Rudolf Wittkower

Margot Wittkower

A rare art history classic that The New York Times calls a “delightful, scholarly and gossipy romp through the character and conduct of artists from antiquity to the French Revolution.” “This book is fascinating to read because of the abundant quotations which bring to life so many remarkable individuals.”–The New York Review of Books Born Under Saturn is a classic work of scholarship that presents, in the words of the great art historian Meyer Schapiro, “an enthralling story of the changing behavior of artists through the centuries.” Here Rudolf and Margot Wittkower explore the idea of artistic madness. It is an idea, as the Wittkowers demonstrate, that comes into its own in the Renaissance, as part of the new bid by visual artists to distinguish themselves from the mere craftsmen with whom they had been lumped together in the past. The alienated artist, the Wittkowers show, is very much a creation of the modern era. Of course, not all artists have been mad, and what makes the Wittkowers’ book so much fun to read is that it’s crammed with anecdotes about all kinds of artists, famous, infamous, and utterly obscure. Suicide, celibacy, weird hobbies, crime, brawling, miserliness, licentiousness, and much more illustrate a book that is a comprehensive, quirky, and endlessly stimulating resource for every student and lover of the arts.

The Character and Conduct of Artists : a Documented History from Antiquity to the French Revolution

Born Under Saturn

With the aid of over 180 photographs, this book studies what unites and separates sculptors across the centuries. It looks at the masters of Archaic Greece, the Middle Ages, through the great names of Michelangelo, Cellini and Bernini to Rodin, Brancusi and Henry Moore. By studying their working methods and techniques, the author discloses their artistic ideas and convictions, thereby opening up new avenues of approach for the spectator.

Processes and Principles

Sculpture

Richard Krautheimer

Principi architettonici nell'età dell'umanesimo

La scultura raccontata da Rudolf Wittkower. Dall'antichità al Novecento

Sir Kenneth Clark wrote in the Architectural Review, that the first result of this book was “to dispose, once and for all, of the hedonist, or purely aesthetic, theory of Renaissance architecture,' and this defines Wittkower's intention in a nutshell.

Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism

Jennifer Montagu

Joseph Connors

This classic survey of Italian Baroque art and architecture focuses on the arts in every center between Venice and Sicily in the early, high, and late Baroque periods. The heart of the study, however, lies in the architecture and sculpture of the exhilarating years of Roman High Baroque, when Bernini, Borromini, and Cortona were all at work under a series of enlightened popes. Wittkower's text is now accompanied by a critical introduction and substantial new bibliography. This edition will also include color illustrations for the first time. This is the second book in the three volume survey.

Volume 2: The High Baroque, 1625–1675

Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600–1750

Studies in the Italian Baroque

This classic survey of Italian Baroque art and architecture focuses on the arts in every center between Venice and Sicily in the early, high, and late Baroque periods. The heart of the study, however, lies in the architecture and sculpture of the exhilarating years of Roman High Baroque, when Bernini, Borromini, and Cortona were all at work under a series of enlightened popes. Wittkower's text is now accompanied by a critical introduction and substantial new bibliography. This edition-now published in three volumes-will also include color illustrations for the first time.

Rudolf Wittkower

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