Yale University Press

This revised and up-dated history confines itself to Russia west of the Urals, the Russia whose artistic beginnings lay in the response of a newly settled people to the impact of Christianity and the Byzantine Empire. In the first centuries the arts flourished and developed in the independent states and principalities, but gradually native schools in centres like Novgorod and Kiev gave way to centralization based on Moscow. From the emergence of Russia under Peter the Great until the late 19th century, specifically Russian qualities gave way to Western European inspiration and advice. However, as the 19th century developed, there was a reaction from foreign domination and this led to the rediscovery of native traditions.

Venice, home of Tiepolo, Canaletto, Piranesi, Piazzetta, and Guardi, was the city of eighteenth-century Italy most conducive to the creation of art. This lavishly illustrated book examines the whole range of the arts in Venice during this period, including paintings, pastels and gouaches, drawings and watercolors, prints, illustrated books, and sculpture.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) stands as a supreme icon in the history of Western civilization. With much of his work lost or unfinished, the key to his legacy is without doubt to be found in the enormous body of his extant drawings and accompanying manuscript notes. Famous for their beauty and technical virtuosity, Leonardo's drawings were avidly sought by collectors even during his lifetime. This volume offers a portrait of Leonardo as a draftsman, integrating his diverse roles as an artist, scientist, inventor, theorist and teacher. A chronological framework is also provided in order to shed light on his extraordinary life and career. The essays and entries — written by the world's leading Leonardo scholars — survey the wide variety of drawing types that Leonardo used and also examine a small group of works by artists critical to his artistic development in Florence and to his multifaceted activity in Milan.

For Picasso, the artist's studio was the centre of the world, the crossroads of all that was occurring in his life and in contemporary society. His paintings of the studio range across nearly every aspect of his art, from portraits of himself, his friends, lovers and children, to commentaries on political events, evocations of great artists of the past and allegories of creativity itself. This stunning book focuses on Picasso's depictions of the artist's studio in paintings, drawings and prints throughout his career, showing how he found there his most profound expression of the creative process. Michael FitzGerald discusses Picasso's devotion to the studio as a place where he learned his artistic skills, as a social and intellectual centre where he negotiated with dealers, disputed with critics and seduced lovers, as a site for exploration of the imagination and of essential themes of life and as a place where he confronted the passing of life. The major part of the book analyses numerous relevant paintings and drawings, showing how they relate to developments in Picasso's art or life and to his oeuvre as a whole. William Robinson then focuses on the famed painting La Vie, a scene of an artist and model that is transformed into an allegory of sexual desire and social respectability. This lavishly illustrated book will accompany an exhibition that opens at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, in June 2001 and the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio in October 2001.

Working quietly and without much public attention for more than 20 years, American fashion designer Ralph Rucci suddenly became a headline topic in 2002, when he was invited to show his collection at the haute couture in Paris — the first American to receive such an invitation since Mainbocher in the 1930s. This sumptuously illustrated book is the first to explore in depth Rucci's life and work, including the inspirations behind the extraordinarily beautiful and very expensive clothes he creates. The contributors to the volume explore many aspects of Rucci's genius and emergence as a master in the fashion world. Valerie Steele places his life and work in the context of modern fashion history and discusses his connections with such figures as Balenciaga and Halston. Patricia Mears closely examines the garments he designs, reveals what makes them so special, and considers influences on his work. Clare Sauro describes Rucci's accessories, which complete the aesthetic vision that his fashions embody. The book is enriched with more than 100 photographs that include catwalk images, fashion shots of Rucci's clients, Chado Ralph Rucci garments from the collection of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and from his own archives, as well as various inspirational objects and fashions.

Russian painter Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935), unlike other prominent Soviet artists, has not been much considered in discussions of the contributions of the avant-garde to photography and film. Yet a close examination of theoretical and practical aspects of Malevich's oeuvre not only places him fully in the Soviet post-abstract discourse on these media but also, Margarita Tupitsyn argues in this analysis, alters the accepted view of his post-Suprematist period. Exploring Malevich's involvement with film, Tupitsyn draws on little-known writings about cinema by the artist himself, and many photographs and documents. Malevich's influence on 20th-century art extends far more widely than has been claimed for him before, the author concludes. The work begins with a re-evaluation of Malevich's most famous painting, Black Square, a work whose meaning and function was in constant flux. Through Black Square Malevich began to cross the bridge from the painting medium to mechanically-generated production, ultimately influencing the post-revolutionary phase of his Suprematism and leading to his abandonment of abstraction in the late 1920s. Tupitsyn discusses in detail Malevich's writing about the cinema, the cinematic qualities of some of his works, and the significant impact of Malevich's thought and work on Russian, European and American artists of the 1920s and 1930s as well as the post-war period.

Geographically, this survey stretches from Poland to Portugal, from Sicily to Scotland; chronologically, it ranges from Durham in 1093 to Halle an der Saale in 1530. It provides an introduction to the study of Gothic architecture, and a history and analysis of Gothic style.

What kind of person could have created 'The Scream', the painting that expresses most vividly the uncertainties and anguish of the twentieth century? This intimate and moving biography brings Norwegian artist Edvard Munch to life, exploring his turbulent early years, his later years as a recluse, and his efforts to paint not what he saw, but what he experienced. 'A magisterial portrait of a deeply troubled man.' Frances Spalding, 'Sunday Times' 'anyone who wants to know how and why Munch painted as he did should read this book.' Tom Rosenthal, 'Independent on Sunday' 'it is packed with information and event. Few biographies of artists can be described as gripping. This often is.' Martin Gayford, 'Sunday Telegraph' 'an absorbing account of the social and intellectual forces, as well as the personal demons, that Munch struggled against — or solicited — in order to create.' Alan Jenkins, 'Times Literary Supplement' 'It is among Prideaux's achievements to give us a thousand details that pull Munch into sharper focus.' Christopher Riopelle, 'Apollo Magazine' 'Prideaux sorts out Munch's work and his difficult life with a scholar's eye for history and a novelist's eye for anecdotes.' Gwen Gibson, 'Washington Times' 'An assured and vivid biography.' Peter Schjeldahl, 'New Yorker'.

Cezanne's watercolours exhibit not only kaleidoscopic arrays of translucence but also very light graphite pencil lines that contrast strikingly with the soft watery touches of colour. These drawn lines have been largely overlooked in previous studies of Cezanne's work in this medium.In this ravishing book, Matthew Simms argues that it was the dialogue between drawing and painting — the movement between pencil and paintbrush — that attracted Cezanne to watercolour. The technique allowed Cezanne to express what he termed his «sensations» in two distinct modes that become a record of his shifting and spontaneous responses to his subject. Combining close visual analysis and examination of historical context, Simms focuses on the counterpoint of drawing and colour in Cezanne's work over the course of his career and as viewed in relation to his oil paintings. More than a tool for sketching or preparing for oil paintings, Simms contends, watercolour was a unique means of expression in its own right that allowed Cezanne to combine in one place the two otherwise opposed mediums of drawing and painting.

What did the rulers of the Soviet Union truly think about each other? «Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution» provides a window onto the soul of Bolshevism no other set of materials has ever offered. Sketching on notebook pages, official letterheads, and the margins of draft documents, prominent Soviet leaders in the 1920s and 1930s amused themselves and their colleagues with drawings of one another. Nearly 200 of these informal sketches, only recently uncovered in secret Soviet files are reproduced here. Funny, original, spontaneous, sometimes vicious or grotesque, the drawings and their accompanying notes reveal the relationships and mindsets of the Bolshevik bosses at the time of Stalin’s rise to power with blazing immediacy. The album’s editors select characteristic drawings by such prominent leaders as Nikolai Bukharin, who depicts himself as “piggy foxy”, Valery Mezhlauk, and Stalin himself, whose trademark blue pencil appears on several of the drawings. A number of sketches of unknown authorship are also included. The editors identify the political issues, events, and discussions that inspired the drawings, and they provide biographical information about the people who drew and were drawn. The book opens a rare window on Stalin’s inner circle, allowing us access to the powerful men who, despite living in a humorless epoch, developed a special humor of their own.

Since its foundation in 1837, Tiffany & Co. has been a uniquely American brand, famous for glamour, creative design, and fine craftsmanship. Starting modestly on Broadway, Tiffany rose quickly to international fame, its jewelry stunning the world at the great 19th-century international exhibitions. America’s new rich delighted in the striking jewels created by Tiffany designer Paulding Farnham and, from 1904, Louis Comfort Tiffany, who pioneered a distinctively American aesthetic. A great period of naturalism in jewelry was followed by the abstract geometry of Art Deco. Ever at the forefront of design, Tiffany moved confidently into the 1930s and 1940s with large and glamorous colorful stones set in swirling gold. In the postwar 1950s, Tiffany boldly backed new designers, including the elegant and witty French designer Jean Schlumberger. In the 1970s Tiffany turned to the designers Elsa Peretti and Paloma Picasso, whose work captured the informality and fun that patrons now looked for in their jewelry. This sumptuous book charts the entire history of Tiffany, from its founding to the 1980s. It presents full catalogue entries for some two hundred pieces of jewelry, all beautifully photographed.

The horse is an icon of civilization. Man has long depended on the horse in farming, transportation, war, religion, and exploration, and as a consequence we have a wonderfully rich legacy of horses depicted in art. This spectacular book presents the horse in its many roles since its discovery and domestication until the present day. Distinguished author John Baskett begins with the horse in ancient civilizations, including masterpieces from Asia, and then discusses the horse in the Middle Ages, in which the animal was bred for warfare and agriculture and is represented in such scenes as the Bayeaux Tapestry. Renaissance artists, whose interest in horses was as great as that for the human form, are then discussed, evidence of which is shown in the skillful drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. The 17th century brought beautiful examples of naturalism from such masters as Peter Paul Rubens, while George Stubbs became the premier horse painter in 18th-century England. Works by Americans George Catlin and Frederic Remington are also explored, along with exquisite miniatures of natural scenes produced by Persian and Mughal painters from varying periods. A new edition of a long out-of-print gem, «The Horse in Art» brings artistic representation of the horse to life, with additional illustrations, a new chapter on the 20th century, and the inclusion of biographies of the artists featured in the book. With beautiful color reproductions and an accessible text, this book is a unique and indispensable guide to the changing cultural perspectives, artistic styles, and symbolic interpretations associated with its timeless and much-loved subject.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1907, Oscar Niemeyer is recognized as one of the world’s most fiercely original architects and the central figure of Brazilian architectural Modernism. The prolific designer of more than 600 buildings, Niemeyer has been in practice for seven decades. Architecture, he declares must be “functional, beautiful, and shocking”. Transgressing orthodox Modernist aesthetic doctrine and subverting hegemonic cultural models, his work privileged invention and affirmed spectacle and luxury, pleasure, beauty, and sensuality as legitimate architectural pursuits. This gorgeously illustrated book explores the development of Niemeyer’s extraordinary body of ideas and forms as well as his role in the construction of Brazil’s modern image and cultural tradition. Through a detailed discussion of his intoxicating experiments in reinforced concrete, the book offers the opportunity to relish the stream of pleasures afforded by Niemeyer’s important buildings, including his mid-century projects as chief architect for the new capital of Brasília, and the spectacular Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art, completed in 1996. Providing the first comprehensive analysis of Niemeyer’s radical work and dissident perspective, «Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence» sheds new light on the route the architect has followed as well as on Brazilian Modernism as a non-conformist project informed by a nationalist and anti-colonialist stance.

The abstract paintings of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Lee Krasner, Clyfford Still, Helen Frankenthaler, and others revolutionized the art world in the 1940s and 1950s and continue to inspire passionate arguments to this day. What were these artists trying to achieve? Who were the critical voices of the time that rallied public interest in Abstract Expressionism and sparked rancorous debate? Drawing on recent critical, historical, and biographical work, this lavishly illustrated book offers a sharp new focus on a pivotal art movement. It also presents an extensive commentary on the two most influential critics of postwar American art—Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg—whose powerful views shaped perceptions of Abstract Expressionism and other contemporary art movements. In one essay, Norman L. Kleeblatt traces the influence of Abstract Expressionism into the mid-1970s and examines its connection to subsequent art styles. Other essays range from the literary and intellectual culture of New York during that period and an analysis of sculpture and representation to a discussion of Jewish issues in relation to postwar American Art. In addition, the book features a magisterial essay by eminent critic Irving Sandler and a copiously illustrated cultural timeline by Maurice Berger.

On January 26, 1957, Richard Hamilton wrote a now-famous letter outlining his definition of what “Pop Art Is.” This volume celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Hamilton’s prophetic document, presenting the works of more than forty artists from his own generation of Pop artists (among them Hamilton himself, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol) and from artists of subsequent generations who have contributed to the development and dissemination of Pop Art (Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Mike Kelley, Damien Hirst, and others). A text by Greil Marcus, a photographic essay by Louise Lawler, and an interview with Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown by Dan Graham are included in the book, which illuminates the powerful, international impact of Pop Art throughout the second half of the 20th century. Pop represented a sudden and dramatic expansion of often-contradictory possibilities, and for this reason and others the concept of Pop remains vital in contemporary art.

The art of portraiture reached a pinnacle of expressive achievement in early twentieth-century Paris. Liberated by the advent of photography, artists were able to re-imagine the nature of human portrayal, producing kinds of portraits—Fauve, Cubist, Dada, Surrealist, and Expressionist—unlike any seen before. This remarkable book focuses on a rich variety of these portraits, presenting paintings, sculpture, and works on paper by such artists as Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Duchamp, Brancusi, Lipchitz, Gris, Rivera, Modigliani, Dubuffet, Laurencin, and Soutine. A major essay explores the fascinating network of personal and aesthetic relationships that existed at the time, as artists depicted themselves and their friends, collectors, critics, spouses, and romantic partners. There is also a formal and iconographic discussion of each featured work, as well as relevant biographical, cultural, and historical information.

The National Gallery, London, home to celebrated works by Leonardo, Titian, Rembrandt, Turner, Van Eyck, Van Gogh, and many others, contains paintings that rank among the finest in the history of Western European art. This attractive little pocket collection reproduces many of these much-loved masterpieces along with a brief introduction to the collection. The guide presents nearly 200 masterworks, arranged in four sections that reflect the layout of the gallery and the chronology of the art: Sainsbury Wing (1250–1500), West Wing (1500–1600), North Wing (1600–1700), and East Wing (1700–1900). Tracing the development of Western European art through the centuries, the book is an irresistible treasure for visitors or armchair travelers to the National Gallery.

Originally published in 1938 when Kenneth Clark was director of the National Gallery, London, this book presents Clark’s favorite details from paintings in the museum’s collection. Newly updated and handsomely illustrated, this landmark book juxtaposes pairs of details rarely viewed together––such as cupids from Velázquez’s «Rokeby Venus» and Correggio’s «The School of Love»––to illuminate fascinating analogies and contrasts between paintings and artists. Clark’s erudite but accessible responses to these works are broad in scope and approach, and range from a few lines to an entire history of the still life. Featuring all new color reproductions, «One Hundred Details» serves as an introduction to art history and offers a unique and intimate look at these paintings through the discerning eye of a world-renowned art historian and director.

One of the most lavishly illustrated codices of the Middle Ages, the Belles Heures (1405-1408/9) is the only manuscript executed in its entirety by the famed Limbourg brothers. Commissioned by its magisterial patron, Jean de France, duc de Berry, this richly illuminated Book of Hours, intended for private devotion and now housed in The Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum, counted among the duke's large collection of prized possessions. The luminous scenes depicting the legends of the saints, the Hours of the Virgin, and the like, many with elaborately designed borders, exemplify the transcendent splendour of the Limbourg brothers' talents.

This beautifully illustrated book accompanies a major exhibition of William Holman Hunt's work. It explores the nature and significance of the artist's vision and its relevance to modern audiences. Despite the great interest in Pre-Raphaelitism, it has been nearly forty years since the last exhibition devoted to Holman Hunt, one of the founders of the movement. His vision, which inspired the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, has lost neither its timeliness or relevance. The book illustrates paintings by Hunt and his associates, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Arthur Hughes, and also includes drawings, prints, photographs, decorative arts, costumes and archival material. It examines Hunt's work in the context of the Brotherhood, and his ideas in relation to the artistic, spiritual, intellectual, emotional and social crises of his age. By focussing on themes that remain relevant in the twenty-first century, the book sheds news light on Victorian neuroses, anxiety and the crisis of faith.

This breakthrough book provides a detailed reconstruction of Stalin's leadership from the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 to his death in 1953. Making use of a wealth of new material from Russian archives, Geoffrey Roberts challenges a long list of standard perceptions of Stalin: his qualities as a leader; his relationships with his own generals and with other great world leaders; his foreign policy; and his role in instigating the Cold War. While frankly exploring the full extent of Stalin's brutalities and their impact on the Soviet people, Roberts also uncovers evidence leading to the stunning conclusion that Stalin was both the greatest military leader of the twentieth century and a remarkable politician who sought to avoid the Cold War and establish a long-term detente with the capitalist world. By means of an integrated military, political, and diplomatic narrative, the author draws a sustained and compelling personal portrait of the Soviet leader. The resulting picture is fascinating and contradictory, and it will inevitably change the way we understand Stalin and his place in history. Roberts depicts a despot who helped save the world for democracy, a personal charmer who disciplined mercilessly, a utopian ideologue who could be a practical realist, and a warlord who undertook the role of architect of post-war peace.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (1599-1660) was born in Seville, Spain, the oldest of six children. He has come to be recognised as one of the very greatest painters, with an extraordinary ability to observe and record visual experience, whether rendering genre paintings, history scenes or portraits. Velazquez's career can be characterised as a lifelong examination of the relationship of painting to nature, in which brushwork takes a leading role. As he developed, he realised ever-greater physical and psychological naturalism with progressively more pronounced and elegant brushstrokes, attaining miraculous effects of illusion with an astounding, abbreviated technique based on the implication rather than the elaboration of detail. This book explores Velazquez's almost universal popularity. Accompanying a major exhibition at the National Gallery, London, it contextualises the artist's work and discusses his influence. Manet famously called him 'the painter's painter', and this book seeks to explain how, and why, his minimalist, elegant compositions resonate so strongly with our Post-Impressionist sensibilities. Written by world-class Velazquez scholars, the book surveys the artist's entire career, from his studies in Seville and Italy to his final great works at the court of Philip IV. It includes a full catalogue and chronology.

Conceived as a sequel to the critically acclaimed Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence (2002), this lavishly illustrated volume is the first comprehensive survey of 17th-century European tapestry available in English. From the Middle Ages until the late 18th century, European courts expended vast sums on tapestries, which were made with precious materials after designs by the leading artists of the day. Yet, this spectacular medium is still often presented as a decorative art of lesser importance. Tapestry in the Baroque challenges this notion, demonstrating that tapestry remained among the most prestigious figurative mediums throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries, prized by the rich for its artistry and as a propaganda tool. The book features forty-five of the finest surviving examples from collections in more than fifteen countries, as well as a number of related designs and oil sketches. Through these it examines the stylistic developments of tapestry between 1590 and 1720, when such masters as Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, Simon Vouet, Charles Le Brun, Pietro da Cortona, and Giovanni Romanelli responded to the challenges and opportunities of the medium in the context of contemporary artistic developments.

In this rapid-paced book, a former CIA chief of Soviet bloc counterintelligence breaks open the mysterious case of KGB officer Yuri Nosenko’s 1964 defection to the United States. Still a highly controversial chapter in the history of Cold War espionage, the Nosenko affair has inspired debate for more than forty years: was Nosenko a bona fide defector with the real information about Lee Harvey Oswald’s stay in Soviet Russia, or was he a KGB loyalist, engaged in a complex game of deception? As supervisor of CIA operations against the KGB at the time, Tennent H. Bagley directly handled Nosenko’s case. This insider knowledge, combined with information gleaned from dozens of interviews with former KGB adversaries, places Bagley in a uniquely authoritative position. He guides the reader step by step through the complicated operations surrounding the Nosenko affair and shatters the comfortable version of events the CIA has presented to the public. Bagley unveils not only the KGB’s history of merciless and bloody betrayals but also the existence of undiscovered traitors in the American camp. Shining new light on the CIA-KGB spy wars, he invites deeper thinking about the history of espionage and its implications for the intelligence community today.