The rivalry between the brilliant seventeenth-century Italian architects Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini is the stuff of legend. Enormously talented and ambitious artists, they met as contemporaries in the building yards of St. Peter's in Rome, became the greatest architects of their era by designing some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, and ended their lives as bitter enemies. Engrossing and impeccably researched, full of dramatic tension and breathtaking insight, The Genius in the Design is the remarkable tale of how two extraordinary visionaries schemed...

" A]n excellent analytical study of a sensationally beautiful type of temple.... This work is not just art historical but embraces... religious studies, anthropology, history, and literature." --Catherine B. Asher

" A]dvances our knowledge of... Bengali temple building practices, the complex inter-reliance between religion, state power, and art, and the ways in which Western colonial assumptions have distorted correct interpretation.... A splendid book." --Rachel Fell McDermott

In the flux created by the Mughal conquest, Hindu landholders of eastern India began to build a...

This book surveys two centuries of Russian history through a succession of ambitious architectural projects designed for a single construction site in central Moscow. Czars, Bolshevik rulers, and contemporary Russian leaders alike have dreamed of glorious monuments to themselves and their ideologies on this site. The history of their efforts reflects the story of the nation itself and its repeated attempts to construct or reconstruct its identity and to repudiate or resuscitate emblems of the past.

In the nineteenth century Czar Alexander I began to construct the largest...

An introduction to the medieval cathedral, those churches that are regarded as the greatest achievements of medieval architecture. Details their social history, who built them, how they were built, and why. Forty photos and maps help to guide the reader through a narrated tour of these awe-inspiring churches.

When we think of cathedrals, we usually envision the great Gothic Buildings of 12th- and 13th-century Europe. But other than being a large church, a cathedral is neither a specific building type nor specifically medieval. What a makes a large church a cathedral is the...

Aspects of Georgia's unique history can only be told through its extant rural churches. As the Georgia backcountry rapidly expanded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the churches erected on this newly parceled land became the center of community life. These early structures ranged from primitive outbuildings to those with more elaborate designs and were constructed with local, hand-hewn materials to serve the residents who lived nearby. From these rural communities sprang the villages, towns, counties, and cities that informed the way Georgia was organized and governed...

• An illustration section showing the complete work of art, details, preliminary studies, and iconographic sources;
• An introductory essay by the editor;
• Documents and literary sources;
• Critical essays from the art-historical literature.

Some see stained glass as the art of painting in space; to others, it is a way of transforming light into a play of colors and images. Stained glass windows allow the shaping and blending of light within architectural spaces. Color, texture, transparency, design, and composition are all elements that can be varied and explored to create new light effects and bring space to its full potential.

The twentieth century, with its architectural revolution in methods and materials, opened up new possibilities for stained glass. During the last thirty years, a great many projects have been...

This first paperback facsimile of the classic 1913 edition includes thirteen photographs and numerous illustrations of the great cathedrals of Northern France. Henry Adams referred to this book as "A Study of Thirteenth-Century Unity," and its expansive scope, together with the author's deep understanding of the period, makes it a classic in art history as well as in American literature. He wrote, "I wanted to show the intensity of the vital energy of a given time, and of course that intensity had to be stated in its two highest terms-religion and art."

Henry Adams' record of...

The description for this book, The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order, will be forthcoming.