Italian Frescoes: The Flowering of the Renaissance 1470-1510 (v. 2) [Hardcover]

Steffi Roettgen (Author), Antonio Quattrone (Photographer), Fabio Lensini (Photographer), Russell Stockman (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0789202212 | ISBN-13: 978-0789202215 | Publication Date: October 17, 1997 | Edition: 1st U.S. Edition

This is the second volume of a survey of the surviving Italian Renaissance frescoes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Steffi Roettgen's first volume, Italian Frescoes: The Early Renaissance, 1400-1470, was called "by far the finest book on the subject" by Everett Fahy, chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If this second volume, focusing on the Renaissance from 1470 to 1510, is even more beautiful, it is because the artists represented here--including Boticelli, Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi, Perugino, and Fra Angelico--represent, as the subtitle puts it, "the flowering of the Renaissance." The 470-page book, which documents fresco cycles by more than a score of artists in 16 different locations, is organized by place, with each chapel, sacristy, or cloister treated separately, in its own chapter. The mostly uncaptioned color plates fill the large pages in a carefully organized sequence, according to maps of the buildings (or ceilings or walls) that are shaded to show each cycle of paintings as it is pictured. Roettgen's text, translated by the excellent Russell Stockman, is masterly--clear and authoritative, descriptive and interpretive--but the success of Roettgen's great undertaking also depends largely on the photographs by Antonio Quattrone, primarily, and Fabio Lensini. Quattrone in some cases has captured the frescoes' balance, color, and realism--and their lovely details--with the kind of clarity that no one has brought to them before. His lighting is shadowless, his camera centered and still. These remarkable photographs give the reader a privileged view instead of the dim, squinting one we normally have, from below. It's almost like being on the scaffold with the artists themselves. --Peggy Moorman

Product Details

• Hardcover: 471 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press; 1st U.S. Edition edition (October 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789202212
• ISBN-13: 978-0789202215
• Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 11.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #375,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #95 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Byzantine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE ABSOLUTE BEST EVER, January 8, 2002

By 

"punkwee" (Glendale, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Italian Frescoes: The Flowering of the Renaissance 1470-1510 (v. 2) (Hardcover)

These books deserve a 1000 rating, never have these frescoes been covered this well by anyone. The people who have seen these books would agree they are beyond superb. I have seen some of these frescoes and you cant even get behind the altars to get a dead head on shot and most churches wont let you use a flash for photography.

Even if you could use a flash you would never get the brightness of diffuse illumination these books have captured so well, crisp but all the subtle color blends are captured.

These books allow you to see some details you would not see standing in the churches unless you had binoculars,even then the angle would cause distortion.

The color accuracy is great, it is too bad it is not cost effective to print on a satin surface paper as this would provided some of the glow effect real frescoes have, the sheen surface is unique to fresco alone and hard to reproduce.

Credit not only goes to the author and photgrapher but to Abbeville press for stepping up to the plate, this would have been a publishing risk,and for Abbeville to back such a venture with such outstanding quality puts them at the top of the stack in the world of Art book publishing.

These periods of art will never be re-captured, nor will patrons or artists ever tackle projects of the scope found here. This art represents one of the outstanding moments in human evolution. The treatment of fresco at this level is long overdue as most art books cover oil painting, drawing, pastel, printmaking, and sculpture.

I should also mention the great job they did in selecting artists, with all due respect to the "BIG M" , (Mr.Michaelangelo, the vaticans most abused poster boy ),it is great that other outstanding artists from this period finally are allowed to get out of The Big M's shadow in the publishing world. (For every one book about Fillipino Lippi, there are 50 about Marble Mikey, I love the guy,...TOP CHISEL...TOP BRUSH but his fame has left a lot of other good artists ignored by publishers when it comes to fresco,Raphael gets covered a lot, but never the Hall of Constantine, like Romano did a hack job...)

TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE FRESCOES AND THESE BOOKS, PLEASE WRITE TO ABBEVILLE PUBLISHING AND DR. STEFFI ROTTGEN AND SUGGEST THEY CONTINUE INTO THE EARLY, MID, AND LATE BAROQUE AND EARLY NEO-CLASSICAL STYLE FRESOES IN ITALY. MANY OF THESE PALACES ARE NOW CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC SO THE WONDERFUL FRESCOES WILL NEVER BE SEEN, THE ONLY HOPE WOULD BE THAT ABBEVILLE OR SOMEONE LIKE THEM WOULD TAKE UP THE CAUSE.

We need
1) Pitti Palace -Pietro Da Cortona rooms and The Hercules room
NO PHOTO TAKING IS ALLOWED
2) The Altieri Palace - Carlo Maratti,and freinds
3) Barberini Palace - Pietro Da Cortona (Details)
4) The Borghese Palace
5) The Pamphilli Palace and Dore
6) Maybe Luca Girodano at Medici in Florence
7) Farnese Palace
8) Some Conca, Chiari, etc.
there are a whole truckload of fresco's from Baroque Rome
9) some --- Venice, Balogna, and Naples(Tiepolo, Veronese, and Tintoretto are covered in a lot of other books).

These books are well worth the price, keep them coming Steffi!!!

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best art photography I've ever seen!, May 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Italian Frescoes: The Flowering of the Renaissance 1470-1510 (v. 2) (Hardcover)

This book (and it's predecessor -"The Early Renaissance")provides a comprehensive and easily approachable - not to mention magisterial - review of the art of fresco painting. The text is authoritative and should satisfy both expert and neophyte alike - but the glory of the book is the colour photographs by Antonio Quattrone. I've been collecting art books for nearly 50 years and have never seen colour photographs to match his magnificent work.For those who are unable to see these frescoes in situ, their beauty - and brilliant colour - will come as a revelation.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary!, January 18, 2004

By 

Rick Kaneen "PrPro" (Tucson, Az USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Italian Frescoes: The Flowering of the Renaissance 1470-1510 (v. 2) (Hardcover)

If you've ever stood in Florence's Santa Maria Novella,looked up at the walls to either side of the altar, and wanted to know more...this book and it's companion volume are exactly what you would wish for. These books are beyond description, both for the quality of their photography and the background and interpretation of the fresco cycles they present. As another reviewer said, please - produce a few more of these beautiful books covering other Italian fresco work!