Medieval and Renaissance Art: People and Possessions
This important and beautiful book accompanies the opening of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s spectacular new Medieval and Renaissance galleries. Among the textiles, paintings, sculpture, glass, metalwork, prints, manuscripts, furniture, ceramics and jewelry featured here are such renowned treasures as the Devonshire tapestries, the Leonardo Notebooks, Donatello’s Ascension relief, the reliquary casket of St. Thomas Becket, and many more astonishing works.\ Organized thematically, the book...
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This important and beautiful book accompanies the opening of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s spectacular new Medieval and Renaissance galleries. Among the textiles, paintings, sculpture, glass, metalwork, prints, manuscripts, furniture, ceramics and jewelry featured here are such renowned treasures as the Devonshire tapestries, the Leonardo Notebooks, Donatello’s Ascension relief, the reliquary casket of St. Thomas Becket, and many more astonishing works.Organized thematically, the book explores the social contexts responsible for these captivating objects, both commonplace and precious, recovering the attitudes of makers and owners of the time toward artistic practice. Rather than adopting the traditional sharp distinction between the Medieval and Renaissance, the authors explore aspects of the whole of this long period in European design and manufacture – an approach that emphasizes the continuities and gradual developments that were often as significant as sudden upheaval.A general historical introduction to the social and political background is followed by chapters that explore concepts of art, workshops, and sales, the classical past, ornament, religious art, health and body, and the ways in which objects themselves express the attitudes of their owners.Library JournalThe reopening of the Victoria and Albert Museum's (V&A) Medieval and Renaissance galleries is an opportunity to revisit stunning objects and art. Recapturing it here, V&A curators Davies (History of Money: From Ancient Times to the Present Day) and Kennedy construct a framework for looking at these fine representative pieces and their place in history. Detailed chapters describe the culture of art in medieval Europe, its art markets, the influence of the classical past, use of ornaments, devotions, the use of art as protection, and the meaning of possession. While the mechanical and physical aspects of the art were important, Davies posits it was the intellectual and spiritual aspects that were emphasized at the time. VERDICT The V&A is unparalleled in its European and Renaissance collections. Beginner art enthusiasts cannot go wrong here, as the images and accompanying text help put a new spin on these old objects. Informative even for veteran scholars.—Nadine Dalton Speidel, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH
\ Library JournalThe reopening of the Victoria and Albert Museum's (V&A) Medieval and Renaissance galleries is an opportunity to revisit stunning objects and art. Recapturing it here, V&A curators Davies (History of Money: From Ancient Times to the Present Day) and Kennedy construct a framework for looking at these fine representative pieces and their place in history. Detailed chapters describe the culture of art in medieval Europe, its art markets, the influence of the classical past, use of ornaments, devotions, the use of art as protection, and the meaning of possession. While the mechanical and physical aspects of the art were important, Davies posits it was the intellectual and spiritual aspects that were emphasized at the time. VERDICT The V&A is unparalleled in its European and Renaissance collections. Beginner art enthusiasts cannot go wrong here, as the images and accompanying text help put a new spin on these old objects. Informative even for veteran scholars.—Nadine Dalton Speidel, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH\ \
