Art and archaeology of Rome : from ancient times to the Baroque /

Essentially a coffee-table book, this handsome volume is superbly illustrated with hundreds of color photographs. With useful maps and model reconstructions accompanied by a clear, informative text, this book should be popular as a useful guide to the major monuments and museums of Rome, or subsequent to a tourist's visit as an aide-memoire of things seen and better photographed by professionals. An Italian production, the illustrations serve, not incidentally, as an advertisement of the Archivo Fotografico Scala Group of Florence, long in the business of selling such photographs to institutions and individuals. The book is divided into four parts (ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque), each of which includes a historical narrative with separate commentaries on special interest topics: the walls of ancient Rome, the Appian Way, the Catacombs, the Cloisters, the Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Stanze, the Farnese Gallery, the Fountains of Rome, and others. Rome's major museums are treated in a separate section. General readers. R. Brilliant; Columbia University

As Rome, the eternal empire city, enters yet another millennium, it is the subject of two new books. One completely encompasses its art and archaeology, the other focuses in-depth on one particularly neglected century. Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, the larger of the two and the catalog for a recent traveling exhibition, reassesses and explores a transitional century (the settecento), setting out to revive what the editors describe as its often overlooked art and artifacts. The book covers the many public works projects by the century's popes, including the Spanish Steps and the reconstruction of many major churches, as well as the construction of beautiful palaces and the transformation of an Arcadian landscape into a city of stone and marble. Much material is gathered here, including three essays providing perspective on the period, a lengthy illustrated catalog section, a detailed compilation of key figures of the period, and an enormous source list. Scholarly yet accessible, this comprehensive work should find a home in special, academic, art school, and public art book collections. Another book in the well-designed and fully illustrated Riverside line, Art and Archaeology of Rome is an informative, useful, and aesthetically pleasing summary highlighting the major historical and artistic places that are the heart of Rome. With crisp, magnificent color reproductions and text that offers fascinating accounts of ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Rome, this book not only expresses the city but serves as a guide for visitors, whether as introduction or review. Like Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, it has definite reference value, and it is recommended for all art book collections.DEllen Bates, New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.