The Hidden Life of Renaissance Art: Secrets and Symbols in Great Masterpieces

Hardcover

Coffee Table Size

2007 Clare Gibson

If someone you know is a fan of Renaissance art, a present of this book will go down a treat. The sumptuous paintings reproduced in its pages are worth the cover price alone, with masterpieces from Renaissance greats Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli and Hans Holbein in all their glory. However, it s the detailed historical context and the information provided about how to decipher the hidden messages encoded within the paintings that make it a fascinating read. A gem. --Michelle Stanistreet, Books Editor, Sunday Express

Gibson quotes Gide: The work of art is the exaggeration of an idea. A half-truth when he said it, but perhaps three-quarters true or more in the Renaissance. This copiously illustrated book makes the case that, far from doing away with the medieval mania for allegory, the Renaissance only redoubled it, thanks to the neo-platonic notion that the material was just a bodying forth of the ideal. It s in part a fact-packed reference companion: know your classical gods and goddesses, your saints and sacraments at a glance. Gibson s great contribution, though, is in the lucid way she anatomises a range of Renaissance masterpieces, teasing out the complex meanings that inform the ravishing beauty of these works. --The Scotsman, Books In Brief, January 12, 2008

This is a facinating book. I was given it as a present and have spent many happy hours delving in and out

The Hidden Life of Renaissance Art, and its companion book, The Hidden Life of Art, such well-balanced and beautifully illustrated introductions to the symbolism and iconography used by artists to add depth of meaning to their paintings that I regularly give both books to friends and relations. The Hidden Life of Renaissance Art is divided into three chapters based on the religious, humanist-influenced and secular paintings of the period, with subjects covered including Old and New Testament scenes, Classical figures and mythological settings, personifications and portraits and individuals' imprese, which together present a balanced picture of the subjects painted by Renaissance artists