Florence (Art & Architecture) |  | Author: Rolf C. Wirtz
Publisher: h. f. ullmann
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $12.87
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Seller: supermoviedeals
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 154774
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 560
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 6.1 x 1.6
ISBN: 0841601488
Dewey Decimal Number: 709.4551
EAN: 9780841601482
ASIN: 0841601488
Publication Date: February 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Each volume of the ART & ARCHITECTURE series is opulently illustrated. The highly readable texts give you concentrated information on accessing well and lesser known sites in the world of art. An image of every piece of art that is described is included, allowing readers to easily recognize the original on site. Insets on cultural-historical topics and illustrated glossaries, summaries, and timelines supplement the body text - leaving a deeper, more lasting impression of the material that is covered. Convenient compact format makes these books particularly handy to take along as a guide while viewing the great works featured within.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Florence (Art & Architecture) February 11, 2010
R. J. Bathurst (Auckland, New Zealand)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Arrived promptly and in excellent condition. I wanted it as a gift for a colleague so its excellent condition was important. Thank you.
 great illustrations, so-so text May 16, 2008
shep (Princeton, NJ, USA)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
This book is worth its price for the superb illustrations. It has high-quality color illustrations of the most important Renaissance art, sculpture, and architecture, in Florence. They are a joy to look at and well selected. Of course, everything is not here--there is just too much fine art in this one city, so many masterpieces cannot be included. But it's a fine selection.
The illustrations rate 5 stars. But the text rates only two to three. Various chapters are written by nine different Florentine art-historians. Some are tedious to read--they discuss in excessive detail, and with appallingly long sentences, who did or did not paint/sculpt/build a particular piece; whether or not that piece is or is not one of the greatest; and (most importantly to some of the writers, it seems) whether or not other art-historians are right or wrong in their attributions/criticisms of the piece. In other words, material of interest only to other art historians, with very little on the beauty of the pieces, why they are inspiring, and on how they were made. However, several of the later chapters are well written and interesting.
Annoyingly, the text refers to artworks without saying whether or where they are illustrated in the book. There are no cross-references. I wasted a lot of time going back and forth in the (very good) index to seek illustrations. Some turned out to be in the chapter I was reading, some were in the first introductory chapter, some were in both, and some were not illustrated at all. Zero stars here.
The time period covered is from Medieval to modern, but the bulk of its coverage is on the periods of the antecedents to the Renaissance and the Renaissance itself--exactly the period of most interest.
The book comes in large hardback (12.5 x 10.9 inch, '19896 ISBN) and slightly smaller (10 x 8.5 inch,'0678 or '34096 ISBN) formats. Both are identical in pagination--text and illustrations are simply enlarged in the bigger version.
The illustrations alone are worth the price.
Good overview August 9, 2008
D. Tobin (Northern VA, USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful little volume for an overview. The text doesn't provide enough detail for a school project or art history buffs, but it is a great review. The book is too heavy to use as a tour book, but I bought it after our trip to Florence as a wonderful little reminder of a fascinating city. The overall size is also too small for a coffee table book.
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