Johannes Vermeer, one of the greatest Dutch painters and for some the single greatest painter of all, produced a remarkably small corpus of work. In Vermeer's Family Secrets, Benjamin Binstock revolutionizes how we think about Vermeer's work and life. Vermeer, The Sphinx of Delft, is famously a mystery in art: despite the common claim that little is known of his biography, there is actually an abundance of fascinating information about Vermeer’s life that Binstock brings ...

A painter and architect in his own right, Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) achieved immortality for this book on the lives of his fellow Renaissance artists, first published in Florence in 1550. Although he based his work on a long tradition of biographical writing, Vasari infused these literary portraits with a decidedly modern form of critical judgment. The result is a work that remains to this day the cornerstone of art historical scholarship.Spanning the period from the thirteenth centu...

The leading art critic of the Victorian era, John Ruskin created a large body of work, writing influential essays and treatises on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy, to name but a few. This comprehensive eBook presents the complete published works of John Ruskin, with numerous illustrations, rare texts appearing in digital print for the first time, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Ver...

This is the story of Fabergé's Imperial Easter eggs – of their maker, of the tsars who commissioned them, of the middlemen who sold them and of the collectors who fell in love with them. It's a story of meticulous craftsmanship and unimaginable wealth, of lucky escapes and mysterious disappearances, and ultimately of greed, tragedy and devotion. Moreover, it is a story that mirrors the history of twentieth-century Russia – a satisfying arc that sees eggs made for the tsars, sold by Stalin,...

Frank Wynne's remarkable book tells the story of Han van Meegeren, a paranoid, drug-addicted, second-rate painter whose Vermeer forgeries made him a secret superstar of the art world. During van Meegeren's heyday as a forger of Vermeers, he earned the equivalent of fifty million dollars, the acclaim of the world's press, and the satisfaction of swindling Hermann Göring himself, trading the Nazi commander one of his forgeries in exchange for the return of hundreds of looted Dutch paintings....

Why is this book different from all other books about Israel? All other books tend to defend Israel. ISRAEL RECLAIMING THE NARRATIVE goes on the attack. Why should my country apologize for fighting for its right to exist? ISRAEL RECLAIMING THE NARRATIVE prosecutes Israel's enemies and defamers by exposing their hypocrisy and lies. From boycotters to replacement theologists, the media, leading politicians, a misguided public and, centrally, the Palestinians, are all are subject to scrutiny ...

“Tracy Tynan uses the universal medium of clothing to tell the highly specific story of her bohemian British upbringing, and she does so with wit, candor, and yes—style” (Lena Dunham).Tracy Peacock Tynan grew up in London in the 1950’s and 60s, privy to her parents’ glamorous parties and famous friends—Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, and Orson Welles. Cecil Beaton and Katharine Hepburn were her godparents. These stylish showbiz people were role models for Tracy, wh...

Fully Exposed is a pioneering cultural history of the photography of the male nude which sets the photographer and the model within our cultural and historical perceptions and prejudices. This second edition extends the book's coverage so that the story from the beginnings of the medium to the present day is complete.Fully Exposed is lavishly illustrated with over two hundred and fifty photographs,many of them new to this edition. Different chapters discuss how the...

A sweeping, beautifully written history of artistic patronage from 1000 to the present day by a Wolfson Prize-winning historian.‘Marks of Opulence’ is a magisterial survey of European art and artistic patronage from 1000 until the birth of modernism. Tracing the history from the discovery of silver in the Harz mountains, through the catastrophic effects of plague in the 14th-century, to the studied magnificence of papal and royal courts in the 16th- and 17th-centuries, Platt shows ...

Mika Kaurismäki’s films challenge many boundaries – national societies, genre formations, art/popular culture, fiction/documentary, humanity/nature and problematic distinctions between different zones of development. Synthesizing concepts from a range of thematic frameworks – e.g. auteurism, eco-philosophy, genre, cartography, cineaste networks, global reception, distribution and exhibition practices, and the potential of postnationalism – this book provides an interdisciplinary reading of...

Included in the Discovering Art Series, The Life, Times and Work of Claude Monet provides an accessible introduction to Monet's life and work and his important role in establishing French Impressionism. Illustrations in the book chart Monet's progression from the creation of light and space by painting outdoors – plien-air – to his final near abstract paintings of water lilies at his famous Giverny home where he moved in 1883, remaining there until his death at a venerable 86 in 1926.To fu...

ConFiguring America brings together a series of incisive essays that analyse a wide range of such figures: those who embody America’s tendency to produce celebrities and iconic personalities with global reach. Drawing on theoretical insights from a variety of fields – including cultural iconography, visual culture, star studies and history – a diverse group of international contributors sheds light on how these figures and their media representations construct America’s image beyo...