These papers investigate the revival of painting and mosaic in Rome in the second half of the 13th century and the contribution of Rome to the birth of modern painting. Their concern is with the interrelationships between pictures and their social, political and religious context. In this way, the early work of Giotto and the development of the Italian altarpiece are reconsidered, with particular attention being paid to questions of structure, setting and patronage. The work of Simone Martini for the Angevin Court at Naples and the promotion of the cult of new saints by visual means is examined within the context of the European politics of canonisation. Finally, Professor Gardner considers the artistic role of the Mendicant orders, in particular the Franciscans and the Dominicans, and their self-promotion by visual images.

This lively work of cultural history tells the stories of five young art patrons who, in the last 1920s and 1930s, were instrumental in bringing modern painting, sculpture, and dance to America. A combination of wealth, Harvard education privilege, and family connections enabled Lincoln Kirstein, Edward M. M. Warburg, Agnes Mongan, James Thrall Soby, and A. Everett (Chick) Austin, Jr., to introduce the work of Picasso, Balanchine, Calder, and other important artists to the United States.

Stanley Spencer's patrons have never before been studied collectively. Drawing on archival research and conversations with Spencer's family and descendants of patrons, this exciting new publication looks at how collecting habits were affected by war and economic change, and how - even though Spencer was truly idiosyncratic - his patrons influenced

Fusing the social and economic history with the cultural and artistic achievements of seventeenth and eighteenth century Italy, this book presents a unique and invaluable perspective on the period.