War II it received far wider recognition and acclaim....