Zuffi reveals the world of the Renaissance masters in a new and rich light. Each spread uses an important painting as a way to explain a key concept. Includes brief biographies of the major artists, provided an accessible introduction to the art and culture of the Italian Renaissance.

Considers the business of picture-making in the Renaissance. In particular, the text discusses the role of the artist and the functions of works of art in relation to their various kinds of audience.

"Many famous artworks of the Italian Renaissance were made to celebrate love, marriage, and family. They were the pinnacles of a tradition, dating from early in the era, of commemorating betrothals, marriages, and the birth of children by commissioning extraordinary objects - maiolica, glassware, jewels, textiles, paintings - that were often also exchanged as gifts. This volume is the first comprehensive survey of artworks arising from Renaissance rituals of love and marriage and makes a major contribution to our understanding of Renaissance art in its broader cultural context. The impressive range of works gathered in these pages extends from birth trays painted in the early fifteenth century to large canvases on mythological themes that Titian painted in the mid-1500s. Each work of art would have been recognized by contemporary viewers for its prescribed function within the private, domestic domain."--BOOK JACKET.

"This knowledgeable, useful and up-to-date survey of one of the greatest periods in Western painting, from Masaccio through Titian, covers some fifty artists and their work and includes nearly 400 illustrations integrated with the text. James Beck of Columbia University gives biographical information on each artist and discusses and analyzes his artistic style, achievement and most significant works." /

"The chronology of the Italian Renaissance, its character, and context have long been a topic of discussion among scholars. Some date its beginnings to the fourteenthcentury work of Giotto, others to the generation of Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and Donatello that fl ourished from around 1400. The close of the Renaissance has also proved elusive. Mannerism, for example, is variously considered to be an independent (but subsidiary) late aspect of Renaissance style or a distinct style in its own right."

Focusing on buildings of the period between 1418 and 1580 and 35 key architects. Examines social context, religious beliefs, political power-structures, technical innovation, aesthetic judgement . Includes over 300 photographs, drawings, plans and reconstructions. Sure to be the recognized textbook for the foreseeable future.