Search results for ""Officina Libraria""

This book addresses a phenomenon that pervades the field of art history: the fact that English has become a widely adopted language. Art history employs language in a very particular way, one of its most basic aims being the verbal reconstruction of the visual past. The book seeks to shed light on the particular issues that English’s rise to prominence poses for art history by investigating the history of the discipline itself: specifically, the extent to which the European tradition of art historical writing has always been shaped by the presence of dominant languages on the continent. What artistic, intellectual, and historical dynamics drove the pattern of linguistic ascendance and diffusion in the art historical writing of past centuries? How have the immediate, practical ends of writing in a common language had unintended, long-term consequences for the discipline? Were art historical concepts transformed or left behind with the onset of a new lingua franca, or did they often remain intact beneath a shifting veneer of new words? Includes 10 essays in English, four in Italian, and one in German. Text in English, German and Italian.

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The Medici family ruled unofficially and later as dukes the city of Florence and Tuscany, from the end of 14th to the end of the 18th century. Under their patronage the Renaissance was born. The members of this powerful family were able to build their public image in a sophisticated cultural environment where famous artists such as Raphael, Pontormo, Bronzino, Vasari, as well as poets, men of letters, scientists, humanists, were active. Portraits played an important role in this public relations strategy. The portrait types were quite different: from State portraits to family portraits, from those depicting the young heirs of the family name to those of the women that either ruled or played important roles in the dynastic allegiances. In this guide the marvellous works, held in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery and Palazzo Pitti, are presented in chronological order making possible to trace the main stages in the history and genealogy of the Medici family.

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Palazzo Vecchio, which towers over piazza della Signoria, at the centre of Florence, is an iconic building and from the Middle Ages to the Medici family to present day it has been the seat of civic power.Among its most admired features are the marvellous grotesque decorations which animate the walls and vaults of the courtyard and several rooms. Grotesques are a type of wall decoration, in stucco or fresco, often with the addition of gold, that developed in the Renaissance when the vaults of the Domus Aurea in Rome, which were underground (considered grottos hence the name), were rediscovered by artists who drew inspiration from those designs.Palazzo Vecchio's grotesques are lively, extravagant ornaments, generated by the creativity of artists - among whom Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio (1483-1561) and Marco Marchetti da Faenza (ca. 1526-1588) stand out - and they include, birds, flowers, vegetation and many strange creatures that have a mixture of human and animal traits.

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The Book of Tea (1906) by Okakura Kakuzō has long become a classic. Its title notwithstanding, the book is not a manual on tea. Rather it is an essay, better a hymn, to culture, aesthetics and the spirit of tea as a symbol, a paradigm, of the Asian soul. It was created by a passionate Japanese scholar whose life was devoted to renew and spread the values of the East in the same moment in which his own country seemed to deny them in order to embrace Western culture. This new edition has an important apparatus of over 200 notes to explain the contents of the book and supply all the information needed to understand it fully (concepts of Eastern philosophy, history, geography, biographical information), something that so far has never been done. It also contains an important essay by Giancarlo Calza on Okakura and his role to foster intercultural understanding and the development of spirituality through the aesthetics and practice of the tea ceremony as a style of life. Contents: The Cup of Humanity; The Schools of Tea; Taoism and Zennism; The Tea-room; Art Appreciation; Flowers; Tea-masters; Okakura: A Life in Style by Giancarlo Calza

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