This is an account of how the monument that human ingenuity could build to itself came into being.During the 13C the prosperous Florence deemed that its small Cathedral needed more than just more repairs. Santa Reparata was then demolished and a new and considerably larger building was commissio...
Ross King, author of the pop-histories "Brunelleschi's Dome" and "Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling," writes another great story that combines artistic and political intrigue. This is a tale of the 1860s in France, when Edouard Manet and the not-yet-named Impressionists challenged the artistic...
Interesting and very different from what I expected. Realizing how difficult it was to paint anything -- the pigments, additives, etc. needed and the precise making of them and how much work, space, etc. that it took, it's a wonder we have so many gorgeous works. One of things that struck me ab...