Prominent Renaissance scholars reveal new insights into Piero’s life and work based on a study of his exquisite small panel paintings.

The book is the result of a study begun in 1995 of the panel paintings of Masolino and Masaccio. A team from the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Italy, joined by colleagues from the National Gallery in London and the Philadelphia Museum of Art visited museums in Europe and the United States that own paintings by these two Renaissance masters. This research, supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, investigated the painting technique of the artists in ways that even a few years before would not have been possible. The study has led to a greater understanding of the nature of the collaboration of the two artists and the chronology of their work. Fine examples of Masaccio underdrawing have been revealed, as well as Masolino's innovative use of oil mediums. The Panel Paintings of Masolino and Masaccio includes an introduction by Carl Brandon Strelke summarising the results and reviewing the usefulness of laboratory research for art history. A major essay by Roberto Bellucci and Cecilia Frosinini int

This book tells the story of Italian Renaissance master Piero della Francesca (1411/13-1492) by focusing on four paintings he created over the span of his career. It also provides the first study of his small-scale devotional paintings, including the exquisite 'Saint Jerome and a Donor'. One of today's most prominent scholars narrates the painting's mysterious history and uncovers new insights gleaned during its recent study and restoration. The author explores the relationship between this painting and other works made by Piero for private devotion, including one of his last and most striking paintings, the magnificent 'Madonna di Senigallia'. New research describes the complex relationships between Piero and his patrons and other contemporaries. This book brims with revelatory details about Piero's work that will intrigue both casual readers and devoted fans of the artist, and will form a gateway to a larger analysis of Piero's overall body of work.0Exhibition: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA (13.1.-30.3.2014).

A landmark publication on the drawings of one of the giants of the Italian Renaissance Sandro Botticelli (ca. 1445-1510) is one of the most beloved artists of the Italian Renaissance, especially known for his paintings La Primavera and The Birth of Venus. A lesser-known aspect of his career is his work as a draftsman. His drawings are extraordinary, yet their rarity and unconventional style have kept them from being more widely recognized. Botticelli Drawings is the first major book to examine this aspect of Botticelli's work. It considers the foundational role that drawings played in Botticelli's oeuvre in terms of his aesthetic, practice, and process--from his earliest recorded drawings made under the master Fra Filippo Lippi to the experimental and expressive designs for his final paintings. This catalogue reunites the majority of Botticelli's surviving sheets, including several new attributions, discussed in detailed object entries. Essays further highlight the development of the artist's draftsmanship, the broader Florentine culture in which he worked, and his design practices as revealed in new technical analyses of the underdrawings of some of his most renowned paintings. In its focus on little-known and unknown material by one of the best-known artists in the canon, this is a landmark publication in the field of Renaissance art that will be an important reference for years to come. Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Exhibition Schedule: Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (November 18, 2023 - February 11, 2024)

A cinquecento anni dallo svelamento della volta Sistina gli affreschi più celebri di Michelangelo non cessano di stimolare nuove e inedite letture. Secondo un taglio iconografico e iconologico aggiornato all'indagine contestuale, questo volume raccoglie i contributi più significativi degli studiosi che hanno affrontato con tagli diversi e complementari l'interpretazione dei significati del ciclo della Genesi, rivelandone la complessità simbolica e dottrinale, funzionale all'immaginazione creativa di Michelangelo, e il forte impatto comunicativo. I saggi di Antonio Paolucci, Maurizio Calvesi, Silvia Danesi Squarzina, Heinrich Pfeiffer, Thimoty Verdon, Gianluigi Colalucci, Costanza Barbieri, Lucina Vattuone propongono letture fondate sulla cultura agostiniana, sul gioachimismo, sul francescanesimo, sul neoplatonismo e sulla storia delle immagini. Emergono così le profonde radici storico-religiose delle scelte figurative del Buonarroti e dei teologi che lo hanno affiancato. In questa prospettiva, i contenuti giustificano le forme e danno sostanza alle scelte compositive: l'accurata tecnica esecutiva del Giona sopra l'altare, ad esempio, che ha richiesto ben dodici giornate di lavoro, si spiega con la centralità teologica del profeta nell'economia dei significati della Sistina. Completa il volume un'appendice con i risultati inediti delle indagini diagnostiche non invasive sul Ritratto di Michelangelo che mostra i suoi disegni (Amburgo, collezione privata), condotte dalle più importanti istituzioni italiane ed estere (Firenze, Opificio delle Pietre Dure e INOA; Università di Perugia, CNR-ISTM e centro SMAART; Università di Anversa, Dipartimento di Chimica). Ne emergono dati spettacolari che gettano luce non solo sul nodo del problema attributivo, ma rivelano, negli strati pittorici soggiacenti al ritratto, la presenza di un dipinto di Andrea del Sarto raffigurante una Madonna con Bambino e San Giovannino, che i documenti associano inequivocabilmente al committente Pierfrancesco Borgherini, ad Andrea del Sarto, a Michelangelo e a Sebastiano del Piombo.