The Art and Culture of Scandinavian Central Europe, 1550–1720

The Art and Culture of Scandinavian Central Europe, 1550–1720
Author: Kristoffer Neville
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2019-12-10
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0271085231

Politically and militarily powerful, early modern Scandinavia played an essential role in the development of Central European culture from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. In this volume, Kristoffer Neville shows how the cultural ambitions of Denmark and Sweden were inextricably bound to those of other Central European kingdoms. Tracing the visual culture of the Danish and Swedish courts from the Reformation to their eventual decline in the eighteenth century, Neville explains how and why they developed into important artistic centers. He examines major projects by figures largely unknown outside of Northern Europe alongside other, more canonical artists—including Cornelis Floris, Adriaen de Vries, and Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach—to propose a more coherent view of this part of Europe, one that rightly includes Scandinavia as a vital component. The seventeenth century has long seemed a bleak moment in Central European culture. Neville’s authoritative and unprecedented study does much to change this perception, showing that the arts did not die in the Reformation and Thirty Years’ War but rather flourished in the Baltic region.

The Art and Culture of Scandinavian Central Europe

The Art and Culture of Scandinavian Central Europe
Author: Kristoffer Neville
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-03-07
Genre:
ISBN:

Politically and militarily powerful, early modern Scandinavia played an essential role in the development of Central European culture from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. In this volume, Kristoffer Neville shows how the cultural ambitions of Denmark and Sweden were inextricably bound to those of other Central European kingdoms. Tracing the visual culture of the Danish and Swedish courts from the Reformation to their eventual decline in the eighteenth century, Neville explains how and why they developed into important artistic centers. He examines major projects by figures largely unknown outside of Northern Europe alongside other, more canonical artists ― including Cornelis Floris, Adriaen de Vries, and Johann Bernhard Fischervon Erlach ― to propose a more coherent view of this part of Europe, one that rightly includes Scandinavia as a vital component. The seventeenth century has long seemed a bleak moment in Central European culture. Neville's authoritative and unprecedented study does much to change this perception, showing that the arts did not die in the Reformation and Thirty Years' War but rather flourished in the Baltic region.

Art of the Northern Renaissance

Art of the Northern Renaissance
Author: Stephanie Porras
Publisher: Laurence King Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-02-20
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781786271655

In this lucid account, Stephanie Porras charts the fascinating story of art in northern Europe during the Renaissance period (ca. 1400–1570). She explains how artists and patrons from the regions north of the Alps – the Low Countries, France, England, Germany – responded to an era of rapid political, social, economic, and religious change, while redefining the status of art. Porras discusses not only paintings by artists from Jan van Eyck to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, but also sculpture, architecture, prints, metalwork, embroidery, tapestry, and armor. Each chapter presents works from a roughly 20-year period and also focuses on a broad thematic issue, such as the flourishing of the print industry or the mobility of Northern artists and artworks. The author traces the influence of aristocratic courts as centers of artistic production and the rise of an urban merchant class, leading to the creation of new consumers and new art products. This book offers a richly illustrated narrative that allows readers to understand the progression, variety, and key conceptual developments of Northern Renaissance art.

Palaces of Reason

Palaces of Reason
Author: Robin L. Thomas
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2023-11-09
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0271096608

Palaces of Reason traces the fascinating history of three royal residences built outside of Naples in the eighteenth century at Capodimonte, Portici, and Caserta. Commissioned by King Charles of Bourbon and Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony, who reigned over the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, these buildings were far more than residences for the monarchs. They were designed to help reshape the economic and cultural fortunes of the realm. The palaces at Capodimonte, Portici, and Caserta are among the most complex architectural commissions of the eighteenth century. Considering the architecture and decoration of these complexes within their political, cultural, and economic contexts, Robin L. Thomas argues that Enlightenment ideas spurred their construction and influenced their decoration. These modes of thinking saw the palaces as more than just centers of royal pleasure or muscular assertions of the crown’s power. Indeed, writers and royal ministers viewed them as active agents in improving the cultural, political, social, and economic health of the kingdom. By casting the palaces within this narrative, Thomas counters the assumption that they were imitations of Versailles and the swan songs of absolutism, while expanding our understanding of the eighteenth-century European palace more broadly. Original and convincing, Thomas’s book will be of interest to historians of art and architectural history and eighteenth-century studies.

Scandinavian Design & the United States, 1890-1980

Scandinavian Design & the United States, 1890-1980
Author: Bobbye Tigerman
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-04-15
Genre: Design
ISBN: 3791359169

This stunning book examines design exchanges between the United States and Scandinavia over nearly a century and explores the fascinating reasons why Scandinavian design has continued to resonate with Americans. Focusing on the extensive influence of Scandinavian design in the United States, this book shows how Nordic ideas about modern design and the objects themselves had an indelible impact on American culture and material life. It also considers America's influence on Scandinavian design, showing how cultural exchange is mutual by nature. In addition to familiar material like Danish furniture and Swedish glass, readers will learn about America's little-known "Viking Revival" style; the work of Howard Smith, an African-American artist who immigrated to Finland in the 1960s; and the myriad ways Scandinavian toys and household goods helped shape American child-rearing practices. The perfect addition to any Danish modern coffee table, this elegant book traces how Scandinavian design became an integral part of what is considered "American design." Published with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Art and Religion in Eighteenth-Century Europe

Art and Religion in Eighteenth-Century Europe
Author: Nigel Aston
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2009-07-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1861898452

Eighteenth-century Europe witnessed monumental upheavals in both the Catholic and Protestant faiths and the repercussions rippled down to the churches’ religious art forms. Nigel Aston now chronicles here the intertwining of cultural and institutional turmoil during this pivotal century. The sustained popularity of religious art in the face of competition from increasingly prevalent secular artworks lies at the heart of this study. Religious art staked out new spaces of display in state institutions, palaces, and private collections, the book shows, as well as taking advantage of patronage from monarchs such as Louis XIV and George III, who funded religious art in an effort to enhance their monarchial prestige. Aston also explores the motivations and exhibition practices of private collectors and analyzes changing Catholic and Protestant attitudes toward art. The book also examines purchases made by corporate patrons such as charity hospitals and religious confraternities and considers what this reveals about the changing religiosity of the era as well. An in-depth historical study, Art and Religion in Eighteenth-Century Europe will be essential for art history and religious studies scholars alike.

Tracing their Tracks

Tracing their Tracks
Author: Peter Hupfauf
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2015-06-18
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1443879932

Understanding the relation of semiology to Western iconography is essential, as it is the element that, often unconsciously, influences perception in Western society. Scholars, such as Klaus Düwel with his outstanding knowledge of runic script, sometimes reach their limits if inscriptions are complemented with abstract images that may be accidental scratches or, on the other hand, a sign or signs indicating symbolic meaning. The detailed definition of the Medieval World by Margaret Clunies ...

Viking Rus

Viking Rus
Author: Wladyslaw Duczko
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2004-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004138749

This book offers a detailed survey of the history and culture of Scandinavians, known as Rus, living during the Viking Age in the Eastern Europe where they created not only a principality of Kiev but also several large proto-town centres and numerous rural settlements.

Remarks on Architecture

Remarks on Architecture
Author: Ignacy Potocki
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2015-06-18
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0271070501

At the end of the eighteenth century, the authors of Poland’s 3 May 1791 Constitution became the heirs to a defunct state whose territory had been partitioned by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. At this moment of intensive national postmortem, Ignacy Potocki, an eminent statesman and co-author of the Constitution, wrote the treatise Remarks on Architecture. One of the best-preserved examples of early modern Polish architectural thought, Potocki’s work announces itself as a project of national introspection, with architecture playing a direct role in the betterment of the nation. Addressed to the contemporary Polish nobility, the book argues that architecture is a vessel for cultural values and that it plays an important part in the formation and critique of broader national traditions. Throughout, Potocki conveys the lessons of a Vitruvian canon that shaped Continental classical architectural theory and practice throughout the early modern period. Expertly translated by Carolyn Guile and featuring an introduction that explores Polish Enlightenment architectural writing as an example of cultural exchange, inheritance, and transformation, this edition of Potocki’s treatise broadens our understanding of European architectural history during the early modern period.

The Moving Statues of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam

The Moving Statues of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam
Author: Angela Vanhaelen
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2022-08-05
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0271091916

This book opens a window onto a fascinating and understudied aspect of the visual, material, intellectual, and cultural history of seventeenth-century Amsterdam: the role played by its inns and taverns, specifically the doolhoven. Doolhoven were a type of labyrinth unique to early modern Amsterdam. Offering guest lodgings, these licensed public houses also housed remarkable displays of artwork in their gardens and galleries. The main attractions were inventive displays of moving mechanical figures (automata) and a famed set of waxwork portraits of the rulers of Protestant Europe. Publicized as the most innovative artworks on display in Amsterdam, the doolhoven exhibits presented the mercantile city as a global center of artistic and technological advancement. This evocative tour through the doolhoven pub gardens—where drinking, entertainment, and the acquisition of knowledge mingled in encounters with lively displays of animated artifacts—shows that the exhibits had a forceful and transformative impact on visitors, one that moved them toward Protestant reform. Deeply researched and decidedly original, The Moving Statues of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam uncovers a wealth of information about these nearly forgotten public pleasure parks, situating them within popular culture, religious controversies, global trade relations, and intellectual debates of the seventeenth century. It will appeal in particular to scholars in art history and early modern studies.