Ainsworth (Senior Conservation Research Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) examines the work of the great Bruges painter Gerard David (ca. 1455-1523), focusing on the motivating forces behind the startling changes in his work caused by shifting devotional practices, changing art markets, the accommodation of foreign art clients, and the evolving secular nature of painting demanded by the newly wealthy middle class in the early years of the 16th century. Illustrations, some 343 in all, include abundant comparative material, such as drawings and workshop copies, as well as 69 superb color reproductions. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

An experimental new Internet-based form of money is created that anyone can generate at home; people build frightening firetrap computers full of video cards, putting out so much heat that one operator is hospitalised with heatstroke and brain damage. A young physics student starts a revolutionary new marketplace immune to State coercion; he ends up ordering hits on people because they might threaten his great experiment, and is jailed for life without parole. Fully automated contractual systems are proposed to make business and the law work better; the contracts people actually write are unregulated penny stock offerings whose fine print literally states that you are buying nothing of any value. The biggest crowdfunding in history attracts $150 million on the promise that it will embody “the steadfast iron will of unstoppable code”; upon release it is immediately hacked, and $50 million is stolen. How did we get here? David Gerard covers the origins and history of Bitcoin to the present day, the other cryptocurrencies it spawned including Ethereum, the ICO craze and the 2017 crypto bubble, and the attempts to apply blockchains and smart contracts to business. Plus a case study on blockchains in the music industry. Bitcoin and blockchains are not a technology story, but a psychology story. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. “A sober riposte to all the upbeat forecasts about cryptocurrency” — New York Review of Books “A very convincing takedown of the whole phenomenon” — BBC News

This volume follows on from Pacht's work on the Van Eycks and their circle, to encompass the great artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Figures such as Van Der Weyden, Bouts, Christus, Van Der Goes and Memling, as well as lesser known artists, are examined in turn. With detailed discussion of particular paintings, style and symbolism.

A scholarly treatment of the early Netherlandish painter Gerard David, an important figure of the Northern Renaissance. It covers his working methods and underdrawings, also his origins, his early years in Bruges, his development of landscape painting, and his dealings with foreign patrons.