This beautiful series lavishly illustrates the world's major fresco cycles from the early fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Each book also contains a comprehensive text, a biography of the artist, a bibliography, and a glossary.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
These additions to Braziller's new series on Renaissance frescoes follow up works on Giotto, Massaccio, and Raphael (see James Beck, Raphael: The Stanza Della Segnature, LJ 12/93). By focusing on one fresco cycle in each volume, the series allows readers to explore them in-depth. All the book in the series offer a discussion of the art, materials, and techniques of fresco painting and a "Glossary of Fresco Terms." The new works are similar in format, consisting of an essay followed by color plates with commentaries. Starn provides the background necessary for an appreciation of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's fresco cycle in the Sale di Nove (Room of Nine) at the Public Palace in Siena. The author explains the historical and political context of the symbolic murals entitled "The City State Under Tyranny," "The Virtues of Good Government," and "The Good City Republic," showing the thoughts and aspirations of a pre-Renaissance society. The result is accessible to the nonspecialist. Anyone who has puzzled over the meaning of the inscriptions in the fresco will find good reference value here in their English translations. Until the 1870s, the creator of "The Story of the True Cross" at the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo was largely unknown. Since then, it has been hailed as one of Piero della Francesca's masterpieces. Lavin, an innovative art historian, explains the complex placement of the scenes in the cycle and notes its history and significance. Since the reproductions are "taken from transparencies made in the 1970s, before the ultimate phases of color loss had begun," what we may have here are the best color plates available. Both books contain a selected bibliography. Lavin provides some chronologies, including one on the artist, a "Historical Chronology," and an "Art Historical Chronology" showing some important contemporary activities. Art book collections will want to add these titles to the others in the series.
Ellen Bates, New York
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ellen Bates, New York
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Siena revisited,
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This review is from: Ambrogio Lorenzetti: The Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (Great Fresco Cycles of the Renaissance) (Hardcover)
To those who don't have a chance to go to Siena and visit the historical surroundings of Lorenzetti's world, this beautifully illustrated little book offers the most satisfying compensation any art lover could wish for.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the great works in early renaissance secular painting.,
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This review is from: Ambrogio Lorenzetti: The Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (Great Fresco Cycles of the Renaissance) (Hardcover)
Ambrogio Lorenzetti (or Ambruogio Laurati; c. 1290 - June 9, 1348) was an Italian painter of the Sienese school. He was active between approximately from 1317 to 1348. His brother was the painter Pietro Lorenzetti. His work shows the influence of Simone Martini, although more naturalistic. The earliest dated work of the Sienese painter is a Madonna and Child (1319, Museo Diocesano, San Cascianco). His presence was documented in Florentine up until 1321. He would return there after spending a number of years in Siena. The frescoes on the walls of the Hall of the Nine (Sala dei Nove) or Hall of the Peace (Sala della Pace) in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena are one of the masterworks of early renaissance secular painting. The "nine" was the oligarchal assembly of guild and monetary interests that governed the republic. Three walls are painted with frescoes consisting of a large assembly of allegorical figures of virtues in the Allegory of Good Government. In the other two facing panels, Ambrogio weaves panoramic visions of Effects of Good Government on Town and Country, and Allegory of Bad Government and its Effects on Town and Country (also called "Ill-governed Town and Country"). The better preserved "well-governed town and country" is an unrivaled pictorial encyclopedia of incidents in a peaceful medieval "borgo" and coutryside. The first evidence of the existence of the hourglass can be found in one of his paintings. Like his brother, he is believed to have died of bubonic plague 1348. Giorgio Vasari includes a biography of Lorenzetti in his Lives.
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