Oxbow Spring 2013.pdf - Oxbow Books

Artists’ Art in the Renaissance
Marilyn A Lavin (Author)
Marilyn Aronberg Lavin has taught the history of art at Washington University,
the University of Maryland, Yale, Princeton, and Università di Roma, La Sapienza.
Specializing in Italian 13th16th century painting, she is internationally known
for her books and articles on Piero della Francesca. Her other books include
The Place of Narrative: Mural Painting in Italian Churches, 1600 AD., and
Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art, both of which
were recipients of international prizes for distinguished scholarship. She is one of
the leaders in the use of computers and digitized imagery for research, teaching,
and publication in the history of art.
This book offers a series of case studies intended to introduce and define an
important class of fifteenth-century Italian art not previously recognized. It
is argued that the paintings and sculptures discussed were created privately
by artists for personal satisfaction and internal needs, outside the traditional
framework of patronage and commercial gain. Since there is no direct
documentation from this period of a work being privately made, the selection
presented here is necessarily speculative. Instead, the essays focus on works by
Piero della Francesca, Mantegna, Michelangelo, Bellini, and Titian that appear
in the artists testaments, letters of refusals to sell, and inventories showing
ownership at the time of death. The task at hand is to uncover the motivation
and meaning of works of art in which the medieval craftsman began to rise to
the status of independent artist, and the maker and the viewer confront each
other face to face for the first time.
9781904597438, £75.00, Available Now
HB, 230p, 86 col & b/w illus., Pindar Press
Hieronymus Bosch
Late Work
Charles D. Cuttler (Author)
Professor Charles D. Cuttler changed from artist to art historian at New York
University s Institute of Fine Arts, studying under distinguished teachers such as
Walter Friedlaender and Erwin Panofsky. A specialist in Flemish painting, he spent
the major part of his career teaching at the University of Iowa. He has published
reviews, articles, and a well known text, Northern Painting, and lectured on
Bosch on three continents. Retired in 1983, this enabled him to devote to further
research, much of it on Bosch. A result is Hieronymus Bosch: Late Work .
Art – Modern Period
This new book presents his discoveries in three late triptychs, a major trio of
Boschs maturity: the Haywain, The Temptation of St. Anthony (Lisbon), and
The Garden of Earthly Delights . He presents Boschs unique view of Christ and
salvation in union with hagiography, the Devotio moderna (modern devotion),
and medieval hermeneutics, a revelation of Boschs immense erudition and
overwhelming artistry. Bosch reinforced his concepts with supporting casts of
animals, natural and demonic, birds, and other iconographic elements. Analysis
of Berlin s picture of St. John the Evangelists apocalyptic vision of the Virgin Mary,
the Madrid Seven Deadly Sins tondo, and Vienna s drawing of the Tree-Man
expands our understanding. Other influences affecting Boschs art, whether he
traveled, or used contemporary prints, whether he drew upon Dantes Inferno
(he did), or religious tracts, and the attitudes of his ambience are also examined.
The Epilogue presents the authors understanding of Bosch in his time and place,
his religiosity and his genius.
9781904597445, £150.00, Available Now
HB, 436p, 216 col & b/w illus., Pindar Press
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