Baroque

Prizewinning author Harr embarks on a spellbinding journey to discover the long-lost painting known as "The Taking of Christ." The fascinating details of the artist Caravaggio's strange, turbulent career and the astonishing beauty of his work come to life in these pages.An Italian village on a hillt... More

From Vaux-le-Vicomte to Versailles, the buildings of Louis Le Vau shaped the image of French court society. None, however, has had as dramatic an effect as Mazarin's College (1661-70), the Parisian landmark that now houses the Institut de France. In this first English-language book on Louis XIV's ce... More

A Royal Passion is the first in-depth study of the Sun King as a patron of architecture. Surveying such monuments as the Louvre, Versailles, the Invalides, and other buildings that are closely identified with Louis XIV, Robert W. Berger demonstrates why these buildings, gardens, urban spaces, and th... More

"This little book is amazing! The author discusses each of Vermeer's known 35 paintings, bringing intelligence and insight to the artist and his works. Though not much is known about Vermeer's life, we learn a fair amount about his techniques and the influences from which he drew. I found it extreme... More

Now available for the first time in paperback, this extraordinary book examines the 'culture of excess' in all its twentieth-century manifestations. Fashion, film, photography, design and decoration: all feature in Stephen Calloway's consideration of the colourful, the opulent and the theatrical. Th... More

Notorious bad boy of Italian Baroque painting, Caravaggio (1571-1610) is finally getting the recognition he deserves. Though his name may be familiar to all of us, his work has been habitually detested and forced into obscurity. Not only was his theatrical realism unfashionable in his time, but his ... More

The visual language of the baroque period is typified by an exuberant use of curves and flourishes, and bright and contrasting colors. The result is an exhilarating ornamental style of great beauty.The visual language of the baroque period is typified by an exuberant use of curves and flourishes, an... More

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669) was one of the most complex and multi-faceted artists of the 17th century. From his initial period in Leiden to his earlier and later phases in Amsterdam, the stages of Rembrandt's career mirror the artistic and intellectual developments of the century. Afte... More

One of the first female artists to achieve recognition in her own time, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) became instantly popular in the 1970s when feminist art historians "discovered" her and argued vehemently for a place for her in the canon of Italian baroque painters. Featured alongside her fat... More