Product Description

This beautiful series lavishly illustrates the world's major fresco cycles from the early fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Each book also contains a comprehensive text, a biography of the artist, a bibliography, and a glossary.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #159855 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-16
• Released on: 2002-05-16
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.44 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1 pages

From Library Journal
These additions to Braziller's new series on Renaissance frescoes follow up works on Giotto, Massaccio, and Raphael (see James Beck, Raphael: The Stanza Della Segnature, LJ 12/93). By focusing on one fresco cycle in each volume, the series allows readers to explore them in-depth. All the book in the series offer a discussion of the art, materials, and techniques of fresco painting and a "Glossary of Fresco Terms." The new works are similar in format, consisting of an essay followed by color plates with commentaries. Starn provides the background necessary for an appreciation of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's fresco cycle in the Sale di Nove (Room of Nine) at the Public Palace in Siena. The author explains the historical and political context of the symbolic murals entitled "The City State Under Tyranny," "The Virtues of Good Government," and "The Good City Republic," showing the thoughts and aspirations of a pre-Renaissance society. The result is accessible to the nonspecialist. Anyone who has puzzled over the meaning of the inscriptions in the fresco will find good reference value here in their English translations. Until the 1870s, the creator of "The Story of the True Cross" at the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo was largely unknown. Since then, it has been hailed as one of Piero della Francesca's masterpieces. Lavin, an innovative art historian, explains the complex placement of the scenes in the cycle and notes its history and significance. Since the reproductions are "taken from transparencies made in the 1970s, before the ultimate phases of color loss had begun," what we may have here are the best color plates available. Both books contain a selected bibliography. Lavin provides some chronologies, including one on the artist, a "Historical Chronology," and an "Art Historical Chronology" showing some important contemporary activities. Art book collections will want to add these titles to the others in the series.
Ellen Bates, New York
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.