Overview
In the period under study here, Rome lived up to its epithet 'The Eternal City'. This is a comprehensive history of the art of Rome in the Renaissance studies; the architecture, sculpture, painting, and decorative arts together in their social, religious, and historical context. Organized around the patronage of the popes, it tells the story of three centuries, in which the eternal city rose from the ashes of its decline in the fourteenth century, when the papal court was transferred to France and then endured the Great Schism of absent and ascending popes. Miraculously, by the first decade of the sixteenth century, under the visionary guidance of Pope Julius II, the artists he commissioned - Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo - and the humanists of the papal court with whom he surrounded himself, Rome had established itself as the Christian reembodiment of the Roman Empire.Synopsis
Places the arts of the High Renaissance in their social, religious, political and economic context.
Library Journal
The first volume in a five-volume series on the artistic activities of the major Italian centers during the Renaissance, Rome presents a chronological survey in six chapters by five academics. Covering the period between 1300 and 1600, it covers all media, including decorative arts, manuscripts, and other minor arts, and provides a substantial amount of political, economic, and historical information. Series editor Hall (graduate chair, Tyler Sch. of Art, Temple Univ.) has produced a solid, well-illustrated handbook in the modern, contextual mode, placing the arts in a temporal environment. The essays are clear, logically organized, and generally accessible. However, for art history students-the intended audience-the price would appear to be a barrier. Much of this material is covered in standard surveys like Anthony F. Janson's History of Art, albeit in less depth, and monographs obviously cover many individuals in greater depth. Still, as a general introduction to the place and the period, this would work in libraries. If forthcoming series volumes are produced to the same standard, together they will form a substantial and current scholarly survey of the Renaissance in Italy. At this price, it is recommended primarily for academic collections.-Jack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago Libs. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"A solid, well-illustrated handbook in the modern, contextual mode, placing the arts in a temporal environment. The essays are clear, logically organized, and generally accessible [.] If forthcoming series volumes are produced to the same standard, together they will form a substantial and current scholarly survey of the Renaissance in Italy." Library Journal"An in-depth systematic English-language account of the visual arts of Renaissance Rome has been long lacking from the literature, and this present volume has been keenly anticipated for some time...with little exception, there is remarkable coherence and fluidity between the main chapters, authored as they are by four different scholars." - Henry Dietrich Fernandez, Rhode Island School of Design