Vatican: All the Paintings: The Complete Collection of Old Masters, Plus More than 300 Sculptures, Maps, Tapestries, and other Artifacts
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Vatican: All the Paintings: The Complete Collection of Old Masters, Plus More than 300 Sculptures, Maps, Tapestries, and other Artifacts Details
From Booklist Ross King, author of many works of vivid art history, including Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling (2003), introduces this sumptuous showcase of 976 of the Vatican’s art treasures, observing that “the Vatican has always been a place sacred to the arts,” reaching back to the ancient Romans, for whom this hill overlooking the Tiber was a place of poets and seers, and forward through centuries of church patronage. Five million visitors a year tour this uniquely opulent citadel of art and its 21 museums, from the Pinacoteca (the picture gallery) to the Tapestry Gallery to the Egyptian and Etruscan collections. Now everyone everywhere can experience the Vatican’s magnificent collections in this veritable pageant of art history. Art historian Grebe provides to-the-point commentary, covering various popes’ commissioning of specific works and, beginning in the seventeenth century, avid acquisition of masterpieces. Here are exceptionally fine photographs of the Borgia Apartments, intricate frescoes, rare manuscripts and maps, the glorious Raphael Rooms, and the Collection of Modern Religious Art. An accompanying DVD provides additional portals onto the artistic wonders of the Vatican. --Donna Seaman Read more Review This comprehensive and heavy tome illustrates all the works of art on display in the Vatican and underscores the variety of its art, including works that popes commissioned from painters as well as works that were accumulated for art appreciation and prestige beginning in the 17th century. The book is divided into 22 sections representing the museums and areas of the Vatican. This includes the Pinacoteca (painting gallery), with paintings given to or purchased by the pops or removed from altarpieces of papal churches. Also included are images of art from the Borgia Apartments, the famous Raphael Rooms, and Michelangelo?s Sistine Chapel. Lesser-known works are included, such as a collection of modern religious art and tapestry and maps. The diversity of the holdings is highlighted by such collections as the Pio-Clementine Museum of early Christian Rome, the Gregorian Etruscan Museum, which houses non-Western art. Not to be forgotten is St. Peter?s Basilica and Piazz, and its art including Michelangelo?s famous Pieta sculpture.VERDICT This book, which has many beautiful color illustrations, its own slipcover, and a DVD that includes every work of art, will appeal to readers who are interested in the art of the Vatican. Read more About the Author Anja Grebe teaches art history at the University of Erlangen- Nuremberg/Germany. She is taking part in numerous international research projects and exhibitions and has published extensively on medieval and modern art history. Grebe is the author of The Louvre: All the Paintings and The Vatican: All the Paintings. She lives in Erlangen, Germany.Ross King is the author of the bestselling Brunelleschi's Dome and Michelangelo & the Pope's Ceiling, as well as the novels Ex-Libris and Domino. He lives in England, near Oxford. Read more
Reviews
It is great to have a record of all the paintings in the Vatican. The only problem I have is that some of the image quality is not up to par. (Overall the Louvre book has better reproductions but that collection is more accessible.) Several of the Sistine Chapel frescoes are illustrated with images from prior to the restoration that was completed in 1999. In particular the Michelangelo lunettes which are overexposed images of the pre-cleaned frescoes. Also their are a 2-3 heavily pixelated images due to being overly enlarged. Most of the images, and there are almost a thousand, are of good quality. I would recommend Taschen's recent XL book on Michelangelo for a more accurate representation of the Sistine Chapel's frescoes and the "Loggia of Raphael" by Abbeville for the same reason. Glad to have it, but wish the editors dug a little deeper some of the images.
