The Emperors' Album


Book Description

Fifty leaves that form the sumptuous Kevorkian Album, one of the world's greatest assemblages of Mughal art. -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website.




Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India


Book Description

This sumptuously illustrated volume examines the impact of Indian art and culture on Rembrandt (1606–1669) in the late 1650s. By pairing Rembrandt’s twenty-two extant drawings of Shah Jahan, Jahangir, Dara Shikoh, and other Mughal courtiers with Mughal paintings of similar compositions, the book critiques the prevailing notion that Rembrandt “brought life” to the static Mughal art. Written by scholars of both Dutch and Indian art, the essays in this volume instead demonstrate how Rembrandt’s contact with Mughal painting inspired him to draw in an entirely new, refined style on Asian paper—an approach that was shaped by the Dutch trade in Asia and prompted by the curiosity of a foreign culture. Seen in this light, Rembrandt’s engagement with India enriches our understanding of collecting in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, the Dutch global economy, and Rembrandt’s artistic self-fashioning. A close examination of the Mughal imperial workshop provides new insights into how Indian paintings came to Europe as well as how Dutch prints were incorporated into Mughal compositions.




Art, Commerce and Colonialism 1600-1800


Book Description

Art, Commerce and Colonialism 1600-1800 examines European art, architecture and design of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the light of the continent's growing engagement with the rest of the world. In a series of case studies spanning the globe from Asia to the Americas, it shows how the expansion of intercontinental trade and the proliferation of colonial ventures gave rise to new and diverse forms of visual and material culture. Among the examples discussed are ornate altarpieces in the cathedrals of colonial Latin America, Dutch still-life paintings of exotic luxury imports, English interior decoration in the Chinoiserie style and the architecture of plantation houses in North America and the Caribbean. Drawing on a wide range of recent scholarship, the book proposes a new history of European art 1600-1800, which should appeal to undergraduate students as well as to a general readership




The Metropolitan Museum of Art


Book Description

This monumental new book is the first to celebrate the greatest and most iconic paintings from the encyclopedic collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, one of the largest, most important, and most beloved museums in the world. This impressive volume's broad sweep of material, all from a single museum, makes it at once a universal history of painting and the ideal introduction to the iconic masterworks of this world-renowned institution. More than 1,000 lavish color illustrations and details of 500 masterpiece paintings, created over 5,000 years in cultures across the globe, are presented chronologically from the dawn of civilization to the present. These works represent a grand tour of painting from ancient Egypt and classical antiquity and prized Byzantine and medieval altarpieces, to paintings from Asia, India, Africa and the Americas, and and the greatest European and North American masters. The Metropolitan Museum of Art includes and introduction and illuminating texts about each artwork written specially for this volume by Kathryn Calley Galitz, whose experience as both curator and educator at the Met makes her uniquely qualified. European and American artists include Duccio, El Greco, Raphael, Titian, Botticelli, Bronzino, Caravaggio, Turner, Velázquez, Goya, Rubens, Rembrandt, Brueghel, Vermeer, David, Renior, Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, Degas, Sargent, Homer, Matisse, Picasso, Pollock, Jasper Johns, and Warhol. The artworks are arranged in rough chronological order, without regard to geography or culture, offering a visual timeline of the history of painting, from the earliest examples on pottery jars made over five thousand years ago to canvases on which the paint has barely dried. Freed from the constraints imposed by the physical layout of the Museum, the paintings resonate anew; and this chronological framework reveals unexpected visual affinities among the works. For those wishing to experience the unparalleled breadth and depth of the Met's collection, or study masterpieces of painting from throughout history, this important volume is sure to become a classic cherished by art lovers around the world.




De Mondiale Context Van Nederlandse Kunst


Book Description

This NKJ volume breaks new ground in applying the aims and approaches of global art history to the Low Countries. From Greenland to South Africa and Mexico to Sri Lanka, it explores how Netherlandish art testifies to the interconnectedness of the Early Modern world.




Art That Changed the World


Book Description

Experience the uplifting power of art on this breathtaking visual tour of 2,500 paintings and sculptures created by more than 700 artists from Michelangelo to Damien Hirst. This beautiful book brings you the very best of world art from cave paintings to Neoexpressionism. Enjoy iconic must-see works, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper and Monet's Waterlilies and discover less familiar artists and genres from all parts of the globe. Art That Changed the World covers the full sweep of world art, including the Ming era in China, and Japanese, Hindu, and Indigenous Australian art. It analyses recurring themes such as love and religion, explaining key genres from Romanesque to Conceptual art. Art That Changed the World explores each artist's key works and vision, showing details of their technique, such as Leonardo's use of light and shade. It tells the story of avant-garde works like Manet's Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (Lunch on the Grass), which scandalized society, and traces how one genre informed another - showing how the Impressionists were inspired by Gustave Courbet, for example, and how Van Gogh was influenced by Japanese prints. Lavishly illustrated throughout, look no further for your essential guide to the pantheon of world art.




Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils


Book Description

"Rembrandt was the most famous painter of the Dutch Golden Age, and the opportunity to work in his studio attracted young artists for nearly four decades, until the artist's death in 1669. This catalogue explores the workings of Rembrandt's studio in the form of drawings made by the master himself and fifteen of his pupils. Rembrandt and his students would often depict the same subject matter as an exercise and make drawings of the same nude models. In his later years, Rembrandt also made sketching trips outside Amsterdam to create his innovative landscapes of the Dutch countryside. His students followed this example, sometimes depicting the same sites." "Organized chronologically, Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference is a groundbreaking study that presents more than forty works by Rembrandt and related works by his pupils. It explores the scholarship of recent decades that has brought new and more systematic criteria to bear on determining the authenticity of Rembrandt drawings, and defines the styles of his pupils and followers with ever-greater precision. In so doing, this volume demystifies the sometimes-baffling exercise known as connoisseurship and seeks to re-enact the daily practices that Rembrandt used to teach his students and bring them to artistic maturity." "This is an essential book for anyone interested in the Dutch Golden Age or the lives and careers of Rembrandt and the artists in his immediate circle. A major exhibition of these drawings will be on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from December 8, 2009, to February 28, 2010." --Book Jacket.




Asia in Amsterdam


Book Description

Discusses the Asian luxury goods that were imported into the Netherlands during the 17th century and demonstrates the overwhelming impact these works of art had on Dutch life and art during the Golden Age




Seven Discourses on Art


Book Description

In the past, the distinctions between art and science weren't as clear-cut as they are today, and philosophers, researchers, and artists often shared insights and ideas. It was in that heady atmosphere that Sir Joshua Reynolds first rose to prominence, initially through his "Grand Style" paintings, but later for his work as a promoter of scientific research and the president and co-founder of the famed Royal Society. This text outlines some of Reynolds' most groundbreaking ideas about art, scholarship, and the intersection between the two.




Mug̲h̲al Painter of Flora and Fauna Ustād Manṣūr


Book Description

This volume follows Mughal Painters and their Work-A Biographical Survey and Comprehensive Catalogue (Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1994), the first comprehensive book of reference on the work of nearly 200 Mughal painters; and has been conceived to provide readers much information on the Mughal painting through the contribution of individual master painters. Need not say ample information is available about the artists of the Mughal atelier (sixteenth-seventeenth centuries). Yet, to date, except for some articles on a few painters, no book has been published on individual artist. Ustad Mansur, a keen observer of nature endowed with almost Euclidean intellect, deserved a more detailed study to re-evaluate his merit as an artist whose achievement in naturalistic portraiture of a large number of species from the world of flora and fauna has remained unsurpassed till today. Our attempt is to enter into the very creative process of this great Mughal painter; to relive in his times and environment, in order to discover real Mansur. The whole panorama of Mansur’s portraits of birds, animals and flowers set in marvellously and uniquely laid background represents, in his true spirit and characteristics, the very quintessence of nature’s endless variety of creation and beauty. Part I provides historical and artistic context in which Ustad Mansur worked. Information about him has been gleaned from original texts (principally Persian historical sources), supplemented by the evidence of artist’s own work. Part II comprises the plate section of representative eighteen miniatures that illustrate our painter’s style and his specialisation in painting. The appendix further enhances the value of this work since it provides correct rendering of contemporary inscriptions and determines genuine signatures and contemporary ascriptions. The volume is richly illustrated with a large number of black-and-white and colour illustrations. These illustrate the art and style of Ustad Mansur Nadir u’l ‘Asr (Unequalled of the Age), the most illustrious naturalist painter of India. It will naturally be of interest to students of art and natural history. It is also recommended to persons curious to know about the Mughal times. It is hoped that other volumes on individual Mughal painters will follow’ and monographs on their lives and work with a criticale valuation will be available.