Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture

Amazon.com

Filippo Brunelleschi's design for the dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence remains one of the most towering achievements of Renaissance architecture. Completed in 1436, the dome remains a remarkable feat of design and engineering. Its span of more than 140 feet exceeds St Paul's in London and St Peter's in Rome, and even outdoes the Capitol in Washington, D.C., making it the largest dome ever constructed using bricks and mortar. The story of its creation and its brilliant but "hot-tempered" creator is told in Ross King's delightful Brunelleschi's Dome.

Both dome and architect offer King plenty of rich material. The story of the dome goes back to 1296, when work began on the cathedral, but it was only in 1420, when Brunelleschi won a competition over his bitter rival Lorenzo Ghiberti to design the daunting cupola, that work began in earnest. King weaves an engrossing tale from the political intrigue, personal jealousies, dramatic setbacks, and sheer inventive brilliance that led to the paranoid Filippo, "who was so proud of his inventions and so fearful of plagiarism," finally seeing his dome completed only months before his death. King argues that it was Brunelleschi's improvised brilliance in solving the problem of suspending the enormous cupola in bricks and mortar (painstakingly detailed with precise illustrations) that led him to "succeed in performing an engineering feat whose structural daring was without parallel." He tells a compelling, informed story, ranging from discussions of the construction of the bricks, mortar, and marble that made up the dome, to its subsequent use as a scientific instrument by the Florentine astronomer Paolo Toscanelli. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

Ross King has a knack for explaining complicated processes in a manner that is not only lucid but downright intriguing. . . . Fascinating." (Los Angeles Times)

By all accounts, Filippo Brunelleschi, goldsmith and clockmaker, was an unkempt, cantankerous, and suspicious man-even by the generous standards according to which artists were judged in fifteenth-century Florence. He also designed and erected a dome over the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore-a feat of architectural daring that we continue to marvel at today-thus securing himself a place among the most formidable geniuses of the Renaissance. At first denounced as a madman, Brunelleschi literally reinvented the field of architecture amid plagues, wars, and political feuds to raise seventy million pounds of metal, wood, and marble hundreds of feet in the air. Ross King's captivating narrative brings to life the personalities and intrigue surrounding the twenty-eight-year-long construction of the dome, opening a window onto Florentine life during one of history's most fascinating eras.

Customer Reviews:

Just what I needed on the Dome in Florence.......2007-08-27

This slim volume contains a lot of detailed information - both on the construction of the dome, and on the politics and rivalries behind the scenes. It is well presented and makes for an absorbing read.
The drawings of the unique hoisting equipment developed by Brunelleschi showed that he was as much an engineer as an architect.
I'll be visiting the dome this fall and now have a wealth of information to make my tour more meaningfull.

A Thinker's Book.......2007-07-23

Some books are for cruising,easy reading with the mind in overdrive, even serious books like King's Judgement of Paris, the reading of which brought me to this book. Yes I know it should have been the other way around. I had picked this text up a few times in my bookstore strolls, but always was tempted elsewhere. Then I read that fine work on the birth of Impressionism and its Hercules like incunabula strangulation of the python of Beaux Arts . It was a wowser!! and I wanted a bit more of this author's breezy erudition. Kind of like a great graduate class with that perfect professor; so I went back and bought the "Dome." Well, it was no smoothie. Yes this earlier book has the artists achieving grand feats, there is the rivalry of big egos, there is even the conflict(inevitable) of creative minds mostly in agreement. But it does not have all the same zip as Paris. Maybe because with the passage of time the bits and pieces of these rivalries have been obscured , darkened like Michaelangelo's chapel by all the years smudges and wisps of smoke until when we clean them up, they no longer are what we have come to treasure. The physical difficulty, the inventiveness, the sheer bravado of construction at great height are a big part of this book. To me the tools are so many large ratchets and socket wrenches. Then too, there is the amor loci of architecture. How many copies of the Parthenon have we seen, and yet they are just not the Acropolis. So the Duomo. It is difficult to envision the redtiled Florentine skyline elsewhere. But the objects of Manet, Degas, Cezanne are transportable and have become loved items. Certainly the physical achievement of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Flowers far surpasses that of The Alba Madonna, but Raphael is after all with us and as has been said the near dear drives off the distant beloved. So I guess the subject cannot carry all the discussion of the mechanical wow. I am glad I took the course, learned a lot, but would be cautious in whom I would tell to just go ahead, you'll love it.

Can culture be thrilling?.......2007-06-27

I find books about engineering, art and architecture more interesting when they are written as cliff-hangers. 'Brunelleschi's Dome' by Ross King is one of them. As are his 'Michelangelo and the Pope's ceiling' and King's latest 'The Judgement of Paris'.
Superbly documented and written with great speed, they kept me reading instead of looking at the real thing. Coming back to the real things I find myself looking through different eyes!
If you like this type of reading, be sure to look for 'The Lighthouse Stevensons' by Bella Bathurst (HarperCollins, 1999) and 'St Peter's' by Keith Miller (Profile Books, 2007)!

great read.......2007-05-14

a well researched and very readable account of a staggering masterpiece, which at the time was considered impossible to build and of its creation and creator.

Read this book before you go to Firenze!.......2007-05-13

I often give a copy of this book to friends planning a trip to Italy... A quick read and a marvelous story about the intrigue...everything about renaissance Italy was an intrigue!... and history surrounding the building of the dome for il Duomo...I could almost feel Brunellschi climbing the stairs to the top dome with me...
This, and "Michaelangelo, The Popes Ceiling" also by Ross King, ought to be required reading for any student of history or anyone going to Italia... they breath life into Italian history.

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

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Calculations are only as good as your numbers
Pants on fire?
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

The Lives of the Artists (Oxford World's Classics)

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A must for any art historian
Works and lives of great masters by their contemporary
Mainly a Scholar's Tool
Magnanimous Homage to Giants of Italian Art!
A great classic

The Lives of the Artists (Oxford World's Classics)
Giorgio Vasari
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 019283410X

Book Description

These biographies of the great quattrocento artists have long been considered among the most important of contemporary sources on Italian Renaissance art. Vasari, who invented the term "Renaissance," was the first to outline the influential theory of Renaissance art that traces a progression
through Giotto, Brunelleschi, and finally the titanic figures of Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, and Raphael. This new translation, specially commissioned for the World's Classics series, contains thirty-six of the most important lives and is fully annotated.

Customer Reviews:

A must for any art historian.......2007-03-08

This book was a text for a grad school seminar I had. After nearly 500 years, Vasari remains the best "eyewitness" to the lives and works of his contemporary artists. Although he does take some liberties, such as trying to fit many artists into the traditional hero mold of child prodigy/discovered by master/quickly surpasses master, he also gives us a glimpse into the glorious time that shaped so many artistic geniuses.

Works and lives of great masters by their contemporary.......2006-08-06

"Do you admire a beautiful tower resounding with sacred sound?
By my design this tower also reached for the stars.
But I am Giotto, why cite such deeds?
My name alone is worth a lengthy ode."
[From the Live of Giotto di Bondone]
Classic masterpiece containing selection of lives of famous Italian masters of art, written by their (almost) conterporary. This work is tedious and difficult to read at times (Vasari is describing at length all importatnt works of old masters). But still, this account is valuable for particular details about techniques used by old masters or condidtions under which their masterpieces were created... Kind regards, Mario.

Mainly a Scholar's Tool.......2005-05-10

Vasari's classic text is well written (translated, I guess I should say) but extremely tiresome. For nearly every artist he simply lists their works, and rarely with more analysis than by describing them as "life-like" or "beautiful." For example, here is what he says about Titian's Assumption of the Virgin in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice, one of his most famous and celebrated paintings: "He did a panel for the main altar containing Our Lady ascending into heaven, with the twelve apostles standing below her and watching her ascent, but since this work was painted on canvas and perhaps poorly cared for, little of it can be seen." That's it. The only exception to his utter factual tediousness is Michelangelo's Life, where, although he goes into almost no description of the works themselves besides his characteristic fulsomeness, he does provide some interesting anecdotes. If you are looking to understand and analyze Renaissance art than this book will not help you. If you are looking to engage in scholarly debate over the origins and documentations of the discussed works then you should probably read the original, unedited version in Italian anyway.

Magnanimous Homage to Giants of Italian Art!.......2005-02-15

Vasari's LIVES has lived for over 450 years, and it's easy to see why! From Cimabue to Titian, he covers (in this edition)over 40 artists during about a 250 year period! A great artist himself, Vasari spares no superlatives in describing the work and lives of these individuals.They are just about all "most excellent", and produced titanic painting, sculpture, and architecture. He claims (erroneouly, according to the editors) that one murdered his rival, and definitely was not a nice guy. But the rest are generally given the royal treatment. Oddly,Botticelli seems a tad slighted. The Big Three, Leonardo,Raphael, and Michaelangelo are practically bathed in the light of the devine!.Many anecdotes are mentioned, which give real life and sometimes fun to these Olympians. Plus, discussions of the progress and styles/ techniques which come full flower with these Big Three.

A great classic .......2005-01-09

Vasari is a pleasure to read. His love of his subject his understanding of art his appreciation of those greater than him all make the work inspiring. He writes the lives of the artists, and in the course of this tells the story of Renaissance Art. He begins with Cimabue and in this work finishes with Titian. His climax is in his chapter on his friend, teacher, and model for all that is great as painter, sculptor, architect Michelangelo. Vasari has a technical understanding of painting and so this work is rich in its description not only of the artists' but of their greatest works. It also has anecdotal richness, gossip and as I understand quite a bit of apocryphal material which later art historians will dispute. Nonetheless it is a prime source document containing information about the lives of artists who otherwise would be largely forgotten. But above all I think the work is a tribute to the creative spirit of the artist in service of the Divine .
The Penguin edition as I understand it contains only a small proportion( though the most important)of the lives. It is nonetheless highly recommended not only for those who will study this artist or visit the sites at which it is located but for all who are interested in the human spirit in creative struggle and triumph.

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Correggio
David Ekserdjian
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300072996

Book Description

The significance of Leonardo da Vinci's contributions to the medium of painting are highlighted in this collection celebrating his works, including The Last Supper and The Virgin on the Rocks. This introduction avoids myths about da Vinci and presents a chronology of his life, a critical essay on his work, and selections of his drawings that support the claim that, above all other media, painting was da Vinci's primary medium. The flurry of his artistic activity and the importance of his work are showcased in this updated introduction to his life and art.

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Good and bad
Soleri: Architecture as Human Ecology
A very good, but flawed, monograph

Soleri: Architecture as Human Ecology
Antonietta Iolanda Lima
Manufacturer: Monacelli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1580931030

Book Description

As much visionary as architect, Paolo Soleri, born in Turin in 1919, worked with Frank Lloyd Wright in the late 1940s and went on to develop his own organically expressive architecture. Since 1935, he has been involved almost exclusively with the design of alternative urban planning models. By 1970 he had designed thirty "Arcologies," his term for a series of high-density, fantastically unreal megastructures for up to six million inhabitants. This comprehensive monograph, the first on Soleri to be published in the United States, follows his career through a presentation of drawings, sketches, and built work. Since settling in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1956, Soleri has made a lifelong commitment to research and experimentation in urban planning, establising the Cosanti Foundation.

Customer Reviews:

Good and bad.......2007-05-03

I really wanted to like this book more than I did, because Soleri's spaced out "arcologies" have always appealed to me with their somewhat plastic shapes - a product of their concrete construction methods - and somewhat appropriate appearance in certain settings - such as the Arizona desert. The book's many drawings and photos are welcome documentation of Soleri's life works and mostly unrealized dreams...

Alas, what rubbed me the wrong way was the whole text. Soleri, or at least the author of this retrospective, seems to have indulged in an excessive amount of self-consciously "profound", yet terribly vapid, even sophomoric theorizing, intellectualizing and/or rationalizing every aspect of the designs... It becomes, after a hundred pages or so, quite tedious.

This text seems a virtual caricature of academic BS and group-think, as often encountered in faculty lounges these days as in undergraduate dorms. It comes complete with largely irrelevant but obligatory digs at materialistic "American culture", the old "Star Wars" ABM defense scheme, etc. But what is sadly lacking is much coherent "form follows function" argument, so essential to truly ecological or organic design; instead, one gets the feeling that rationalization followed whim, with precious little regard for function whatsoever.

But hey, dude, maybe it's just me. No doubt the profundity here would have been more apparent had I recently scored some good hash...

Soleri: Architecture as Human Ecology.......2003-12-17

Paolo Soleri, an octogenarian architect from Turin, has spent the past half-century in the Arizona desert struggling (with unpaid help from willing disciples) to realize Arcosanti, a prototype settlement for 7000 people. Its ponderous concrete vaults and boxy volumes already resemble an unsightly ruin: the product of an ageing hippy with little to say to the present or future. For the rest, there is a mass of visionary drawings, impassioned polemics, and the ubiquitous sand-cast bells, which are sold alongside beads and hash pipes in "craft" stores. For Soleri's loyal fans, here is a massive, reverent, plentifully illustrated account by a starry-eyed admirer from Palermo. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

A very good, but flawed, monograph.......2003-08-02

Paolo Soleri has been an important urban theorist for 30 years and a creative architect for over 55 years. This monograph is a long-overdue and well deserved examination of his career and ideas. The text is thorough and interesting. The book's only failing is in it's photography. The author apparently took many of the Arcosanti photos...and it shows. Some of the images are not sharp; others are poorly lit; some are ill-chosen views. Approx. a dozen reveal the long shadow of the photographer! I could not find photos of the Glendale amphitheater or of the Scottsdale bridge models. The photo of the chapel at the Arizona Cancer Center was quite small. However, I am thankful that a book of this scope and ambition (though flawed) has documented the fascinating career of Paolo Soleri.

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Maybe it's just me
A winner...!
Wow
Flying above and beyond
Renaissance Leadership

Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind
Charles Nicholl
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0143036122

Book Description

As the success of blockbusters like The Da Vinci Code shows, the incomparable and enigmatic Leonardo da Vinci continues to captivate. In this widely acclaimed biography, Charles Nicholl uncovers the man behind the myth of the “Renaissance master.” Painter, sculptor, inventor, draftsman, anatomist—Leonardo's life and career encompassed so many of the creative achievements that made his era spectacular. Nicholl skillfully captures it all while tracing his subject's journey from an illegitimate child in Tuscany to his service with some of the most powerful families of Renaissance Europe. Rich with historical background, packed with black-and-white and color illustrations, and utterly engaging, this is the definitive look at a figure whose genius reaches out to us through the centuries.

Customer Reviews:

Maybe it's just me.......2007-02-15

There are more life details in this book than I ever wanted to read. This made for a bit of a slow, boring read. I'm still looking for a good biography on Da Vinci.

A winner...!.......2006-04-03

It has been a long time since my survey of art history and architecture classes, and so, in preparation for a trip to Italy, it seemed like a good idea to read about the great Leonardo. This book served as a window in my planning as well as a way to gain greater understanding of the five-hundred years worth of tradition and scholarly debate surrounding da Vinci.

First of all it is important to say that Charles Nicholl has done a fantastic job of ferreting out obscure documents and records that give us facts and clues to untangle the misinformation about Leonardo da Vinci. One has a sense of being in the hands of a master of the art of separating wheat and chaff, as Nicholl sifts until we, the readers, are given only that which is worthwhile. The rest lightly falls away.

As a result, the reader gets to know much about da Vinci's family, his hometown and early years; much about his training and his methods of working; much about his likes and dislikes--in short, we get to know da Vinci the man as well as da Vinci the artist. Nicholl discusses the developmental impact of da Vinci's illegitimacy and its possible influence upon his subsequent choices in subject and themes as an artist. While not shying away from these or other details of da Vinci's personal life, he does so in a way that these serve as windows into the man and his work.

The book is well-illustrated, especially so for what is not a coffee table book-it has two generous selections of color plates and a profusion of black and white photography as well, that helps the reader see the interrelationships between da Vinci's well known and lesser known works. While there is an excellent quantity of information about da Vinci's speculative explorations of anatomy and his work on machines ranging from warfare to flying, the book centers upon his brilliance in the art of painting and drawing.

There is a first-rate overview of each of the best known works, and much to help the reader appreciate the background of the Mona Lisa and Last Supper, as well as the Annunciation, the Adoration, the Madonna of the Rocks, and the different versions of the Virgin with St. Anne, et al. The antecedents, models, and borrowings from one work to another provide a harmony of understanding. Many of the less well known works are also brought to the fore so that the reader has a larger sense of da Vinci's oeuvre.

The account of the concealed fresco of the Palazzo Vecchio is gripping, with the research still-evolving; it is the kind of chronicle that sends the reader looking for supplementary information. Nicholl relates the friction between the two Florentine geniuses, da Vinci and Michelangelo, showing a clash of temperament that fleshes out the character of both men.

One comes away from the book with a profound sense that da Vinci, while adding beauty and wonder to the lives of many, and while exhibiting a boundless curiosity about all things, was nonetheless a man whose life was also fraught with a self-imposed distancing from others, and a measure of melancholy.

Throughout, the interrelationship between da Vinci and his contemporary Renaissance artists, as well as political leaders, is so well presented that the reader is given a large tapestry of the life and times of da Vinci.

If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction.

Wow.......2006-01-30

I haven't read many biogrpahies on Leonardo Da Vinci. In fact this is the first one but based on other reviews here and from what I've read in the book myself - this has to be one of the very best Biography book on Leonardo Da Vinci, so I would highly recommend it to all.

Flying above and beyond.......2006-01-06

Although lengthy enough to use as a satisfactory doorstop, it was worth the reading. Not only a biography of Da Vinci's life, the author traces the evolution (sometimes convolutions)of his thought processes, as well as the social background of his more famous artistic works. Nicholl's inclusion of information on the subsequent history and restorations of paintings helped to anchor it in the present. While Fruedian interpretations are always murky at best (as oft pointed out: sometimes a cigar is just a cigar) their inclusion was also entertaining. Highly recommended - an excellent launching into the 1400's.

Renaissance Leadership.......2005-08-26

Renaissance leadership created by the d'Medici but was propelled by da Vinci from drawings to designs to catapults. "His brillance must have been noticed but one senses a note of exclusion: a young man who doesn't quite fit." (p. 167) Da Vinci was different. The book analyzes in detail the major portion of his work as a study of art and circumstance. From birth to death, the book folds itself around every aspect, every friend and every patron of da Vinci's art. The book is exhaustive. it shows what a world a half-millennium in the past could have been. The author suggests that world was scruffy but sophisticated at the same time. Eric J. Lindblom PhD Harvard

The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed

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Intense reading.
Stick to magazines, Ms. Forden
I love this book
Quality Product, Quality Book
A Passion for Fashion...

The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed
Sara G. Forden
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060937750
Release Date: 2001-10-09

Amazon.com

A world-famous luxury brand, financial skullduggery, vicious family quarrels ending in a sensational murder: the Gucci story just couldn't be juicier, and former Women's Wear Daily correspondent Sara Gay Forden does full justice to its gossipy appeal. Guccio Gucci opened his first leather-goods store in Florence in 1921, but it was his son Aldo who expanded the company overseas and made products like the Gucci loafer and the Flora scarf international symbols of status and affluence. Aldo's sons, his brother Rodolfo, and Rodolfo's son Maurizio, all of whom also worked in the family business, didn't always appreciate Aldo's imperious ways, and corporate board meetings often ended with ashtrays and Gucci handbags flying. Things got so bad in the early 1980s that Aldo's renegade son Paolo made public financial documents that very nearly sent his father to jail for tax fraud. Even more lurid was the 1995 execution-style murder of Maurizio, followed by the conviction in 1998 of his ex-wife Patrizia for ordering the hit. Meanwhile, CEO Domenico De Sole and creative director Tom Ford were transforming Gucci from a family-run company into a modern corporation once again on the cutting edge of fashion and marketing. Forden makes the business story as dramatic as the Guccis' personal squabbles (and of course the two were often interconnected) in a highly entertaining family biography that doubles as a savvy business history. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

Did Patrizia Reggiani murder her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci, in 1995 because his spending was wildly out of control? Did she do it because her glamorous ex was preparing to marry his mistress, Paola Franchi? Or is there a possibility she didn't do it at all?

In this gripping account of the ascent, eventual collapse, and resurrection of the Gucci dynasty, Sara Gay Forden takes us behind the scenes of the trial and exposes the passions, the power, and the vulnerabilities of the greatest fashion family of our times.

Customer Reviews:

Intense reading........2007-10-01

This is a very interesting book about the Gucci family, but it at times delved too much into all the business and acquisitions. It got at times really complexed. Having said that, it was a really good and interesting book. It was almost as if the author didn't want the story to end. I am glad I read it.

Stick to magazines, Ms. Forden.......2007-07-03

Yes, the Gucci story is intriguing. And yes, Ms. Forden provides some historical facts. But remember, this is a book. It should be readable. Ms. Forden's constant and trivial inclusion of far too much 'stuff' is more annoying than enlightening.

This book could be condensed into 200 pages. Thoughtfully written and entertaining by someone other than Ms. Forden. It is a laborious task to tread through the boring an completely unnecessary details. Ms. Forden, no one cares about the work history of then-Head-of BergdorfGoodman.

Poorly written, this book is one long magazine article. Paragraph after paragraph of unnecessary filler. I suggest you find some other way to capture the history of the Gucci company.

I love this book.......2007-03-10

The subtitle said it all: "A sensational story of murder, madness, glamour and greed". The perfect combination for a successful novel that in reality has been real life. Read it!

Quality Product, Quality Book.......2007-01-16

I have inherited and purchased a few Gucci pieces, and have been so fond of the quality of their products that I thought I would read this book as a "light read." I was completely surprised by the first chapter that I just kept on turning the pages. It's anything but a light read, but a great read! This book really does have it all, including a tremendous education into the fashion empire. I also love the Italian detail and family disfunction. The author did a fantastic job of weaving the intimate details of a family, a business, and a family business. I have not lost an ounce of respect for the Gucci product, in fact I am more of a fan. Blood, sweat, and tears.

A Passion for Fashion..........2005-09-10

The House of Gucci reads like a soap opera in book form. Dramatic elements involving the fashion industry, business, and a dysfunctional family are deftly interwoven into a book that is impossible to put down. This novel is a perfect example of how power and greed can lead to the downward spiral of an outwardly- perfect family. Forden writes in a way that would keep any of a number of people riveted, including the fashionistas, the business- savvy,and those who are simply fond of the Italian culture. I have not hesitated in recommending this book to friends and family.

Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles (Eminent Lives)

Average customer rating:

H&J Bailey
The Sinner-Saint
A brief life with no new insights
A good book.....
Great overview for the non Art professional

Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles (Eminent Lives)
Francine Prose
Manufacturer: Eminent Lives
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060575603
Release Date: 2005-10-04

Book Description

Francine Prose's life of Caravaggio evokes the genius of this great artist through a brilliant reading of his paintings. Caravaggio defied the aesthetic conventions of his time; his use of ordinary people, realistically portrayed—street boys, prostitutes, the poor, the aged—was a profound and revolutionary innovation that left its mark on generations of artists. His insistence on painting from nature, on rendering the emotional truth of experience, whether religious or secular, makes him an artist who speaks across the centuries to our own time.

Born in 1571 near Milan, Michelangelo Merisi (da Caravaggio) moved to Rome when he was twenty-one years old. He became a brilliant and successful artist, protected by the influential Cardinal del Monte and other patrons. But he was also a man of the streets who couldn't seem to free himself from its brawls and vendettas. In 1606 he fled Rome, apparently after killing another man in a dispute. He spent his last years in exile, in Naples, Malta, and Sicily, at once celebrated for his art and tormented by his enemies. Through it all, he produced masterpieces of astonishing complexity and power. Eventually he received a pardon from the Pope, only to die, in mysterious circumstances, on the way back to Rome in 1610.

Francine Prose presents the brief but tumultuous life of one of the greatest of all painters with passion and acute sensitivity.

Customer Reviews:

H&J Bailey.......2007-05-13

We purchased "Caravaggio: Painter of miracles" in preparation for a tour to ITALY dedicated to the works of Caravaggio that we found in Rome, Naples and Florence. It was an excellent preparation.
Excellent sketch of Caravaggio's life, and overview of his opus. The author's clear and aggressive prose fits Caravaggio to a T. The text was easily read and exciting in it's coverage of things Caravaggio.
I recommend the book to any person interested in Caravaggio and I intend to pursue other works by the author Francine Prose.

The Sinner-Saint.......2007-02-28

Francine Prose's "Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles" is part of a series of short biographies called "Eminent Lives" in which famous authors write about great historical figures. The aim of the series is not be produce scholarly or definitive works; instead it is to offer the reader a gateway into the works and importance of the subject to inspire further exploration and thought.

Francine Prose is best-known as a novelist. She offers in this book an elegant short guide to the great Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573 -- 1610). Caravaggio's story is one of the most romantic and tantalizing in art. He moved to Rome as a young man of 21 and established his reputation as a painter of importance, turning early in his career to paintings of religious themes. But Caravaggio's life was tumultuous, violent, and brutal. He was never without his dagger, even when he slept. He brawled and fought and consorted with the low life of Rome, and was forced to flee the city after killing a man in a dispute that involved a bet over a game of tennis. In exile, Caravaggio continued to live violently, to flee from place to place, and to paint masterpieces. Prose captures the tension between Caravaggio's tortured life and his artistry. She writes:

"The life of Caravaggio is the closes thing we have to the myth of the sinner-saint, the street tough, the martyr, the killer, the genius -- the myth that, in these jaded and secular times, we are almost ashamed to admit that we still long for, and need. .. Each time we see his paintings, we are reminded of why we still care so profoundly about this artist who continues to speak to us in his urgent, intimate language, audible centuries after the voices of his more civilized, presentable colleagues have fallen silent". (p. 13)

Prose did not get me very far into Caravaggio's life. She is much more successful in describing the paintings, which she does in good detail for a short book. The book includes 11 color plates of some of Caravaggio's masterpieces, from the beginning to the end of his career. Prose has helpful things to say in helping the reader to understand these works and the circumstances of their creation -- she helps the nonspecialist learn to look at and respond to a painting. I found her especially good in discussing Caravaggio's paintings of the "Calling of Saint Matthew" -- where she eloquently shows the artist depicting a conversion experience -- and its companion work, "The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew." Prose also discusses well many paintings that are not reproduced in the book. In order to get the most from these discussions, the reader will need to find these paintings in another source -- this book has as its goal, after all, encouraging further exploration of Caravaggio.

Prose finds Caravaggio's greatness lies in his honesty, directness, and naturalism. She stresses how is works communicate directly with the viewer. Prose also emphasizes how Caravaggio used common people and places and the tough street life with which he was familiar in his paintings, including the use of rough laborers, common dwellings, gypsies, and prostitutes. Caravaggio's work combined elements of violence and low life with deep spirituality as he explored the mysteries of faith, conversion experiences,loneliness, and martyrdom. Caravaggio's brilliance as a painter, and the highly modern tension his work suggests between the spiritual and the mundane, are reasons why many people will continue to be fascinated by his work.

Prose's book doesn't capture fully the reasons why Caravaggio's work continues to live and to move people. But her book will encourage reflection upon and further exploration of the work of this great and troubled artist.

Robin Friedman

A brief life with no new insights.......2006-12-08

Francine Prose writes well and with a light ironic touch but this slim volume adds little to what we already know about Caravaggio. At a little over 100 pages and with only a handful of color illustrations the book amounts to little more than an extended essay of Ms. Prose's reactions to Caravaggio's major works. There are very many better books showing the paintings and Prose doesn't go into the camera obscura technique that Caravaggio undoubtedly used, giving his paintings an almost photo-realistic representation of his subjects.

That Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was a brawler with a passion for picking fights worthy of "Fight Club" who combined erratic behavior with some sublime paintings is hardly an insight. A much better treatment of the life and psychology of the artist appears in Peter Robb's 1998 "M: The Man who Became Caravaggio" which curiously is unreferenced by Prose.

Although Prose notes that Caravaggio broke away from the stylized poses and unearthly lighting of the mannerists, I don't think she clearly explains his genius.

A good book............2006-11-03

This was a good book because it made me curious about Caravaggio. I subsequently bought another book that was a much more thorough biography of Caravaggio.

Great overview for the non Art professional.......2006-06-10

A great little book that covers what is known about a true bad boy of art, a tormented genius that challenged the accepted art of his time and changed the direction of painting, not something lightly done in those times. For this he was applauded, sought out, paid very well; he respond with bad judgment and madness. This book hits all the highlights and story points a non-art professional would want with being bogged down in too much 'art philosophy' that books on artists sometime drop into making it hard for an amateur to wade through. This is an excellent intro to Caravaggio. You should read this and then follow it up with The Lost Painting: A Quest For A Caravaggio Masterpiece, the amazing and true story of how one of Caravaggio's lost paintings was found in the 1990s.

Palladio's Venice: Architecture and Society in a Renaissance Republic

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review of palladio's venice
VENICE AND PALLADIO A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN

Palladio's Venice: Architecture and Society in a Renaissance Republic
Tracy E. Cooper
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300105827

Book Description

Celebrated Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580) devoted much of his career to the city of Venice. Famous for public buildings he had designed in his native Vicenza and country villas he had built for wealthy patricians there, he arrived in Venice in the mid- 1550s confident of establishing a successful new practice. Yet Palladio’s Venetian career never matched his lofty expectations. Failing to achieve the position of state architect or to earn the kinds of commissions to which he was accustomed, he found himself working in a category new to his practice: ecclesiastical architecture. It was his stunning churches, however, including San Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore, that established Palladio’s lasting renown.
In this fascinating and beautifully illustrated book, Tracy E. Cooper organizes Palladio’s work in Venice according to different types of patrons. She discusses his major monuments as well as less well-known work for charitable foundations, convents, triumphal processions, and the rebuilding of the Ducal Palace. She tells the compelling story of an established architect breaking into a new market and of a Renaissance city in the midst of sweeping change.

Customer Reviews:

review of palladio's venice.......2007-02-19

the book came in a timely manner and is in very good condition

VENICE AND PALLADIO A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN.......2006-10-11

Really a wonderful book on the iconic Palladio and his muse Venice. It's as if, the two where made for each other, his genius seems to have found its perfect setting in this most unique city. The images are crisp and the text is fascinating. If you have any interest in Palladio or Venice, or just appreciate a great coffee table book, then I can't conceive of you being anything but pleased with this purchase. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

Two Top Scholars Collaborate to Produce Beautiful Book

Giorgio Vasari
Leon Satkowski
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691032866

Book Description

Well-known for his paintings and his book The Lives of the Artists, Giorgio Vasari also served as court architect to Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, contributing to Medicean legitimacy through such politically symbolic buildings as the Uffizi in Florence. Leon Satkowski presents the first book in any language to survey the architecture of Vasari. By focusing on the architect's service to his distinguished patrons and his collaboration with other architects, Satkowski reveals how Vasari combined imaginative design, political meaning, and a clear sense of history to create buildings so appealing to modern students of architecture. Incorporating Vasari's own writings and a close study of his buildings, this book places the architect squarely in the world of Palladio, Vignola, and Ammannati, and shows Vasari as their equal. In addition to the Uffizi, chapters are devoted to Vasari's Del Monte projects in Monte San Savino and Rome, the Corridoio and the renovation of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, religious architecture throughout Tuscany, and urban projects in Pisa and Arezzo that created the physical identity of Cosimo's new state. As a court architect, Vasari had few peers in the proper sense of the term.

Customer Reviews:

Two Top Scholars Collaborate to Produce Beautiful Book.......2000-04-05

This is much more than a biography of Vasari. It uses Vasari as the pivot around which the author develops an intricate account of art and cultural politics in Florence and more generally Tuscany, in the sixteenth-century. The relationships between Vasari and Michelangelo, and Grand Duke Cosimo are well-developed and informative. For art historians, there will be little new inforamtion revealed, but it is all presented in a beautiful package. Ralph Lieberman, a highly distinguished scholar of Venetian architecture in his own right, here acts in another capacity, in which he is equally as distinguished, photographer. The photos give us Florence as we always want to see it, romantic, dramatic, but with an eye toward architectural detail.

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