Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Presents a survey of sixty Venetian Renaissance paintings of the calibre of Bellini and Titian's "Feast of the Gods" in Washington and Giorgione's "Laura and Three Philosophers" in Vienna.

The Renaissance was a golden age in the long history of Venetian painting, and the art that came from Venice during that era includes some of the most visually exciting works in the whole of western art. This attractive book - a comprehensive account of painting in Venice from Bellini to Titian to Tintoretto - is an accessible introduction to the paintings of this period. Peter Humfrey surveys the development of a distinctly Venetian artistic tradition from the middle years of the fifteenth century to the end of the sixteenth century. He discusses the work of Jacopo and Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto as well as the paintings of those less well known - such as the three Vivarini, Cima, Carpaccio, Palma Vecchio, Lorenzo Lotto and Jacopo Bassano. Humfrey analyses these painters' works in terms of their pictorial style, technique, subject matter, patronage and function. He also sets the art against the background of the political, social and religious conditions of Renaissance Venice, as outlined in his Introduction. The book includes an appendix that provides brief biographies of thirty-six of the most important painters active in Renaissance Venice.

KEYNOTE: Featuring ffty masterworks by Mantegna, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, this stunning book examines the brilliant painters who transformed the art of Renaisssance Venice. Featuring fifty masterworks by Mantegna, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, this stunning book examines the brilliant painters who transformed the art of Renaissance Venice. Among the singular moments in the evolution of Western art, the Venetian Renaissance forged an artistic vocabulary of dazzling virtuosity. Celebrating the poetic potential of color and beauty observed in nature, Venetian painters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries transcended the spatial, textural, and emotional realism of their predecessors to create works unsurpassed in their sensual depictions, velvety surfaces, and unique and glorious treatment of light. Focusing on canonical works from Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum (one of the world's four great imperial museums, along with the Hermitage, the Louvre, and the Prado), this book's lavish illustrations and illuminating essays offer a rich introduction to the treasures of the Venetian Renaissance. Among the spectacular artworks are Mantegna's tortured Saint Sebastian, Titian's enigmatic Bravo (The Assassin) and sumptuous Danäe, and a rare group of paintings by the elusive Giorgione, including Portrait of a Young Woman (Laura) and The Three philosophers. The book also includes exemplary works by Veronese, Palma ecchio, Bordone, and Bassano, among others, revealing the full range of Venetian accomplishment in the Renaissance era. AUTHOR: Sylvia Ferino is director of the Gemaldegalerie of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, and an expert on Italian painting. Lynn Federle Orr is curator in charge of European art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Among her recent publications is The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 100 colour illustrations

This dazzling survey of 16th-century Venetian painting captures the striking colors and revolutionary characteristics of one of art history's greatest chapters. It is hard to imagine more profoundly influential artists than the Venetian painters of the 16th century. Whether creating sweeping devotional altarpieces or intimate portraits, the Venetian painters changed the way artists employed color and composition. These defining qualities are on brilliant display in this book that covers fascinating aspects of the work of Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, Lorenzo Lotto, Jacopo Bassano, and many others. More than one hundred paintings, drawings, and prints are reproduced in stunning detail. Side-by-side comparisons draw readers into the conversations between Venetian artists as they tackled similar subjects and vied for commissions. The book opens with fascinating essays about the history of 16th-century Venice, the Venetian School of painting, and the techniques of the Venetian masters. As beautiful as it is informative, this book features all of the excitement and splendor of one of the most prolific and important chapters in the history of European art.

"For nearly four decades in the sixteenth century, the careers of Renaissance Venice's three greatest painters - Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese - overlapped, encouraging mutual influences and bitter rivalries that changed the course of art history. Venice was then among Europe's richest cities, and its plentiful commissions fostered an exceptionally fertile and innovative climate. In this environment, the three artists - brilliant, ambitious, and fiercely competitive - vied with each other for primacy, deploying the new combination of oil on canvas, with its unique expressive possibilities, and such new approaches as a personal and identifiable signature touch. They also pioneered the use of easel painting, a newly portable format that allowed for unprecedented fame in their lifetimes. With more than 160 stunning examples by the three masters and their contemporaries, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese elucidates the technical and aesthetic innovations that helped define the "Venetian style"--Characterized by loose technique. rich coloring, and often sensual subject matter - as well as the social, political, and economic context in which it flourished. Essays range from examinations of new approaches to studies of such crucial institutions as state commissions and the private patronage system. Most of all, by concentrating on the lives and careers of Venice's three greatest painters, the volume presents a vibrant human portrait - one brimming with intense competition, one-upmanship, humor, and passion."--Jacket.