Ebook: Venice - Art & architecture

An addendum ebook is uploaded with title "Venice - Art & architecture- Index".

This large-scale work provides the reader with a comprehensive insight into the history of Venetian art, as expressed through her architecture, sculpture, and painting. Respected scholars in the field describe and analyze the broad panorama of the art of Venice chronologically, certain decisive individual aspects of her artistic expression are dealt with in chapters of their own, including for example the uniquely Venetian approach to books, textiles, and glass. More than 700 color plates of the highest quality illustrate the broad range of artistic production which, to a large extent, is still extant today in the island city and the Veneto region on the mainland. Thus the reader is guided through the impressive “open-air museum” in which is preserved the eventful artistic development of this extraordinary and unique place.
The seven first chapters are devoted to the artistic history of Venice from its beginnings in the Lagoon region, even before the emergence of “Venice” as a name, to the sixteenth century. Particular attention is given to the development of mosaic art from its earliest —black and white — origins to the vivid colors of the biblical and historical motifs in the basilica of San Marco. The investigation of the Byzantine legacy and its influence on Venetian art is followed by expert analyses of architecture, sculpture and painting from the Gothic era to the Renaissance. A climax is reached in the art of the Golden Age, which brought forth such illustrious figures as Jacopo Sansovino, Giorgione and Titian. The following seven chapters explore the period from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. The great abundance of material also provides scope for two separate in-depth individual treatments: one detailed chapter is devoted to the interior decoration of Venetian palaces, while another documents the work of the last outstanding master of Venetian art, Giambattista Tiepolo, along with the influence of his genius on the artists of the Rococo. However, the history of Venetian art has never come to a standstill. The last chapter of this book deals with the Biennale and shows how Venice has managed to preserve its tradition as a city of art and artists right up to the present day.
Supported by art historians from Europe and the United States, Giandomenico Romanelli, the Director of the Museums of the City of Venice, presents expert contributions on the extraordinary wealth of Venetian art as well as on the latest state of research into the city’s art and history, providing an impressive explanation of why it is that the art of the Queen of the Adriatic continues to exert such fascination.