The Art of the Renaissance

Art of the Renaissance follows the development of the various Renaissance styles through Italy, across the Alps to France, Germany, the Netherlands, and further to Spain, England, Central Europe, and even to Russia. The author addresses the vast complexities of these national movements clearly, concisely, and insightfully. At the same time, his appreciative understanding of the contemporary - but in his view not truly "Renaissance" - art of northern Europe adds to the reader's comprehension of this enormously prolific period.
The author combines this same understanding and appreciation of the achievement of individual artists in his exploration of lesser-known painters, sculptors, and architects. Those familiar with the great figures of the age - Brunelleschi, Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael - will find this book a fascinating introduction to dozens of their talented contemporaries, who made their own remarkable contributions to the Renaissance movement. The text also includes a number of significant examples of the decorative and so-called minor arts, which the author discusses in great depth.
The text, encyclopedic in format, is enriched with 895 illustrations, 164 in splendid full-page color-plates. A separate catalogue of architecture provides the history of each building, as well as plans and multiple views. There is also an appendix of short biographies of important personalities who influenced the course of Renaissance art.

Bertrand Jestaz is a professor of Renaissance history at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris.