An introduction to 15th century Italian painting and the social history behind it, arguing that the two are interlinked and that the conditions of the time helped fashion distinctive elements in the painter's style.
This is the first major book to present a panorama of Italian painting from 1797 to 1900, placing it firmly in the mainstream of art history of the nineteenth century. Ottocento reveals the historical context for nineteenth-century Italian painting and presents major works by important Italian artists who are little known outside their native land.
This book is a panoramic view of the richest 300 years of Italian art: the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which saw the creation of a constellation of masterpieces of painting and sculpture that has influenced art history for generations. The 1500s saw the era of the great Renaissance masters da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo, as well as the innovators of the mannerist style, del Sarto and Pontormo, and brilliant painters from the Venetian school including Giorgione, Titian, and Lotto. The northern artistic schools arose in the 1600s, led by Carracci, Reni, Guercino, and Domenichino. Included here are works by the revolutionary Caravaggio. Papal Rome is well represented by Bernini and Pietro da Cortona. The 1700s feature landscape artists including Canaletto, Bellotto, and Guardi, and from the Rococo period, Tiepolo and Gandolfi with sculptures by Canova and Giani.