"Published on the occasion of the exhibition 'Prendergast in Italy', Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, July-September 2009, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, October 2009-January 2010, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, February-May 2010."--T.p. verso.

Issued in connection with an exhibition held June 29, 2013-October 13, 2013, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine.

One of our best-known cultural critics examines the concept of representation and its many and varied forms in literature and art.

Hot on the trail of a killer in Manhattan, FBI Special Agent Pendergast must face his most brilliant and dangerous enemy: his own brother. Two brothers. One a top FBI agent. The other a brilliant, twisted criminal. An undying hatred between them. Now, a perfect crime. And the ultimate challenge: Stop me if you can...

In the late 19th century, the new nation-state of Italy was eager to join her European neighbours in creating an international empire, and her eyes turned toward Africa as a source of potential colonies. Securing a foothold in Eritrea on the Red Sea coast, the Italians quickly became embroiled in a shooting war with the Ethiopians. The war proved a disaster for the Italians, who suffered three major defeats against the forces of Emperor Menelik's army, including a horrendous massacre at Adowa, the largest defeat of a colonial army prior to World War I. This book looks at the campaign with an emphasis on the colourful uniforms worn by both sides.

American Artists have been inspired by Italy since the 1760s, when Benjamin West, the first American painter to travel there, was drawn to the ancient Roman ruins and magnificent Renaissance architecture, statuary, and frescoes. This intriguing, superbly illustrated book is the first to explore the fascination Italy held for the American artist from West's time to the eve of World War I. The unique sense of the past found in Italy, where tangible evidence exists of a continual civilization from antiquity to the present, lured countless American artists to its cities, towns, and countryside. Painters from West and Copley in the eighteenth century to Cole, Inness, Whistler, Sargent, and Prendergast in the nineteenth century were inspired to create many of their finest works in Italy, as were American sculptors such as Hiram Powers and Harriet Hosmer and writers from Washington Irving to Henry James. This in-depth study includes 319 illustrations, of which 113 are reproduced in full color, many of works that have not previously been published. Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., John Moors Cabot Curator of American Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Professor of Art History at Boston University, provides a broad overview of the American perception of Italy and the unique role that Italy played in the formation of American art. Further insights into this new area in the study and appreciation of American art are offered in four essays by such leading art historians as William H. Gerdts, City University of New York; Erica E. Hirshler, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Fred S. Licht, Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice, and Boston University; and William L. Vance, Boston University. Individual commentaries on each of the paintings, sculpture, and watercolors have been written by the curatorial staff of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Lure of Italy accompanies a major exhibition of the same name, organized by Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., and Erica E. Hirshler that opens at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and travels to the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Murano Glass and its Collectors in Aesthetic America / Melody Barnett Deusner -- Venetian Mosaics and Glass in the United States, 1860-1917 / Sheldon Barr -- "Where Have Titian's Beauties Gone?" : Sargent and Whistler on the Streets of Venice / Stephanie Mayer Heydt -- Interweaving Worlds : Antique and Revival Lace in Italy and in the United States, 1872-1927 / Diana Jocelyn Greenwold -- Sparks of Genius : American Art and the Appeal of Modern Venetian Glass / Crawford Alexander Mann III -- Biographies / Brittany Emens Strupp, Crawford Alexander Mann III.