Review by Choice Review
This survey of the history and art of Florence is a sumptuous and monumental achievement. The two large, elegantly bound, and weighty volumes contain no fewer than 700 full-sized color plates along with some 150 black-and-white figures; they cover architecture, sculpture, and painting produced during the turbulent years of the city's greatest artistic flowering, the 11th through the 16th centuries. The declared goal of the trio of authors is to place the art of Florence within the historical and social context of the city; in many respects they have succeeded admirably, suggesting possible cultural influences on artistic developments while remaining sensitive to the pitfalls inherent in posting simple causal explanations for changes in style. Although much of the text, which is geared to the informed general reader, maintains high standards of accuracy and scholarship, there are also wide variations in quality. The strongest historical writing and the most incisive visual and technical analysis occur in the sections on architecture. The pages on sculpture are adequate, but those on painting are disappointingly weak. Further, the range is a bit limited by its coverage of only those works physically located within Florence. Nevertheless, these tomes are highly recommended for any libraries blessed with unlimited budgets. -J. I. Miller, California State University, Long Beach
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Florence is the city of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Dante, Masaccio, Botticelli, Giotto, Cellini and Machiavelli. This mammoth, two-volume survey lets one trace the shifting styles of Florentine painting, sculpture and architecture amid crosscurrents of political turmoil, Renaissance thought, princely patronage, commerce, wars, plague. It would be hard to match this opulent set for comprehensive detail or wealth of illustration. Among the 1553 plates (nearly half in color) are photographs, sketches, plans and hundreds of full-page reproductions. The text is designed to appeal to lay readers as well as to specialists. It brings Renaissance giants down to human proportions as it follows the rise of Florence from mercantile center to militant republic and to its late 16th-century decline foreshadowed by mannerism in the arts. The authors are art professors--Andres and Hunisak at Middlebury College, Turner at NYU; photographer Okamura's credits include The Vatican Frescoes of Michelangelo. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This expensive and elaborate set, replete with a wealth of excellent photographs, presents the art of Renaissance Florence in two beautiful, oversized volumes. Along with this visual feast comes a substantial and well-written chronological account of Florentine architecture, sculpture, and painting from 1200 to 1600. Basic historical and political background is incorporated into the text, making it informative and accessible to students and others with no prior knowledge of Italian Renaissance art or history. Although not a full history of Italian Renaissance art because of its limitation to one city, and lacking full scholarly apparatus (publication histories, dimensions of some works, etc.), this work will delight students, travelers, and general readers as well as specialists.-- Kathryn W. Finkelstein, M.Ln., Cincinnati (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 Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
