The Renaissance Print: 1470-1550 [Hardcover]

Dr. David Landau (Author), Peter Parshall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 1994

The illustrative print, and its ability, to be multiply reproduced, has long been regarded as extremely important to the history of art, yet there has been no work published on the subject for 80 years. This book covers the critical years of the development of the art of print-making between about 1470 and 1550 in both southern and northern Europe. The authors examine the topic from a variety of different angles, considering for instance the practicalities behind the production of prints, and the ways in which changes to technical methods affected the making of prints. They look at how prints were distributed to a wider audience than that available to more traditional works of art, and how this affected the content of the prints themselves. The resulting book gives a clear overview of how Renaissance prints of various sorts were made, distributed, acquired and finally used by the public, at a time when printmaking came to be adopted by well-known masters of the art.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This account of Renaissance print-making and -selling includes 335 b&w illustrations and 50 color plates.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Never before has the Renaissance fine print received the type of multifaceted scrutiny elaborated in this superb synthesis. While focusing on the great prints and printmakers of Italy and Germany, the authors have articulated a consideration that rigorously evokes the various graphic techniques, their stylistic qualities and visual ramifications, and the aesthetic and theoretical context in which the prints were produced. Not only is the proximate setting of the prints' production convincingly educed, but the societal milieu of their dissemination, acquisition, and appreciation are also cogently reconstructed. All this is set within an overview that encompasses the rise, efflorescence, and decline of this new artistic medium. This is a work so rich in information, observation, and insight that no collection seriously concerned with the history of the graphic arts of Renaissance culture may dispense with it.
Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New York
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (March 23, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300057393
• ISBN-13: 978-0300057393
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,200,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winner of the 1995 Mitchell Prize for Art History., October 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Renaissance Print: 1470-1550 (Paperback)

We take for granted the proliferation of portable, mass produced images in our culture, but it has been decades since the early history of the mass production of pictures has been dealt with, and Landau and Parshall's book is the most important recent work adding to our understanding of early prints. The volume's scope takes into consideration aesthetics, the art market, techniques and styles, and the historical contexts and themes of prints. These include religious themes, secular and/or antique contents, botanicals, portraits and so on. It is also wonderfully illustrated, making it, frankly, one of the most visually compelling art history books of recent years. It is very scholarly, yet is as attractive as the best exhibition catalogue (in this it reminds one of Michael Baxandall's Limewood Sculptors book, also a Mitchell Prize winner). And at it's probably the best art history bargain out there. I teach a course in Print Culture at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and this is one of my textbooks. -Allan Langdale, UCSC Art History Department