Published to coincide with an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, of sixty-eight works of art, primarily from Florentine collections, The Flowering of Florence explores the close ties between art and the natural sciences in Tuscany as seen in the botanical renderings created in Florence for the Medici grand dukes from the late 1500s through the early 1700s. The catalog comprises an essay and checklist with reproductions of the exquisite works in the show. Examples include Jacopo Ligozzi's plant drawings in tempera on paper from the Uffizi Gallery, Giovanna Garzoni's fruit and flower paintings on vellum, and Bartolomeo Bimbi's later and much larger still-life paintings.

A collection of essays by the art historian Aby Warburg, these essays look beyond iconography to more psychological aspects of artistic creation: the conditions under which art was practised; its social and cultural contexts; and its conceivable historical meaning.

Discusses how European scientists from the High Middle Ages through the Enlightenment used wonders, monsters, curiosities, marvels, and other phenomena to envision the natural world.

Contents: Overview The Samuel H. Kress Collection: Conservation and Context Marilyn Perry The Samuel H. Kress Program in Paintings Conservation at the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University Margaret Holben Ellis Introduction to the Volume Michele Marincola Acknowledgements Michele Marincola 2. Historical Papers Philosophies and Tastes in Nineteenth-Century Paintings Conservation Wendy Partridge Stephen Pichetto, conservator of the Kress Collection 1927-1949 Ann Hoenigswald Mario Modestini, Conservator of the Kress Collection 1949-1961 Dianne Modestini 3. Technical Studies & Treatment A New Leaf: Recent Technical Discoveries in the Goodhart Ducciesque Master's Madonna and Child with Four Saints Jennifer Sherman Botticelli's Nativity Charles R. Mack The Re-use of a Desco da Parto Mika Okawa & Dianne Dwyer Modestini The Triumphs of Petrarch: An Analysis of a Renaissance Decorative Cycle Wendy Partridge A Portable Triptych in El Paso Dianne Dwyer Modestini Guidoccio Cozzarelli's Scenes from the Life of the Virgin Dianne Modestini School of Pietro Perugino, Saint Sebastian Annette Rupprecht & Sheri Francis Shaneyfelt The Master of the Manchester Madonna: Restoration, Technique, and a Context for Attribution Molly March Portrait of a Lady and Techniques in the late Paintings of Nicolaes Maes, and Painting Techniques in the Late Paintings of Nicolaes Maes Laurent Sozzani with Christopher McGlinchey View of the Molo: A Canaletto Attribution Reinstated Elise Effmann Canaletto Paints the Molo from the Ponte della Paglia Katharine Baetjer View of the Grand Canal with Dogana and Guardi Studio Pictures Helen Spande