Explanations of Western European trends in men and women's fashion from prehistoric times to the Victorian Era.
The Stones of Venice is a three-volume treatise on Venetian art and architecture by English art historian John Ruskin, first published from 1851 to 1853. Intending to prove how the architecture in Venice exemplified the principles he discussed in his earlier work, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin examined the city in detail, describing for example over eighty churches. He discusses architecture of Venice's Byzantine, Gothic and Renaissance periods, and provides a general history of the city as well. The book aroused considerable interest in Victorian Britain and beyond. The chapter "The Nature of Gothic" (from volume 2) was admired by William Morris, who published it separately in an edition which is in itself an example of Gothic revival. It inspired Marcel Proust; the narrator of the Recherche visits Venice with his mother in a state of enthusiasm for Ruskin. The Stones of Venice is considered one of the most influential books of the 19th century.
The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times, or Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori, as it was originally known in Italian, is a series of artist biographies written by 16th century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, which is considered "perhaps the most famous, and even today the most- read work of the older literature of art", "some of the Italian Renaissance's most influential writing on art", and "one of the founding texts in art history".
Vasari's work has been described as "by far the most influential single text for the history of Renaissance art" and "the most important work of Renaissance biography of artists". Its influence is situated mainly in three domains: as an example for contemporary and later biographers and art historians, as a defining factor in the view on the Renaissance and the role of Florence and Rome in it, and as a major source of information on the lives and works of early Italian artists.
"This 1922 book by poet and sometime cultural critic Vachel Lindsay might have been the first to treat the then-new medium of moving pictures as an art form, one that was potentially as rich, complex, mysterious as far older ones, and whose physical and aesthetic properties were only starting to be understood. The highlight of the book might be “The Motion Picture of Fairy Splendor,” which examines the relationship between film storytelling, magic, myths, legends and bedtime stories. It’s discombobulating, in a good way, to read Lindsay’s attempts to grapple with what, precisely, cinema is. Being supposedly sophisticated 21st century people, we all feel as though we know what cinema is, and don’t need to have the basics explained to us, but this is really just vanity and ignorance talking. Bottom line: You haven’t really, seriously thought about movies — what they are, and what they can and cannot do, and become — until you’ve read this book."
A Masterpieces in Colour series book. Very informative with a biography and critique of the artist's work and how well she was beloved.
A series of lectures on landscape painting delivered at Oxford in 1871, by artist, critic, and social commentator, John Ruskin.
Biographies of Raphael Santi, Murillo, Peter Paul Rubens, and Albrecht Durer. This is a wonderful tool for art study as there are references for further study, as well as ideas for language arts to incorporate into the study
The poetry of childhood is full of attractiveness to the artist, and many and varied are the forms in which he interprets it. The Christ-child has been his highest ideal. All that human imagination could conceive of innocence and purity and divine loveliness has been shown forth in the delineation of the Babe of Bethlehem. The influence of such art has made itself felt upon all child pictures. It matters not whether the subject be a prince or a street-waif; the true artist sees in him something which is lovable and winning, and transfers it to his canvas for our lasting pleasure.
A guide for women to complement their dress to their surroundings, be it in their own home, on outings or on stage.
"There is a certain fascination connected with the remodeling of a farmhouse. Its low, raftered interior, its weather-beaten exterior, never fail to appeal. Types vary with the period in which they were built, but all are of interest. In this collection, which has been pictured with great care, pains have been taken to show as many different types as possible, so that the student will be able to find numerous interesting details that can be incorporated into his contemplated remodeling." [opening lines of Preface]
"Cocher, drive to the rue Falguière"--this in my best restaurant French.
The man with the varnished hat shrugged his shoulders, and raised his eyebrows in doubt. He evidently had never heard of the rue Falguière.
"Yes, rue Falguière, the old rue des Fourneaux," I continued.
Cabby's face broke out into a smile. "Ah, oui, oui, le Quartier Latin."
And it was at the end of this crooked street, through a lane that ledinto a half court flanked by a row of studio buildings, and up one pairof dingy waxed steps, that I found a door bearing the name of the authorof the following pages--his visiting card impaled on a tack. He was inhis shirt-sleeves--the thermometer stood at 90° outside--working at hisdesk, surrounded by half-finished sketches and manuscript.
The man himself I had met before--I had known him for years, infact--but the surroundings were new to me. So too were his methods ofwork.
Nowadays when a man would write of the Siege of Peking or the relief ofsome South African town with the unpronounceable name, his habit is torent a room on an up-town avenue, move in an inkstand and pad, and acollection of illustrated papers and encyclopedias. This writer on therue Falguière chose a different plan. He would come back year afteryear, and study his subject and compile his impressions of the Quarterin the very atmosphere of the place itself; within a stone's throw ofthe Luxembourg Gardens and the Panthéon; near the cafés and the Bullier;next door, if you please, to the public laundry where his washerwomanpays a few sous for the privilege of pounding his clothes into holes.
It all seemed very real to me, as I sat beside him and watched him atwork. The method delighted me. I have similar ideas myself about thevalue of his kind of study in out-door sketching, compared with thelabored work of the studio, and I have most positive opinions regardingthe quality which comes of it.
If then the pages which here follow have in them any of the trueinwardness of the life they are meant to portray, it is due, I feelsure, as much to the attitude of the author toward his subject, as muchto his ability to seize, retain, and express these instantaneousimpressions, these flash pictures caught on the spot, as to any othermerit which they may possess.
Nothing can be made really _real_ without it.
F. HOPKINSON SMITH.
Paris, August, 1901.
(from Introduction)
A study of ceramics in the Americas: its form, function and ornamentation as well as its history. Produced by the Smithsonian's Department of Ethnology. Listeners are referred to the text for the illustrations and figures. ( Lynne Thompson)
This book is an attempt to teach beginning students how to draw. Starting out with intuition and vision, Harold Speed explains line and mass drawing, and how rhythm is conveyed in art by means of balance and proportion. Everything is pulled together in a chapter on portrait drawing, before the author gives hints on materials and procedure. This manual was written in 1913, but because of the intelligent combination of useful advice and sensitive reflection on the nature and meaning of artistic practice, it has been considered a valuable resource for artists.
Newton's observations on the optical spectrum were widely accepted but Goethe noticed the difference between the scientific explanation and the phenomena as experienced by the human eye. He did not try to explain this, but rather collected and presented data, conducting experiments on the interplay of light and dark. His work was rejected as 'unscientific' by physicists but his color wheel is still used by artists today.
The Seven Lamps of Architecture, published in May 1849, is an extended essay written by the English art critic and theorist John Ruskin. The 'lamps' of the title are Ruskin's principles of architecture, which he later enlarged upon in the three-volume The Stones of Venice. To an extent, they codified some of the contemporary thinking behind the Gothic Revival. At the time of its publication A.W.N. Pugin and others had already advanced the ideas of the Revival and it was well under way in practice. Ruskin offered little new to the debate, but the book helped to capture and summarise the thoughts of the movement. The Seven Lamps also proved a great popular success, and received the approval of the ecclesiologists typified by the Cambridge Camden Society, who criticised in their publication The Ecclesiologist lapses committed by modern architects in ecclesiastical commissions.
The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times, or Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri, as it was originally known in Italian, is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, which is considered "perhaps the most famous, and even today the most-read work of the older literature of art", "some of the Italian Renaissance's most influential writing on art", and "the first important book on art history". The title is often abridged to the Vite or the Lives.
The Stones of Venice is a three-volume treatise on Venetian art and architecture by English art historian John Ruskin, first published from 1851 to 1853. Intending to prove how the architecture in Venice exemplified the principles he discussed in his earlier work, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin examined the city in detail, describing for example over eighty churches. He discusses architecture of Venice's Byzantine, Gothic and Renaissance periods, and provides a general history of the city as well. The book aroused considerable interest in Victorian Britain and beyond. The chapter "The Nature of Gothic" (from volume 2) was admired by William Morris, who published it separately in an edition which is in itself an example of Gothic revival. It inspired Marcel Proust; the narrator of the Recherche visits Venice with his mother in a state of enthusiasm for Ruskin. The Stones of Venice is considered one of the most influential books of the 19th century.
Published in 1911, Kandinsky's book compares the spiritual life of humanity to a pyramid -- the artist has a mission to lead others to the pinnacle with his work. The point of the pyramid is those few, great artists. It is a spiritual pyramid, advancing and ascending slowly even if it sometimes appears immobile. During decadent periods, the soul sinks to the bottom of the pyramid; humanity searches only for external success, ignoring spiritual forces.
The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times, or Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri, as it was originally known in Italian, is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, which is considered "perhaps the most famous, and even today the most-read work of the older literature of art", "some of the Italian Renaissance's most influential writing on art", and "the first important book on art history". The title is often abridged to the Vite or the Lives.
“Being the Familiar Correspondence of Vincent Van Gogh ... [Van Gogh's] art was appreciated during his life only by a very few and it is but within recent years that it has found admirers who in many cases have been most ardently enthusiastic. Of the following letters, some were addressed to his brother and the remainder to his friend E. Bernard.
Rodin has pronounced Rilke's essay the supreme interpretation of his work. (From the translators’ Preface)
Auguste Rodin, 1840-1917, was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art. Sculpturally, Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. … Rodin… modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality. From the unexpected realism of his first major figure… to the unconventional memorials whose commissions he later sought, Rodin's reputation grew, such that he became the preeminent French sculptor of his time. By 1900, he was a world-renowned artist.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist, "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose. Several critics have described Rilke's work as inherently "mystical"…. [Rilke’s] encounter with modernism was very stimulating: Rilke became deeply involved in the sculpture of Rodin, and then with the work of Paul Cézanne. For a time he acted as Rodin's secretary, also lecturing and writing a long essay on Rodin and his work. Rodin taught him the value of objective observation…
A Color Notation is a method developed by A. H. Munsell in order to produce a unified system of color classification. The system identifies three color dimensions hue (color name), value (lightness), and chroma (color purity) and was the first to base the outcome on a scientifically rigorous method of testing humans' color vision. The three dimensions are depicted on a color sphere with pure hue changing around the equator, value changing from light to dark from the north to the south pole, and chroma varying on the inside of the sphere towards the neutral grey of the north-south axis. The Munsell system is still widely used today, for example to define skin and hair colors for forensic pathology, for matching soil colors, or for the selection of shades for dental restorations.
This is a compilation of the thoughts on art, science and life of Leonardo da Vinci, translated by Maurice Baring and edited by Lewis Einstein.
The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times, or Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri, as it was originally known in Italian, is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, which is considered "perhaps the most famous, and even today the most-read work of the older literature of art", "some of the Italian Renaissance's most influential writing on art", and "the first important book on art history". The title is often abridged to the Vite or the Lives.
Austen Henry Layard is best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Nineveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal. The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire, is a collection of thousands of clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BC. Among its holdings was the famous Epic of Gilgamesh.
In this work, he describes his experiences upon his return to the region for a second expedition.
This handbook explains the art of bookbinding and simultaneously reminds us what a complex technology is to make books! Zaehnsdorf, bookbinder and son of a bookbinder, made this second edition of his book to enlighten amateurs and tradesmen alike. The whole process of binding a book and the required equipment are carefully explained to the reader.
A series of essays by Members of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society with a preface by William Morris who writes "It is this conscious cultivation of art and the attempt to interest the public in it which the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society has set itself to help, by calling special attention to that really most important side of art, the decoration of utilities by furnishing them with genuine artistic finish in place of trade finish." The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed in London in 1887 to promote the exhibition of decorative arts alongside fine arts.
The Stones of Venice is a three-volume treatise on Venetian art and architecture by English art historian John Ruskin, first published from 1851 to 1853. Intending to prove how the architecture in Venice exemplified the principles he discussed in his earlier work, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin examined the city in detail, describing for example over eighty churches. He discusses architecture of Venice's Byzantine, Gothic and Renaissance periods, and provides a general history of the city as well. The book aroused considerable interest in Victorian Britain and beyond. The chapter "The Nature of Gothic" (from volume 2) was admired by William Morris, who published it separately in an edition which is in itself an example of Gothic revival. It inspired Marcel Proust; the narrator of the Recherche visits Venice with his mother in a state of enthusiasm for Ruskin. The Stones of Venice is considered one of the most influential books of the 19th century.
"The Two Paths" is a collection of five lectures delivered in 1858 and 1859 by John Ruskin on art and architecture. This is how the author himself presents the book: "The following addresses, though spoken at different times, are intentionally connected in subject; their aim being to set one or two main principles of art in simple light before the general student, and to indicate their practical bearing on modern design. The law which it has been my effort chiefly to illustrate is the dependence of all noble design, in any kind, on the sculpture or painting of Organic Form." The most famous of these, the fifth lecture, is commonly known simply as "The Work of Iron"
The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times, or Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri, as it was originally known in Italian, is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, which is considered "perhaps the most famous, and even today the most-read work of the older literature of art", "some of the Italian Renaissance's most influential writing on art", and "the first important book on art history". The title is often abridged to the Vite or the Lives.
The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times (in the original Italian, Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri) is a collection of biographies of Italian artists written by the 16th-century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari. The Vite or "Lives" is a valuable witness of the thought about art at the times now known as Renaissance by one of its actors: Vasari is mostly known for being the mind behind the revitalization of the Uffizi, in Florence. The Lives are a fundamental work for art historians.
The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times (in the original Italian, Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri) is a collection of biographies of Italian artists written by the 16th-century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari. The Vite or "Lives" is a valuable witness of the thought about art at the times now known as Renaissance by one of its actors: Vasari is mostly known for being the mind behind the revitalization of the Uffizi, in Florence. The Lives are a fundamental work for art historians.
IIn analysing the Faker one must dissociate him from the common forger; his semi-artistic vocation places him quite apart from the ordinary counterfeiter; he must be studied amid his proper surroundings, and with the correct local colouring, so to speak, and his critic may perchance find some slight modicum of excuse for him. Beside him stand the Imitator, from whom the faker often originates, the tempter who turns the clever imitator into a faker, and the middleman who lures on the unwary collector with plausible tales.It is not the object of this volume to study the Faker by himself, but to trace his career through the ages in his appropriate surroundings, and compare the methods adopted by him at various periods of history, so far as they may be obtained. (from the Preface)
The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times (in the original Italian, Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri) is a collection of biographies of Italian artists written by the 16th-century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari. The Vite or "Lives" is a valuable witness of the thought about art at the times now known as Renaissance by one of its actors: Vasari is mostly known for being the mind behind the revitalization of the Uffizi, in Florence. The Lives are a fundamental work for art historians.
This 1883 book contains chapters on ancient costumes, Byzantine and Romanesque art, David and his school, modern schools of Europe, drawing, color, decorative painting, finish, choice of subject, composition of decorative and historical pictures, and composition of incident pictures. Edward Armitage RA (1817 – 1896) was an English painter of the Victorian era whose work focused on historical, classical and biblical subjects. He was Professor and Lecturer on painting in the Royal Academy 1875-1886. (David Wales)
One of the earliest works of this Italian philosopher and literary critic, Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic marks the beginning of Croce's elaboration of his highly influential ideas of aesthetics. Croce defines art in terms of intuition and expression, thus replacing beauty as the primary criterion for aesthetic evaluation.
This publication of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society of the Black Hills presents the history and description of one of the most iconic colossal sculptures of the world. Originally conceived by Doane Robinson of South Dakota, the memorial was designed by renowned sculptor, Gutzon Borglum who also gave oversight of the construction along with his son Lincoln. It depicts four U.S. Presidents – Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt.
This book was curated by the State Federation of Pennsylvania Women for tourists' use on a journey to Pennsylvania. Each of Pennsylvania's 67 counties has its own chapter, discussing beautiful art and buildings that may be found there (or, in lieu of art, pioneer history). These chapters were each written by a knowledgeable person from that county. While details are often sparse, the guide is an excellent starting point for individuals who wish to learn more about local history of Pennsylvania. Note: While the book was compiled in 1917, the first world war prevented its publication until 1924.
Philadelphia's Historic Firsts includes a list of all of the interesting inventions and processes created, performed, or discovered for the first time in Philadelphia. The "Commonwealth" sections are an exhaustive history of Philadelphia County and its beautiful buildings, artworks, and historical figures. Following that section, each county has a chapter, in the order in which the counties were founded.
A biography and critique of Van Dyck in The Masterpieces in Colour series. The Plates of the paintings are fully described and the artistic periods in his life's work are given as well as his place in history.
“With the Greek civilisation beauty perished from the world. Never again has it been possible for man to believe that harmony is in fact the truth of all existence.”
This elegantly-written work provides a splendid introduction to the Greeks of the classic period: how they thought, wrote, and organised their lives and loves. Although it dates from the 1890s, there is very little about it that has dated. To its author’s credit, the subject of “Greek love” is dealt with in a sane and factual context - despite the judicial assassination of Oscar Wilde going on in the background.
A Cambridge don much admired by his students (including E. M. Forster), Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson belonged to the Apostles, a secret society with a strong ethic of male friendship. Alfred Tennyson and his beloved Arthur Hallam were early members. Dickinson is chiefly remembered as a historian and pacifist who played a significant part in the founding of the League of Nations. Inevitably, given his interests and intellectual background, he became a close associate of the Bloomsbury Group.
The Greek View of Life is no dry academic tome. It is a popularizing work in the best sense: accessibly written and illustrated with apt quotations given in sturdy translations, never in the original Greek. It is a joy to read.
Frederick Wedmore presents short vignettes of influential artists of the 19th century who were noted for their mastery of etching: Seymour Haden, Jules Jacquemart, J. A. M. Whistler, and Alphonse Legros.
A splendid example of travel writing at its best, in this description of six week tour in France -- from Touraine, down to Provence, then back up north -- made by Henry James in 1882, and first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1883-1884.
From the preface: "For thirty years I have devoted myself to the practical problems of the glove industry, and my connection with one of the substantial firms of master-merchant-glovers in the world has taught me how little gloves are known or appreciated by the millions of persons who buy them and wear them. The pursuit of glove lore--the historic romance of the glove--has long since been with me a selfish recreation. Now I desire to share it, as well as the practical knowledge, with all men and women who have missed seizing upon the real relation which gloves bear to life."