A sweeping, beautifully written history of artistic patronage from 1000 to the present day by a Wolfson Prize-winning historian.

'Marks of Opulence' is a magisterial survey of European art and artistic patronage from 1000 until the birth of modernism. Tracing the history from the discovery of silver in the Harz mountains, through the catastrophic effects of plague in the 14th-century, to the studied magnificence of papal and royal courts in the 16th- and 17th-centuries, Platt shows how the great and the good have always used art to bolster political power.

Arguing that the...

From the traditional etching, engraving, lithography, and relief print processes to today's computer prints, Mylar lithography, copier prints, water-based screen printing, helio-reliefs, and monotypes, The Complete Printmaker covers various aspects of fine printmaking. The book also includes a survey of issues and contemporary concerns in the printmakers world.

For thousands of years an enigmatic and astonishingly beautiful piece of Roman art has captivated those who have come in contact with it.Made before the birth of Christ, the Portland Vase, as it is called, is renowned for both its beauty and its mystery.

In The Portland Vase, Robin Brooks takes us on a vivid journey across Europe and through the centuries, as this delicate piece of glass, less than ten inches in height, passes through the hands of a stunning cast of characters, including the first Roman emperor, Augustus; a notorious tomb raider; a reckless cardinal; a...

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...

Ethan Allen and HGTV may have plenty to say about making a home look right, but what makes a home feel right? In House Thinking, journalist and cultural critic Winifred Gallagher takes the reader on a psychological tour of the American home. By drawing on the latest research in behavioral science, an overview of cultural history, and interviews with leading architects and designers, she shows us not only how our homes reflect who we are but also how they influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

How does your entryway prime you for experiencing your home? What makes a...

New ideas on how to design, build, and decorate a home are always of essential value to architects, designers, and homeowners alike. This book offers an extensive collection of single-family houses from all over the world, devised by distinguished international architects and designers who have worked to achieve practical, innovative, and stunning solutions adapted to the specific needs and particular tastes of their clients. This compilation expresses the diversity of current trends in house design and provides an inspirational source of ideas for those active in the field of design or...

The popularity of manga continues to row, inspiring interest in learning how to draw in this exciting style of comics. Estudio Joso creates the ultimate guide to illustration--384 pages of manga instruction. The Monster Book of Manga is divided into sections focusing on the most figures and themes--Girls, Boys, Samurais, Monsters, and more. Each illustration is broken down into six stages accompanied by step-by-step instructions, taking the artist from initial back-and-white sketches to the final color piece. They are all accompanied by practical suggestions, hints, and tips.

The one book your family needs to understand the world of art. A beautiful, unusual and engaging compendium of art history, providing an accessible entree into the world of art for everyone, regardless of their experience.

From cave paintings to the Renaissance, Impressionism to Pop Art, The Collins Big Book of Art takes you on a journey through the history of art in a delightful and informative way. With more than 1200 works of art represented, this is both a coffee- table book and an educational experience; cross-referenced throughout, and including the following sections and...

Manga Matrix presents an easy grid method for mastering manga, an increasingly popular comic style. Using this unique Japanese system, artists can plot and cross-section elements on a matrix diagram to create an infinite number of original characters, creatures, and multiformed beasts. Angels, demons, dragons, monsters, and robots are all included in this book, along with descriptions of costumes and personalities for each.

Manga Matrix is unlike any other manga instructional guide and is an invaluable resource for both the budding artist and the polished...

New York Times Bestseller

The project that captured a nation's imagination.

The instructions were simple, but the results were extraordinary.

You are invited to anonymously contribute a secret to a group art project. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything -- as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before. Be brief. Be legible. Be creative.

It all began with an idea Frank Warren had for a community art project. He began handing out...

In small, stunningly rendered self portraits, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo painted herself cracked open, hemorrhaging during a miscarriage, anesthetized on a hospital gurney, and weeping beside her own extracted heart.

Her works are so incendiary in emotion and subject matter that one art critic suggested the walls of an exhibition be covered with asbestos.

In this beautiful book, art historian Hayden Herrera brings together numerous paintings and sketches by the amazing Mexican artist, documenting each with explanatory text that probes the influences in Kahlo s life and their...

The bestselling international classic on storytelling and visual communication

"You must read this book." -- Neil Gaiman

Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics is a seminal examination of comics art: its rich history, surprising technical components, and major cultural significance. Explore the secret world between the panels, through the lines, and within the hidden symbols of a powerful but misunderstood art...

The T-shirt may be the most ubiquitous, affordable, and popular item of clothing. Over the years it has served as a means to broadcast social, musical and political affiliations. Most recently, the T-shirt has become a creative tool for expressing inventive design.

The T-shirt designs in this book have been selected by Beams T, a hugely popular fashion retail chain and manufacturer in Japan devoted to T-shirts. Founded in 1986, Beams T regards the T-shirt as a canvas for new ideas in art and design and each year of their 20-year history, has invited artists from around the world to...

The popularity of manga--Japanese cartooning--continues to grow, inspiring interest in learning how to draw this exciting style of comics.

From comic illustration Ikari Studio comes the ultimate guide on how to draw manga. The Monster Book of More Manga is divided into sections focusing on the most popular manga figures and themes--Girls, Boys, Samurai, Monsters, and Computer. This new volume contains brand new sections on Mecha, Villains, and Animals, and a special section on Fairies. Each illustration is broken down into six stages accompanied by step-by-step instructions,...

New York Times Bestseller

Postsecret.com founder Frank Warren is back with a fresh and compelling companion to his wildly popular Los Angeles Times bestseller, PostSecret. For My Secret, a collectible, paper-over-board book that includes a page of vibrant, decorative stickers, Warren has personally selected never-before-seen anonymous postcards created by teens and college students from across the country. Each card bears an intimate and powerful secret--at turns inspirational, shocking, hilarious, and poetic--that is told through original...

New York Times Bestseller

Postsecret.com founder Frank Warren is back with an irresistible addition to his bestselling PostSecret series. For The Secret Lives of Men and Women, Warren has selected a never-before-seen collection of postcards bearing the explosive confessions and captivating revelations of men and women everywhere. Created using photographs, collages, illustrations, and more, the handmade cards offer a compelling dialogue on some of today's most provocative topics--from marriage and infidelity, to parenting, office politics,...

Art interprets the visible world. Physics charts its unseen workings. The two realms seem completely opposed. But consider that both strive to reveal truths for which there are no words--with physicists using the language of mathematics and artists using visual images. In Art & Physics, Leonard Shlain tracks their breakthroughs side by side throughout history to reveal an astonishing correlation of visions. From the classical Greek sculptors to Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns, and from Aristotle to Einstein, artists have foreshadowed the discoveries of scientists, such as when Monet and...

New York Times Bestseller

The award-winning PostSecret project's most profound and stunning postcards to date

For the past three years Frank Warren has invited people of all backgrounds and nationalities to send him creatively decorated postcards bearing secrets they have never before revealed. He has shared these PostSecrets on his award-winning blog, www.PostSecret.com, in an internationally traveling art exhibit, and in three electrifying books: the bestselling PostSecret, My Secret, and The Secret Lives of Men and...