Review by Choice Review
A pack-it-all-in entry in the apparently inexhaustible market for books on Venice, this picture-book tour features short essays by a variety of experts covering Venice's art from its appropriations from Byzantium in the 13th century, through its days of glory in the Renaissance, and into the grandiloquence of the 18th century. All of this is familiar territory. The book's strength is its broad sweep, and that everything is in color, sculpture and architecture as well as painting. An interesting last chapter deals with art in Venice after the fall of the Republic in 1797, bringing to light lesser- known aspects of the city, including a small but select group of examples of modern art. Largely for general readers and lower-division undergraduates. D. Pincus; National Gallery of Art
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
With more colorplates than the proverbial stick can be shaken at, this is something of a gazetteer of art, including architecture, in Italy's most visually distinctive city. Order of presentation is, however, not by locale but chronological. First comes work from the long transitional period from Byzantine to Romanesque styles; the great basilica San Marco, other pre-fourteenth-century buildings, and many exquisite mosaic, sculptural, and enamel details are on display here. The Gothic structures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are next, and from the Renaissance onward, painting looms ever larger. If it weren't so huge and heavy, the book would be a wonderful guide during an actual Venetian visit. Of course, an ordinary tourist couldn't see these artworks from the highly desirable perspectives made available to the book's photographers. --Ray Olson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
In more than a millennium of history, Venice has been graced with an array of art and architecture unsurpassed in the Western world. Now it exists as virtually a monument in itself. The achievement of this lavish coffee-table tribute is to proffer an intelligent sampling from the entire art history of the city through a selection of some 500 chronologically arranged color reproductions. Here, we are given not only a sumptuous conspectus of the paintings, sculpture, and minor arts made for or found in the city's palaces, churches, and museums but also a superb selection of the famous and less well known buildings that create the unique urban fabric of the Serene Republic. Although the illustrations are barely complemented by a sketchy text and plate captions, their quantity and quality plus the volume's modest price are sufficient to overcome any criticism and more than justify its acquisition. Recommended especially for public libraries in need of visual resources or serving potential travelers.--Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
