An eminent art historian gives us here a full account of the history of Florentine art in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries as well as a stimulating exploration of questions about the social content of art. Frederick Antal sketches a portrait of Florence in this richly productive period—the economic and social conditions as well as religious tenets and intellectual controversies. He traces the course of painting and sculpture from Giotto to Brunelleschi and Masaccio, and shows how major stylistic developments are related to changing economic and social structures. His analysis is fully illustrated by 210 halftones.

First published in 1966, Classicism and Romanticism is a collection of important articles originally published in the author's famous book, Florentine Painting and its Social Background. Dr. Antal, a Hungarian by birth, was a man of the wildest culture. He studied art history in the universities of Budapest, Berlin, Paris and Vienna; thereafter, he travelled extensively in Italy, where he devoted himself to pioneering research in the history of mannerist painting. His exceptional sensitivity to the visual arts is apparent in such brilliant stylistic analyses as the essays on Netherlandish mannerism and on Girolamo da Carpi. He is known especially, however, for his application to art history of the sociological method. By returning art to its place in the general history of ideas and relating it to its economic, social, and political environment, he sought to give to the history of art a wider significance ad deeper meaning. This book will be of interest to students of art, history, literature, art history and European studies.

High quality reprint of Florentine Painting And Its Social Background by Frederick Antal.

The first extended study of the painting of Florence and Siena in the later 14th century, this book presents a rich interweaving of considerations of connoisseurship, style, iconography, cultural and social background, and historical events.

No city but Florence contains such an intense concentration of art produced in such a short span of time. The sheer number and proximity of works of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Florence can be so overwhelming that Florentine hospitals treat hundreds of visitors each year for symptoms brought on by trying to see them all, an illness famously identified with the French author Stendhal. While most guidebooks offer only brief descriptions of a large number of works, with little discussion of the historical background, Judith Testa gives a fresh perspective on the rich and brilliant art of the Florentine Renaissance in An Art Lover's Guide to Florence. Concentrating on a number of the greatest works, by such masters as Botticelli and Michelangelo, Testa explains each piece in terms of what it meant to the people who produced it and for whom they made it, deftly treating the complex interplay of politics, sex, and religion that were involved in the creation of those works. With Testa as a guide, armchair travelers and tourists alike will delight in the fascinating world of Florentine art and history.

An introduction to 15th century Italian painting and the social history behind it, arguing that the two are interlinked and that the conditions of the time helped fashion distinctive elements in the painter's style.

A comprehensive re-assessment of Raphael's artistic achievement and the ways in which it transformed the idea of what art is.