The Power of the Sea Making Waves in British Art 1790-2014 Edited by Janette Kerr & Christiana Payne ISBN: 9781908326577 Sansom & Company Ltd. 10.75 x 8.25in. 160pp. 50 col. June 2014, $40.00 Paperback, non-returnable
The Hours of Night & Day A Rediscovered Cycle of Bronze Reliefs by Giovanni Casini and Pietro Cipriani Eike D. Schmidt ISBN: 9780989371858 The Minneapolis Institute of Arts/Books & Projects 7 x 9in. 112pp. 111 col., 3 b.&w. October 2014, $29.95 Hardcover
The Male Nude Dimensions of Masculinity from the 19th Century and Beyond Agustín Arteaga, Guy Cogeval, Ophélie Ferlier, Adolfo Mantilla, Xavier Rey ISBN: 9788494185632 Ediciones el Viso 9.25 x 10in. 288pp. 183 col., 33 b.&w. June 2014, $65.00 Hardcover
Witches & Wicked Bodies Deanna Petherbridge ISBN: 9781906270551 National Galleries of Scotland 9.75 x 8.75in. 128pp., 90 col. Reprinting August 2014, $25.00 Paperback with flaps
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Artists in Britain have long been fascinated by the sea. Since the early 19th century, the sea has been an important focus for painters relishing the challenge of working directly from nature, often in inhospitable conditions. Such work has gained a new importance reflecting current concerns about climate change and rising sea levels. Danger is a recurrent theme; Morland, Danby, Brett and Langley emphasized the human costs of shipwrecks, Turner concentrated on elemental fury, and Constable on the sea’s breezy freshness. Late 19th century depictions seem more benign, portraying the sea as a source of leisure and health. Moore, James, and Laurence all feature.
Created around 1730, this group of reliefs adds fundamentally to our understanding of bronze sculpture in the period between the late Baroque and the Enlightenment. The sculptor Pietro Cipriani, who collaborated on the reliefs with the painter Giovanni Casini, emerges as a key Florentine bronze artist of the early 18th century. The works help confirm that the rich tradition of bronze sculpture in Florence – initiated by Giambologna and influential across Europe – continued for one generation longer than scholars previously believed. The reliefs also show that the last major exponent of this tradition was Pietro Cipriani. The Hours of Night and Day sculptures encapsulate early 18th-century European ideas about the cyclical nature of time and about the characteristics of particular moments.
This book analyzes, from six standpoints, the different ways in which artists have represented the male nude body from modernity to the present day. A hundred and seventy-two works of art created in various techniques and belonging to collections from all over the world engage in a dialogue that originates in modern eighteenth-century Europe, when the canon of classical antiquity was revived and identity between moral virtue and strength was assessed to define the heroic man. From manly strength to the most human pain, this book aims to show the reader both the ancient expression and its contemporary manifestations.
Witches & Wicked Bodies provides an innovative, rich survey of images of European witchcraft from the sixteenth century to the present day. It focuses on the representation of female witches and the enduring stereotypes they embody, ranging from hideous old crones to beautiful young seductresses. Petherbridge introduces this fascinating subject and includes catalogue entries on each of the exhibited works. The illustrations primarily feature drawings and prints as well as a group of important paintings. A wide range of artists is represented including Dürer, Goya, Fuseli, Blake, Burra and Rego.