Architectural drawings were limited to mostly monochrome in Europe until color appeared in the 17th century.
Princeton University Press
Posted inBooks
How Venetian Glass Seduced American Artists a Century Ago
A lavishly illustrated, fascinating book explores the resurgence of Venetian glass and the ways it influenced American ideas about taste and beauty.
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A Food-Obsessed Frolic Through Western Art History
An art historian and food and wine writer, Leonard Barkan roves from Pompeiian mosaics to Bible passages to Shakespearean plays in search of food and drink.
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Carrie Mae Weems’s Visual Response to Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come”
Weems’s essay is excerpted from Ways of Hearing: Reflections on Music in 26 Pieces.
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Why Early Modern European Artists Were Obsessed With Shells
From Leonardo to Rembrandt, artists were drawn to these soft and glowing forms.
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A Beautiful Guide to Colors in the Natural World, Revisited 200 Years Later
“Nature’s Palette” reproduces the groundbreaking color systems and illustrates them with lush engravings.
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Michelangelo’s Last Two Decades Were His Busiest and Loneliest
William E. Wallace excavates a lesser-known but crucial final chapter of the artist’s approximately 75-year career.
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Analyzing the Biases of Western Art History With Hard Data
Careful and yet compellingly fresh in its approach, Painting by Numbers offers a new kind of methods book.
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Roni Horn’s Memories and Meditations About Weather
Prosaic and profound, Horn’s book “Island Zombie” feels like standing before art again.
Posted inArt
John Chamberlain’s Previously Unknown Poems From Black Mountain College
Here’s a sneak peek of the artist’s previously unknown writings from 1955, to be published by Princeton University Press this month.
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The Complex History of Yellow, a “Mediocre” Color
Considering the evidence of yellow’s constant fluctuation in and out of favor, it is curious to see author Michel Pastoureau wonder if it could be “the color of the future.”
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Putting the Art Back in Art History
Christopher S. Wood’s A History of Art History will be eye-opening for anyone who cares about art.