Stephanie Loeb Stepanek Knihy

The description for this book, The Prints of Lucas van Leyden and His Contemporaries, will be forthcoming.

Major works spanning the medieval era to the Enlightenment from the MFA Boston's superlative collection The tremendous political, religious and cultural changes that swept across Europe in the years from 1000 to 1800 fundamentally transformed the practices and purposes of painting and sculpture--from elaborately carved and gilded medieval Christian altars to Renaissance self-portraits touting the skill of the artist to 18th-century portraits in marble of the era's leading thinkers. The 100 highlights from the impressive European art collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gathered here offer an accessible introduction to the story of art from the medieval period to the Enlightenment. Modern notions of art and artists, the art market, as well as the births of art history and the art museum as an institution, all trace their origins to Europe in these centuries, which produced work of fascinating variety and enduring beauty. Artists include: Rembrandt, Rosso Fiorentino, Titian, Fragonard, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Rogier van der Weyden, Peter Paul Rubens, El Greco, Velázquez and Poussin.

Unlike the other two master Renaissance painters associated with Venice, Titian and Veronese, Tintoretto (1519-94) alone was born in Venice and he left his mark there more than either artist. His paintings can still be found everywhere in the city: not only in museums, but as part of the original decorative cycles in public buildings such as the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, the Doge's Palace and the Liberia Marciana, and serving as altarpieces or chapel decorations in Venetian churches. Over one hundred and twenty of Tintoretto's breathtaking paintings spill out of the pages, divided into sections that correspond to the Venetian Sestieri or districts. Each painting is accompanied by entries written by an international team of art historians covering major issues and placing them in their artistic and cultural context.

A re-creation of the glorious and seductive visual world of eighteenth-century Europe through the life of one of its most notorious figures. In 18th-century Europe, the shape-shifting libertine Giacomo Casanova seduced his way across the Continent. Although notorious for the scores of amorous conquests he recorded in his remarkably frank memoirs, Casanova was just as practised at charming his way into the most elite social circles. In his travels across Europe and through every level of society from the theatrical demimonde to royal courts, he was also seduced by the visual splendours he encountered. This volume accompanies the first major art exhibition to recreate Casanova's visual world, from his birthplace of Venice to the cultural capitals of Paris and London and the outposts of Eastern Europe. Summoning up the people he met and the cityscapes, highways, salons, theatres, masked balls, boudoirs, gambling halls, and dining rooms he frequented, it provides a survey of important works of eighteenth-century European art by masters such as Canaletto, Fragonard, Boucher, Houdon and Hogarth. Twelve essays by prominent scholars illuminate multiple facets of Casanova's world as reflected in the arts of his time, providing a fascinating grand tour of Europe conducted by a quintessential figure of the eighteenth century as well as a splendid visual display of the spirit of the age.