In the early modern period costume books and albums participated in the shaping of a new visual culture that displayed the diversity of the people of the known world on a variety of media including maps, atlases, screens, and scrolls. At the crossroads of early anthropology, geography, and travel literature, this textual and visual production blurred the lines between art and science. Costume books and albums were not a unique European production: in the Ottoman Empire and the Far East art...

More than ever before, the Renaissance stands as one of the defining moments in world history. Between 1400 and 1600, European perceptions of society, culture, politics and even humanity itself emerged in ways that continue to affect not only Europe but the entire world. This wide-ranging exploration of the Renaissance sees the period as a time of unprecedented intellectual excitement and cultural experimentation and interaction on a global scale, alongside a darker side of religion, intol...

The Renaissance was a diverse phenomenon, marked by innovation and economic expansion, the rise of powerful rulers, religious reforms, and social change. Encompassing the entire continent, Renaissance Architecture examines the rich variety of buildings that emerged during these seminal centuries of European history. Although marked by the rise of powerful individuals, both patrons and architects, the Renaissance was equally a time of growing group identities and communities - and architect...

Sicily is at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, and for over 2000 years has been the gateway between Europe, Africa and the East. It has long been seen as the frontier between Western Civilization and the rest, but never definitively part of either. Despite being conquered by empires - Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Hapsburg Spain - it remains uniquely apart. The island's story maps a mosaic that mixes the story of myth and wars, maritime empires and reckless crusades, and a people ...

With contributions from provocative art and architectural historians, this book is a unique exposition of the temporary architecture erected for festivals and the role it has played in developing Western architectural and urban theory.Festival Architecture is arranged in historical periods – from Antiquity to the modern era – and divided between analyses of specific festivals, set in relation to contemporary architecture and urban design ideas and theories.Illustra...

This collection of original essays focuses upon Roman Italy where, with over 400 cities, urbanization was at the very centre of Italian civilization. Informed by an awareness of the social and anthropological issues of recent research, these contributions explore not only questions of urban origins, interaction with the countryside and economic function, but also the social use of space within the city and the nature of the development process.; These studies are aimed not only at ancient ...

This book is a sweeping historical portrait of the floating city of Venice from its foundations to the present day. Joanne M. Ferraro considers Venice's unique construction within an amphibious environment and identifies the Asian, European and North African exchange networks that made it a vibrant and ethnically diverse Mediterranean cultural centre. Incorporating recent scholarly insights, the author discusses key themes related to the city's social, cultural, religious and environmental...

The extraordinary creative energy of Renaissance Italy lies at the heart of modern western culture. This creativity extended far beyond the visual arts and architecture: dress history, dance history, food history, ritual and ceremonial all contributed to this vibrant rebirth. Virginia Cox here explores the material and economic output of the period, from the late 13th to the 16th century, when Italy led the world in painting, building, science, literature and music. As the medieval period ...

In this radical and wide-ranging reassessment of Renaissance art, Jerry Brotton and Lisa Jardine examine the ways in which European culture came to define itself culturally and aesthetically in the years 1450 to 1550. Looking outwards for confirmation of who they were and of what defined them as ‘civilized’, Europeans encountered the returning gaze of what we now call the East, in particular the powerful Ottoman Empire of Mehmed the Conqueror and Süleyman the Magnificent. Global Intere...

This collection of essays on centuries of culture and politics is "likely to become a landmark in Venetian historiography" ( The Historical Journal).Venice Reconsidered offers a dynamic portrait of Venice from the establishment of the Republic at the end of the thirteenth century to its fall to Napoleon in 1797. In contrast to earlier efforts to categorize Venice's politics as strictly republican and its society as rigidly tripartite and hierarchic...

An innovatory exploration of art and visual culture. Through carefully chosen themes and topics rather than through a general survey, the volumes approach the process of looking at works of art in terms of their audiences, functions and cross-cultural contexts. While focused on painting, sculpture and architecture, it also explores a wide range of visual culture in a variety of media and methods. "1000-1600: Medieval to Renaissance" includes essays on key themes of Medieval and Renaissance...

During the Italian Wars of 1494 to 1559, with innovations in military technology and tactics, armour began to disappear from the battlefield. Yet as field armour was retired, parade and ceremonial armour grew increasingly flamboyant. Displaced from its utilitarian function of defense but retained for symbolic uses, armour evolved in a new direction as a medium of artistic expression.Luxury armour became a chief accessory in the performance of elite male identity, coded with message...