Italian Frescoes: The Flowering of the Renaissance 1470-1510 Hardcover – October 17, 1997

The book combines exquisite detailed photos with insightful descriptions of the fresco cycles and artists.

I have to agree with "Punkwee" about how terrific this book is. You feel like you are right there. Professor (Doctor?) Roettgen has a way of telling you about each fresco cycle that makes you feel like you are there when these masterpieces were financed, designed and executed. She also likes to tell you the gossip behind each story (isn't there always something going on behind the scenes?) and she makes the whole subject come alive. I have read all of the books in this series on Italian fresco painting and I had a hard time putting them down. However, Dr. Roettgen's discussion in this particular volume and the earlier volume: Italian Frescoes: The Early Renaissance, are the best two of them all. The photography in all of these books is some of the best art photography ever made. I made a trip to Italy to see some of the fresco cycles mentioned and analyzed in these books. I was so glad to already have the information and to have seen the pictures in the books because sometimes, it was very, very hard to see the originals due to their locations in the buildings, the light available at each place, etc. You get to have some of the greatest works of art in the world right there on your coffee table. I intend to follow "Punkwee"'s advice and write to Dr. Roettgen and ask her to write on some of those places s/he suggested. After you read this book, you will want to have more. Art should be fun, as well as educational and inspirational, and Dr. Roettgen achieves all of these goals. These books made me want to know more about this subject. Definitely worth the prices. I should also say that I have given this book to several people I know for wedding and graduation gifts and the recipients were more than thrilled.

A beautiful book. Excellent reproductions and a clear, useful text.

These books deserve a 1000 rating, never have these frescoes been covered this well by anyone. The people who have seen these books would agree they are beyond superb. I have seen some of these frescoes and you cant even get behind the altars to get a dead head on shot and most churches wont let you use a flash for photography.Even if you could use a flash you would never get the brightness of diffuse illumination these books have captured so well, crisp but all the subtle color blends are captured.These books allow you to see some details you would not see standing in the churches unless you had binoculars,even then the angle would cause distortion.The color accuracy is great, it is too bad it is not cost effective to print on a satin surface paper as this would provided some of the glow effect real frescoes have, the sheen surface is unique to fresco alone and hard to reproduce.Credit not only goes to the author and photgrapher but to Abbeville press for stepping up to the plate, this would have been a publishing risk,and for Abbeville to back such a venture with such outstanding quality puts them at the top of the stack in the world of Art book publishing.These periods of art will never be re-captured, nor will patrons or artists ever tackle projects of the scope found here. This art represents one of the outstanding moments in human evolution. The treatment of fresco at this level is long overdue as most art books cover oil painting, drawing, pastel, printmaking, and sculpture.I should also mention the great job they did in selecting artists, with all due respect to the "BIG M" , (Mr.Michaelangelo, the vaticans most abused poster boy ),it is great that other outstanding artists from this period finally are allowed to get out of The Big M's shadow in the publishing world. (For every one book about Fillipino Lippi, there are 50 about Marble Mikey, I love the guy,...TOP CHISEL...TOP BRUSH but his fame has left a lot of other good artists ignored by publishers when it comes to fresco,Raphael gets covered a lot, but never the Hall of Constantine, like Romano did a hack job...)TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE FRESCOES AND THESE BOOKS, PLEASE WRITE TO ABBEVILLE PUBLISHING AND DR. STEFFI ROTTGEN AND SUGGEST THEY CONTINUE INTO THE EARLY, MID, AND LATE BAROQUE AND EARLY NEO-CLASSICAL STYLE FRESOES IN ITALY. MANY OF THESE PALACES ARE NOW CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC SO THE WONDERFUL FRESCOES WILL NEVER BE SEEN, THE ONLY HOPE WOULD BE THAT ABBEVILLE OR SOMEONE LIKE THEM WOULD TAKE UP THE CAUSE.We need1) Pitti Palace -Pietro Da Cortona rooms and The Hercules roomNO PHOTO TAKING IS ALLOWED2) The Altieri Palace - Carlo Maratti,and freinds3) Barberini Palace - Pietro Da Cortona (Details)4) The Borghese Palace5) The Pamphilli Palace and Dore6) Maybe Luca Girodano at Medici in Florence7) Farnese Palace8) Some Conca, Chiari, etc.there are a whole truckload of fresco's from Baroque Rome9) some --- Venice, Balogna, and Naples(Tiepolo, Veronese, and Tintoretto are covered in a lot of other books).These books are well worth the price, keep them coming Steffi!!!

This extraordinary book covers 16 Italian Renaissance fresco cycles. A brief introduction provides information about the invention of perspective and how it revolutionized painting. For each cycle, an essay describes the frescoes and their technical execution, the artist(s) and patrons, and the historical and political context of the work. The author also explores the meaning of the frescoes and the significance of particular choices made by the artists in how to portray certain elements. Each essay is generously illustrated with details from the fresco cycle and related works, and concludes with a floor plan of the building that houses the cycle, a diagram of the panels, and several full-page photographs of the frescoes - distant shots followed by close-ups of individual panels and details.The text is well written - informative but not dry. The author examines the people involved, both artists and patrons. He also explores the social, historical and political context, all of which contributes to the reader's overall understanding of the meaning and significance of the frescoes. The quality of the images is truly extraordinary. The combination of diagrams and photographs allows the reader to assemble a mental picture of the entire space.The book is also well organized. One chapter is devoted to each cycle. These chapters are followed by a map showing the locations of the cycles; an extensive bibliography; a timeline of damage and restoration of each cycle; legends, inscriptions and quotations for each cycle; and indexes of places, names and subjects.This volume is absolutely worth its price - it's a bargain given the quality and quantity of the images. It is both a beautiful coffee-table book and a well-researched, informative guide to Italian Renaissance frescoes. Recommended for any library serving art students (high school through graduate level), arm chair travelers, or art lovers.