The Art Of The Renaissance by Peter & Linda Murray

About this book

"The Renaissance began in Italy, but it was not a purely Italian phenomenon. It grew out of European civilization, with roots in antiquity, in Christian dogma, and in Byzantium. The authors follow this growth to the Florence of 1420 and the artistic ferment seething there, to the fascinating regional schools of Siena, Umbria, Mantua, and Rome ~ the magnet for every creative ambition through the influence of the great patron ~ Popes. Architecture, sculpture, painting, book illustration, and all the arts of design underwent the same transformation. Meanwhile, artists outside the Mediterranean world, like Durer and Grunewald, grafted the new concepts on to their native and still vigorous Gothic, and the new ideas spread through France, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, and Portugal. Late in the century came the giants of the High Renaissance ~ Leonardo, Michelangelo, Bramante, and Raphael ~ an age whose astounding concentration of genius has never been equalled before or since. In telling this complex story, the authors cover all the decisive personalities and events, both taking in the field as a whole and giving each part of the history its due emphasis. Since the classic works of Burckhardt, Berenson, and Friedlander, there has been no survey of the Renaissance of comparable scope and authority."