The Renaissance Artist at Work: From Pisano to Titian (Icon Editions) [Paperback]

Bruce Cole (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 006430129X | ISBN-13: 978-0064301299 | Publication Date: September 21, 1990

This book gives the necessary background for the study and appreciation of Italian painting and sculpture from about 1250 to 1550. It tells how the artists learned their craft, the organization of their workshops, and the guilds they belonged to; how their customers or patrons treated them and where their work was displayed—churches, civic buildings, or private homes. The book discusses how art was made—tempera, oil, panel, canvas, fresco; it surveys the characteristic types of Renaissance art—altarpieces, portraits, tombs, busts, doors fountains, medals, etc.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bruce Cole is Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts at Indiana University. A former Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, he is the author of Giotto and Florentine Painting, The Renaissance Artist at Work, Italian Art, 1250–1500 and other books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (September 21, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006430129X
• ISBN-13: 978-0064301299
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #479,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting collection of essays, May 17, 2002

By 

Greg Munger - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Renaissance Artist at Work: From Pisano to Titian (Icon Editions) (Paperback)

Over the last 30 years there seems to be a greater interest on the part of art historians in the nuts and bolts issues of how art is created. The works of E.H. Gombrich come to mind, or "The Academy and French Painting in the Nineteenth Century", by Albert Boime. This rather disconnected set of essays by Cole examines the material issues facing the Renaissance artist.

What did paintings cost? How was the artist valued? What expectations surrounded the conception and construction of the work of art? How did the original setting differ from our encounter with these works today? These are some of the questions addressed here. This is not a coffee table book, and the illustrations are low quality black and white (at least in the paper back edition).

Like the other book by Cole that I have read, "Titian and Venetian Painting, 1450-1590", I wish this book was twice as long. Many of the questions touched on here are only given a brief answer, but the information that is here is fascinating. I am not an Art Historian, so I can only guess at the authors reputation (now head of the NEA). My sense is that he is one of those historians with a breadth of knowledge that is quite rare in these days of specialization, and that his viewpoint shows a high degree of originality. My only complaint (aside from the 100 or so color illustrations that could have provided more details) is that the writing style is not as graceful as some of the masters of this genre.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Excellent text, horrible pictures, April 5, 2006

By 

Matthew McGuire (Bloomington, IN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Renaissance Artist at Work: From Pisano to Titian (Icon Editions) (Paperback)

Bruce Cole has a well-deserved reputation for high quality scholarship and exposition. This book is an excellent synthesis of current knowledge about the role of the artist in society, his materials, and the types of work he might create.

Sadly, the illustrations accompanying the text are worse than any I've ever seen. They're of unbelievably low quality. If you took a low-quality scanner from the mid-90's, kept it on the 'text' setting instead of 'graphics', you would still get better images than the mess that's in this text. It's more like a fourth-generation mimeograph.

They are basically unusable. And that is unacceptable in an art history text. There is no grayscale - just large blurred black blobs. It's as if a creeping fungus made a home in the book, and refused to be dislodged. The fact that this book is in print as such is an insult. With even pedestrian-quality greyscale images, this would be a fantastic text.