Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape

Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape
Author: Christopher S. Wood
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 439
Release: 2013-07-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1780231156

In the early sixteenth century, Albrecht Altdorfer promoted landscape from its traditional role as background to its new place as the focal point of a picture. His paintings, drawings, and etchings appeared almost without warning and mysteriously disappeared from view just as suddenly. In Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape, Christopher S. Wood shows how Altdorfer transformed what had been the mere setting for sacred and historical figures into a principal venue for stylish draftsmanship and idiosyncratic painterly effects. At the same time, his landscapes offered a densely textured interpretation of that quintessentially German locus—the forest interior. This revised and expanded second edition contains a new introduction, revised bibliography, and fifteen additional illustrations.

The Appearance of Witchcraft

The Appearance of Witchcraft
Author: Charles Zika
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2013-04-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135632995

Shortlisted for the 2008 Katharine Briggs Award. For centuries the witch has been a powerful figure in the European imagination; but the creation of this figure has been hidden from our view. Charles Zika’s groundbreaking study investigates how the visual image of the witch was created in late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe. He charts the development of the witch as a new visual subject, showing how the traditional imagery of magic and sorcery of medieval Europe was transformed into the sensationalist depictions of witches in the pamphlets and prints of the sixteenth century. This book shows how artists and printers across the period developed key visual codes for witchcraft, such as the cauldron and the riding of animals. It demonstrates how influential these were in creating a new iconography for representing witchcraft incorporating themes such as the power of female sexuality, male fantasy, moral reform, divine providence and punishment, the superstitions of non-Christian peoples and the cannibalism of the new world. Lavishly illustrated and encompassing in its approach, The Appearance of Witchcraft is the first systematic study of the visual representation of witchcraft in the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It will give the reader a unique insight into how the image of the witch evolved in the early modern world.

Master Drawings from the Smith College Museum of Art

Master Drawings from the Smith College Museum of Art
Author: Smith College. Museum of Art
Publisher: Hudson Hills
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2000
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9781555951832

This newest volume in Hudson Hills Press's acclaimed series about leading collections of master drawings presents sixty-eight great sheets, all reproduced in full-color, including many versos, from one of the finest college museums in America.

Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-century European Drawings

Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-century European Drawings
Author: Egbert Haverkamp Begemann (Kunsthistoriker)
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Total Pages: 490
Release: 1999
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0870999184

"Early European art was a consuming interest of both Robert Lehman and his father, Philip Lehman, an interest reflected in the remarkable number and quality of drawings they owned from the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. In addition to an important group of early German drawings, the collection includes a "Saint Paul" from a series associated with Jan van Eyck and the famous "Scupstoel" from the circle of Rogier van der Weyden, the only design for a decorative sculpture to survive from the fifteenth century. The great artists of the seventeenth century, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, Claude Lorrain, and Rembrandt among them, are also represented, Rembrandt by seven drawings, including the large study of Leonardo's "Last Supper" that would stay in his mind all through his career. Drawings by Antoine Watteau, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, Thomas Gainsborough, Paul Sandby, and George Romney are among the many from eighteenth-century France and England. The volume discusses all 153 drawings at length, placing each in its art historical setting and complementing the discussion with comparative illustrations of related works." This e-book on the MetPublications website is also accompanied by links to related works and under the "Additional resources"tab are links to Met works of art and Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History essays and timelines (viewed May 1, 2014).

A History of Engraving and Etching

A History of Engraving and Etching
Author: Arthur M. Hind
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2011-10-30
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0486148874

British Museum Keeper of Prints offers complete history, 15th-century to 1914; accomplishments, influences, artistic merit. 111 illustrations. Chapters include: The Earliest Engravers, The Great Masters of Engraving, The Decline of Original Engraving, and more.

Disembodied Heads in Medieval and Early Modern Culture

Disembodied Heads in Medieval and Early Modern Culture
Author: Barbara Baert
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2013-07-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004253556

Discussing medieval and early modern 'disembodied heads' this collection questions the why and how of the primacy of the head in the bodily hierarchy during the premodern period. On the basis of beliefs, mythologies and traditions concerning the head, they come to an ‘cultural anatomy’ of the head.