A quartet of essays on great European cities from the groundbreaking thinker Georg Simmel These brilliant essays, from one of Germany's greatest and most influential thinkers, are beautifully written and highly readable portraits of three Italian cities: Rome, Venice and Florence. Simmel saw the city as a work of art in itself, and taken together these pieces act as a powerful suite expounding that notion. A seminal work of psycho-geography, this collection has never been published together in English before.

This guide illustrates the art city of Venice, for a visit lasting two, three, or more days. It has descriptions and photos of the attractions, including the Lagoon Islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello, arranged along a logical itinerary to visit the city. Detailed maps illustrate the itinerary of the visit. It also describes all the transportation means available to reach Venice.

Art in Venice is a lavishly illustrated and comprehensive collection of the painting, architecture, sculpture, mosaic, glass, and gold work of one of the world's most romantic, beautiful, and historically rich cities. The book is organized in a straightforward chronological fashion: divided into major periods of Venetian history, each section including historical and cultural information, as well as the exact location of each artwork and biographies of each of the artists discussed. Including over 500 masterpieces from the eight to the twentieth century, the book features the art of such important Venetian masters as Bellini, Mantegna, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto.

Join Turner (1775-1851) as he progresses through the city, beginning at St. Mark's Basilica with the campanile towering above and the coral-colored exterior of the Doge's Palace. Drift onward toward the Bridge of Sighs and take a detour past the Hotel Europa, where Turner preferred to stay. Travel onward past the Giardini Reali, the Punta della Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute on your way to San Giorgio Maggiore and the Accademia. Drift away from the bustling markets around the Rialto on the Grand Canal heading toward the Frari and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, taking in the inspirations for Venetian masters such as Tintoretto and Veronese.

A luxurious and definitive exploration of how and why the Renaissance flourished in Italy for two centuries. The idea of “renaissance,” or rebirth, arose in Italy as a way of reviving the art, science, and scholarship of the Classical era. It was also powered by a quest to document artistic “reality” according to newly discovered scientific and mathematical principles. By the late 15th century, Italy had become the recognized European leader in the fields of painting, architecture, and sculpture. But why was Florence the center of this burgeoning creativity, and how did it spread to other Italian cities? Brimming with vivid reproductions of works by Leonardo, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, and others, this book showcases the creative achievements that traveled from Florence to Rome to Venice. Art historian Norbert Wolf explores the influence of secular and religious patronage on artistic development; how the urban structure and way of life allowed for such a rich exchange of ideas; and how ideas of humanism informed artists reaching toward the future while clinging to the ideals of the past. Insightful, accessible, and fascinating, this thoroughly researched book highlights the connections and mutual influences of Florence, Rome, and Venice as well as their intriguing rivalries and interdependencies.

This book focuses on the question of how Venice designed and exported its own identity through all kinds of its goods. What are Venetian commodities? More than any other medieval or early modern city, Venice lived off of the trade of portable goods. In addition to trading foreign imports, the city also engaged in intense local production, manufacturing high quality glass, crystal, cloth, metal, enamel, leather, and ceramic objects, characterized by their exceedingly rich forms and complex production processes. Today, these objects are scattered in collections throughout the world, but little remains in Venice itself. In individual instances, it is often difficult to tell whether the objects in question were actually made in Venice or if they originated in Byzantine, Islamic, or other European contexts. This book focuses on the question of how Venice designed and exported its own identity through all kinds of its goods.