Titian And Venetian Painting, 1450-1590 [Paperback]

Bruce Cole (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813390435 | ISBN-13: 978-0813390437 | Publication Date: September 2000

This up-to-date, well-illustrated, and thoughtful introduction to the life and works of one of the giants of Western Painting also surveys the golden age of Venetian Painting from Giovanni Bellini to Veronese and its place in the history of Western art. Bruce Cole, Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts at Indiana University and author of numerous books on Italian Renaissance art, begins with the life and work of Giovanni Bellini, the principal founder of Venetian Renaissance painting. He continues with the paintings of Giorgione and the young Titian whose work embodied the new Venetian style. Cole discusses and explains all of Titian's major works--portraits, religious paintings, and nudes--from various points of view and shows how Venetian painting of this period differed from painting in Florence and elsewhere in Italy and became a distinct and fully-developed style of its own.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Clearly, elegantly and often brilliantly written, this book is both a contribution to the scholarly literature on Titian and a thoughtful introduction to him and his work." -- Norman Land, , Professor of Art History, University of Missouri at Columbia

"Full of fresh and suggestive insights. A wonderful book which is going to be much in use for some time to come. -- Paul Barolsky, , Commonwealth Professor of Art History, The University of Virginia

"Generations of students of Italian painting will have reason to be grateful to Cole for a well-conceived, highly distinguished book." -- John Pope-Hennessy, Apollo

"In this sensitive and enthusiastic appraisal of color, Cole is at his best.... " -- Burlington Magazine

"Interesting and illuminating, goes further inside the Florentine movement of the early fifteenth century than any book I know." -- Kenneth Clark

"Scholarly and exacting.... An intellectually rigorous and elegant assessment of the evolution of Titian's style, which was startlingly original..." -- Kirkus Reviews

"[G]racefully written.... The strength of the book lies in its evocative descriptions of individual works." -- Choice

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: 280 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813390435
• ISBN-13: 978-0813390437
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,230,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful Introduction to Titian, December 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Titian And Venetian Painting, 1450-1590 (Icon Editions) (Hardcover)

Bruce Cole, the respected historian of Renaissance Italian art, has brought forth yet another highly compelling book, this time illuminating the achievements of the great Venetian painter, Titian. Cole, author of more than 10 books and a connoisseur of the highest order, offers clear and interesting commentary on the style of one of the masters of the Italian Renaissance. By placing Titian in the general context of Western art and the specific context of the golden age of Venetian painting, Cole makes Titian's achievements shine through his discussions of Titian's portraits, religious paintings and nudes. He shows how Venetian style differs from that in other parts of Italy, especially Florence, and how it grew and developed in its distinctive way. Cole explores Titian's contributions to portraiture, his sophisticated use of mythology, the question of drawing in Venetian painting, Titian's use of color, and the artists he influenced.

This book is an elegant and engaging introduction to Titian; it is full of fascinating information and observations not only about Titian but about his times. Cole's explanations of Titian's great works are lucid, sensible, and accessible to general readers and scholars alike. Definitely worth a close look. It is beautifully printed with luscious reproductions. Those in color are reproduced with great fidelity.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The pictures, July 8, 2010

By 

Henry Cohen (Baltimore, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Titian And Venetian Painting, 1450-1590 (Paperback)

I second all the praise that "A Customer" gives to this book, notwithstanding what I am about to say about its pictures. According to the book, it has 119 black and white reproductions and 8 color plates. In fact, in the paperback edition I have, published by Westview Press, the 8 so-called color plates are in black and white too. This doesn't really matter because, even if they were in color, the other 119 are not. Thus, when reading this book, you should have on hand a book of color prints of Titian's work (and, to a lesser extent, of Bellini's, Giorgione's, and a few other artists), or be near the computer to google images. It can be frustrating to read Bruce Cole's descriptions of the colors of a painting and have only a black and white reproduction in front of you.