Reviews for Italian art, 1250-1550

The average rating for Italian art, 1250-1550 based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-05-19 00:00:00 Pawel Wiszniewski I think Bruce Cole is brilliant. I am trying to read everything he has written. He's an art historian who won't traffic in what he often refers to as the cumbersome "scholarly apparatus" that obscures rather than illuminates (or celebrates) art. This book is a survey of Italian art from 1250 to 1550, a period of intense and astonishing activity in Western art. Usually art historians march through this in chronological order, focusing on one artist after another in succession. But this misses the important fact that the artists of that time thought very little of influence or legacy. They were concerned instead with form and function because the art they created was commissioned for a particular place, a particular purpose, and a particular patron. Renaissance art was "made to order," as Cole points out, though that doesn't mean the conventions were confining; in fact, having more borders to push seemed to spur innovation and originality; it certainly provided something to measure those against. Renaissance Italy was a world saturated in art, and the art was charged with political, social, religious, economic, and personal meaning. What Cole does is divide the book into three sections - domestic life, worship, and the civic world - and explores the art that was created for each of these spheres, with a final fourth chapter that looks at how the portrayal of the individual changed over time during the Renaissance. He writes beautifully and is a great story teller, and in the process he illuminates not only the art history of the time but its social history, as the subtitle to the book promises: "The Relation of Renaissance Art to Life and Society." It's a book I am going to buy; I know I will enjoy reading it over and over again.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-05-06 00:00:00 James Dickinson Paul Barolsky writes like no other else can. His witty, clever, sophisticated and brilliant writing technique makes you want to keep reading every little word you write. His books are fantastic and I highly recommend you to grab one and start reading right away.