James S. Ackerman
,
Palladio
(Penguin; Viking).
Concise introduction to
the life, works and
cultural background of
the Veneto's greatest
architect. Especially
useful if you're
visiting Vicenza or any
of the villas.
Svetlana Alpers
and Michael Baxandall
, Tiepolo and the
Pictorial Intelligence
(Yale). This brilliant
book analyzes with
exhilarating precision
the way in which Tiepolo
perceived and re-created
the world in his
paintings, and
demolishes the notion
that Tiepolo was merely
a "decorative"
artist. Though they
devote most space to the
frescoes at Würzburg,
Alpers and Baxandall
discuss many of the
Tiepolo paintings in
Venice and the Veneto,
and their revelatory
readings will enrich any
encounter with his art.
The reproductions
maintain Yale's
customary high
standards.
Patricia Fortini
Brown , Venetian
Narrative Painting in
the Age of Carpaccio
(Yale). Rigorously
researched study of a
subject central to
Venetian culture yet
often overlooked in more
general accounts. Fresh
reactions to the works
discussed are combined
with a penetrating
analysis of the ways
they reflect the ideals
of the Republic at the
time. Worth every penny.
Richard Goy , Venice:
The City and its
Architecture (Phaidon).
Published in 1997, this
superb book instantly
became the benchmark.
Eschewing the linear
narrative adopted by
previous writers on the
city's architecture, Goy
goes for a multi-angled
approach, devoting one
part to the growth of
the city and its
evolving technologies,
another to its
"nuclei" (the
Piazza, Arsenale, Ghetto
and Rialto), and the
last to its building
types (palazzi,
churches, etc). The
result is a book that
does full justice to the
richness and density of
the Venetian cityscape -
and the design and
choice of pictures are
exemplary.
Alastair Grieve
, Whistler's Venice
(Yale). Bankrupted after
his libel action against
Ruskin, Whistler took
himself off to Venice to
lick his wounds. He
ended up staying for a
year, having been
inspired by the city to
produce some of his
finest work. Grieve's
methodical and deeply
researched book - yet
another beautifully
produced Venetian title
from Yale - reproduces
the fifty etchings and
one hundred pastels that
Whistler created in that
year, juxtaposing them
with photographs and
other images of the
locales in a way that
elucidates the artist's
way of working, and
builds up an absorbing
portrait of the city in
the late nineteenth
century.
Paul Hills , Venetian
Colour (Yale).
Seductive colour has
always been seen as a
pre-eminent
characteristic of
Venetian painting and
applied art, but this
handsome book, subtitled
"Marble, mosaic,
painting and glass
1250-1550", has
some interesting angles
on a subject you might
have thought had been
exhausted long ago.
Hills discusses the
production of dyes,
pigments and works of
art in the context of
the Republic's
mercantile culture,
relating aspects of
pictorial style to the
social history of
Venetian costume, for
example, and explaining
how black came to be the
most luxurious of hues.
First-class
illustrations, as is
usually the case with
this publisher.
Paul Holberton
, Palladio's Villas
(John Murray). Excellent
survey of the
architectural principles
underlying Palladio's
country houses, and the
social environment
within which they were
created.
Deborah Howard
, The Architectural
History of Venice
(o/p); Jacopo
Sansovino: Architecture
and Patronage in
Renaissance Venice
(Yale); Venice &
the East (Yale). The
former is a fine
introduction to the
subject (and should soon
be back in print), while
the latter's analysis of
the environment within
which Sansovino operated
is of wider interest
than you might think.
Howard's latest book, Venice
& the East , is
a fascinating and
characteristically
rigorous examination of
the ways in which the
fabric of the city was
conditioned by the close
contact between Venice's
merchants and the
Islamic world in the
period 1100-1500. It's a
truism that San Marco
and the Palazzo Ducale
are hybrids of Western
and Islamic styles, but
this splendidly
illustrated study not
only has illuminating
things to say about
those two great
monuments - it makes you
look freshly at the
texture of the whole
city.
Peter Lauritzen
and Alexander Zielcke
, The Palaces of
Venice (Laurence
King, o/p). Lauritzen
knows Venice as
intimately as anyone
currently writing. This
is a rich blend of
social and architectural
history, and Zielcke's
photographs are
outstanding.
Michael Levey
, Painting in
Eighteenth Century
Venice (Yale). On
its appearance in 1959
this book was the first
detailed discussion of
its subject. Now in its
third edition, it's
still the most thorough
exposition of the art of
Venice's last golden
age, though it shows its
age in concentration on
heroic personalities -
Giambattista Tiepolo in
particular.
Ralph Lieberman
, Renaissance
Architecture in Venice
(Abbeville, o/p).
Lieberman illustrates
the complex development
of architecture in
fifteenth- and
sixteenth-century Venice
through a chronological
survey of key buildings,
but annoyingly calls a
halt at 1540.
Authoritative without
being pedantic.
John McAndrew
, Venetian
Architecture of the
Early Renaissance
(o/p). Definitive study
of its subject by one of
the very few writers to
have studied Venice's
buildings with anything
like Ruskin's
concentration. A
beautiful book, but
expensive even
second-hand.
Tom Nichols , Tintoretto
(Reaktion Books). Ever
since Vasari wrote his
life of the artist,
Tintoretto has been
presented as an artist
who flouted all the
conventions of Venetian
painting. This in-depth
study overturns that
somewhat romanticised
notion, to reveal a
figure who was both a
radical and a populist.
By far the best
monograph on Tintoretto
in English.
Filippo Pedrocco
and M.A. Chiara Moretto
Wiel , Titian -
The Complete Paintings
(Thames & Hudson).
The text is worthy
rather than stimulating
(there's a lot of
discussion of technique,
but little social
context), but every
surviving picture in
Titian's colossal oeuvre
is reproduced in colour,
and the interpretations
of individual paintings
are as sound as you'd
expect from two of the
world's leading experts
on the subject.
Terisio Pignatti
and Filippo Pedrocco
, Giorgione
(Rizzoli). Expensive
monograph on the most
enigmatic of the great
Venetian painters. Not
especially acute in its
observations, but very
thorough, very nicely
produced, and better
than the other in-print
titles devoted to
Giorgione.
Sarah Quill , Ruskin's
Venice: The Stones
Revisited (Ashgate).
Prefaced by four brief
but informative essays
on Ruskin and Venice,
the core of this book is
a judicious selection of
short passages from The
Stones of Venice and
other works by Ruskin,
with excellent
illustrations for every
excerpt. Most of the
pictures are crisp
colour photographs of
buildings and
architectural details,
but the book also
includes some of
Ruskin's own
watercolours and
drawings.
David Rosand ,
Painting in
Sixteenth-Century Venice
(Cambridge University
Press). Covers the
century of Giorgione,
Titian, Tintoretto and
Veronese as thoroughly
as most readers will
want; especially good on
the social networks and
artistic conventions
within which the
painters worked.
John Ruskin , The
Stones of Venice .
Enchanting, enlightening
and infuriating in about
equal measure, this is
still the most
stimulating book written
about Venice by a
non-Venetian. Sadly,
you'll have to scour the
second-hand bookshops to
get hold of the full
three-volume edition, as
the only editions in
print are abridgements,
the best of which is
published by Da Capo.
John Steer , A
Concise History of
Venetian Painting
(Thames & Hudson).
Whistle-stop tour of
Venetian art from the
fourteenth to the
eighteenth century.
Skimpy and undemanding,
but a useful aid to
sorting your thoughts
out after the visual
deluge of Venice's
churches and museums,
and the plentiful
pictures come in handy
when your memory needs a
prod.
Anchise Tempestini
, Giovanni Bellini
(Abbeville). Deeply
knowledgeable overview
of the work of the first
great Venetian
Renaissance artist, with
copious full-colour
plates. No other
currently available book
does justice to him.
John Unrau , Ruskin
and St Mark's (o/p).
Ruskin discarded around
600 pages of notes and
drawings of San Marco
when he came to prepare
the text of The
Stones of Venice ;
using this material,
Unrau has produced a
book that is as
illuminating about
Ruskin as it is about
the building. A fine
selection of
watercolours, paintings
and photographs
complements the text.
Ettore Vio
(ed.), St Mark's
Basilica in Venice
(Thames & Hudson).
Edited by the man who is
the current proto
of San Marco (ie the
person in overall charge
of the building's
conservation), this
lusciously illustrated
paperback gives you an
informative close-up
tour of the fabric and
contents of Europe's
most ornate cathedral,
from the carvings of the
façade to the goldwork
of the treasury.
