Louis de Carmontelle was an eighteenth-century French draftsman, painter, and garden designer. In 1783, he began painting a series of panoramas on translucent paper that, when cranked through a backlit viewing box gave viewers the experience of journ...

Fully revised and updated to include many major new pieces, as well as the more familiar masterpieces that millions of visitors have become acquainted with over the years, this superb volume presents a visually stunning journey through the unique col...

From antiquity to the Enlightenment, astrology, magic, and alchemy have always been considered important tools in unravelling the mysteries of nature and human destiny. As a result of the West's exposure to the astrological beliefs of Arab philosophe...

Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806) was a French painter whose manner is distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism, as well as a prolific output – he produced more than 550 paintings. One of his most striking pieces, "The Fountain...

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, three life-sized marble statues of women were found near Portici on the Bay of Naples. This momentous discovery led to further exploration of the site, which was soon identified as the ancient city of Hercu...

During the late sixteenth-century, successful Italian artist Federico Zuccaro (c. 1541-1609) created one of the period's most important series of drawings – twenty large sheets that depict the early life of his older brother Taddeo (1529-1566). Publi...

Greek painted pottery from the fourth century BC is one of the largest and most remarkable bodies of theatrically informed material that still survives. "Pots and Plays" is a thorough and insightful re-evaluation of over 100 Greek vases – mostly from...

It is often assumed that reading about the lives of artists enhances our understanding of their work – and that their work will reveal to us something about them – but the relationship between biography and art is rarely that simple. "The Life and th...

An intriguing and richly illustrated analysis of the symbolic imagery found in gardens throughout history, this work features dedicated mailing to targeted art and gardening related media and organisations. This superbly illustrated volume presents r...

This insightful volume explores the use of imitation and the modern cult of originality through a consideration of the disparate fates of two Venetian painters – the canonized master Titian (c. 1488-1576) and his artistic heir, the little known Padov...