In this dramatic journey through religious and artistic history, R. A. Scotti traces the defining event of a glorious epoch: the building of St. Peter's Basilica. Begun by the ferociously ambitious Pope Julius II in 1506, the endeavor would span two tumultuous centuries, challenge the greatest Renaissance masters—Michelangelo, Raphael, and Bramante—and enrage Martin Luther. By the time it was completed, Shakespeare had written all of his plays, the Mayflower had reached Plymouth—and Rome had risen with its astounding basilica to become Europe's holy metropolis. A dazzling portrait of human achievement and excess, Basilica is a triumph of historical writing.
This volume discusses the important, mainly Roman, buildings at the east end of the Corinthian Agora; the Julian Basilica and the Southeast Building, the South Basilica (immediately behind the South Stoa), and the Mosaic House adjoining it. The Southeast Building is described first in its present state, and then as it must have looked in its two main periods of use, soon after 44 B.C. and in the second quarter of the 1st century A.D. It was probably known in ancient times as the Tabularium or Library of Corinth. The adjoining Julian Basilica was, with the South Basilica, built about A.D. 40; the interior colonnades of both were rebuilt in marble in the Hadrianic period. These basilicas have a cryptoporticus on the ground floor and on the main floor an interior colonnade supporting a clerestory and three exedras. Detailed descriptions of each building are followed by a reconstruction of the pair and by a comparative discussion of floor plans. Finally, the Mosaic House is discussed and analysis of the mosaics date it about 200 A.D.
The church that the Venetians built to house the body of St. Mark, taken by them from Alexandria, is famous the world over. They spared no expense, and employed the most skilled artisans, to create a monument to their faith in their patron saint and to their commercial and artistic glory. Mosaics, marbles, pavements, sculptures, icons and decorations are unrivalled in their sumptuousness and as examples of Byzantine art at its apex. With 133 high-quality color photographs, including many details and many full-page illustrations, this book provides complete documentation of the history and decorative program of the Basilica. It will appeal to those who are interested in Venice, in Byzantine art, in mosaics, pavements, the decorative arts, and Church history.
An in-depth archaeological report featuring graffiti found during a recent excavation at the Ancient Greek city of Smyrna. The graffiti published in this richly-illustrated volume were discovered during an excavation of the Roman basilica in the Ancient Greek city of Smyrna, known today as Izmir, which is situated on the Aegean coast of modern Turkey. The project, which began in 2003, has unearthed a multitude of graffiti and drawings encompassing a wide range of subjects and interests, including local politics, nautical vessels, sex, and wordplay. Each graffito artifact holds the potential for vast historical and cultural data, rescued in this volume from the passage of time and razing ambitions of urban development. Given the city’s history, the potential wealth of knowledge to be gleamed from these discoveries is substantial: Smyrna has an uninterrupted history of settlement since the Neolithic–Copper ages, and remains today a major city and Mediterranean seaport at the crossroads of key trade routes. The present volume provides comprehensive editions of the texts, descriptions of the drawings, and an extensive introduction to the subjects of the graffiti, how they were produced, and who was responsible for them. A complete set of color photographs is included.
"As he entered his seventies, the great Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo despaired that his productive years were past. Anguished by the death of friends and discouraged by the loss of commissions to younger artists, this supreme painter and sculptor began carving his own tomb. It was at this unlikely moment that fate intervened to task Michelangelo with the most ambitious and daunting project of his long creative life. 'Michelangelo, God's Architect' is the first book to tell the full story of Michelangelo's final two decades, when the peerless artist refashioned himself into the master architect of St. Peter's Basilica and other major buildings. When the Pope handed Michelangelo control of the St. Peter's project in 1546, it was a study in architectural mismanagement, plagued by flawed design and faulty engineering. Assessing the situation with his uncompromising eye and razor-sharp intellect, Michelangelo overcame the furious resistance of Church officials to persuade the Pope that it was time to start over. In this richly illustrated book, leading Michelangelo expert William Wallace sheds new light on this least familiar part of Michelangelo's biography, revealing a creative genius who was also a skilled engineer and enterprising businessman. The challenge of building St. Peter's deepened Michelangelo's faith, Wallace shows. Fighting the intrigues of Church politics and his own declining health, Michelangelo became convinced that he was destined to build the largest and most magnificent church ever conceived. And he was determined to live long enough that no other architect could alter his design."--Provided by publisher.
The Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame contains one of the largest collections of late nineteenth-century French stained glass outside of France. The French Gothic-inspired church has forty-four large stained glass windows containing two hundred and twenty scenes. Today, more than 100,000 visitors tour the basilica each year to admire its architecture or participate in the beautiful liturgies. Honoring both the Sacred Heart and the Virgin Mary, the vibrant windows have, for more than a century, drawn visitors and worshippers alike into a conversation with the art and faith found in the windows. This informative and conveniently sized guidebook tells the unique story of the windows: the improbable creation of a glassworks by cloistered Carmelite nuns in LeMans, France, and their stained glass that so perfectly illuminated the late nineteenth-century French Catholic spirituality of the Congregation of Holy Cross, who established the University of Notre Dame. The words of Father Edward Sorin, CSC, founder of the university, are featured throughout the text. He saw the basilica and its windows as an avenue for teaching this spirituality. The book describes the windows according to their location in the building, from the narthex at the entrance to the Lady Chapel behind the altar. Full-color photographs provide a detailed view of the scenes found in each window. These photos are accompanied by informed commentary on the historical and theological importance of the windows, the iconography of featured saints, and how they illuminate the work of the Holy Cross to educate both mind and spirit. Stories in Light is an easy-to-read book written for all who visit the basilica, including faculty, students, alumni, and friends and family of Notre Dame, and for readers everywhere who want to know more about the rich history and heritage of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart's stained glass.
Architects and artists have always acknowledged over the centuries that Rome is rightly called the 'eternal city'. Rome is eternal above all because it was always young, always 'in its prime'. Here the buildings that defined the West appeared over more than 2000 years, here the history of European architecture was written. The foundations were laid even in ancient Roman times, when the first attempts were made to design interiors and thus make space open to experience as something physical. And at that time the Roman architects also started to develop building types that are still valid today, thus creating the cornerstone of later Western architecture. In it Rome's primacy remained unbroken -- whether it was with old St Peter's as the first medieval basilica or new St. Peter's as the building in which Bramante and Michelangelo developed the High Renaissance, or with works by Bernini and Borromini whose rich and lucid spatial forms were to shape Baroque as far as Vienna, Bohemia and Lower Franconia, and also with Modern buildings, of which there are many unexpected pearls to be found in Rome. All this is comprehensible only if it is presented historically, i. e. in chronological sequence, and so the guide has not been arranged topographically as usual but chronologically.This means that one is not led in random sequence from a Baroque building to an ancient or a modern one, but the historical development is followed successively. Every epoch is preceded by an introduction that identifies its key features. This produces a continuous, lavishly illustrated history of the architecture of Rome -- and thus at the same time of the whole of the West. Practical handling is guaranteed by an alphabetical index and detailed maps, whose information does not just immediately illustrate the historical picture, but also makes it possible to choose a personal route through history.
