Book Description

"Rudolf Wittkower touch no subject that he did not illuminate, but the architecture of the Italian Baroque was recognized as the particular domain which he ruled without a rival. His Art and Architecture in Italy 1600-1750, became the standard work as soon as it was published. Regrettably, it was his last full-scale contribution, but his research continued, and the articles that he wrote during the last twelve years of his life extend and supplement that book in many respects. These are now collected for the first time, together with earlier writings which have stood the test of time and the probings of later scholarship. This volume extends from his youthful but still unsuperseded study of Carlo Rainaldi (1937) to his latest, unpublished, thoughts on the domes of Vittone (1970), an architect whom he discovered practically single-handed. In between come four essays relating to Bernini, as both architect and sculptor; a detailed examination of S. Maria della Salute in Venice; lengthy reconsiderations of Guarini and Borromini; a description of Filippo Juvarra's sketchbook at Chatsworth, including reproductions for the first time of all its pages; and three studies of Piranesi. With 357 illustrations." --