The ten letters collected here are arguably the most famous and beloved letters of our century. Written when Rainer Maria Rilke was himself still a young man with most of his greatest work before him, they are addressed to a student who had sent Rilke some of his work, asking for advice about becoming a writer. The two never met, but over a period of several years Rilke wrote him these ten letters, which have been enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of readers for what Stephen Mitchell calls the "vibrant and deeply felt experience of life" that informs them.

Set in contemporary London, it's Bridget Jones meets Matthew Collings with a dash of pure Canadian angst thrown in. A talented young artist is trying to get over the death of her boyfriend on a disastrous trip to Central America. Blackly humorous, Jean McNeil's deeply introspective style and her wild imagination are perfectly suited to this tale of modern Bohemia.

A literary classic, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh Captures the voice of one of the most beloved and important artists of all time.Though Vincent van Gogh is often thought of as a mad genius, in The Letters of Vincent van Gogh the thoughtful, effervescent, and sensitive man is revealed to readers through his own voice.This collection of letters, arranged in chronological order and written to Vincent's closest confidant, his brother and art dealer, Theo, provide a riveting narrative of van Gogh's life. The letters expose Vincent's creative process; his joy and inspiration derived from literature, Japanese art, and nature; as well as his many romantic disappointments and constant poverty. Also documented are Vincent's close relationships with fellow artists, especially Paul Gauguin. Van Gogh's tender and often ebullient letters provide a sharp contrast to the devastating and frequently violent mental breakdowns that plagued and eventually destroyed him.Collected and edited by art historian Mark Roskill, this volume also includes a chronology, a short memoir by van Gogh's sister-in-law that fills in many of the blanks of Vincent's early years, and reproductions of selected artwork discussed in van Gogh's letters.An epistolary classic, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh is not just an important historical collection but also a captivating treasure.

What are the fundamental differences between classic and baroque art? Is there a pattern underlying the seemingly helter-skelter development of art in different cultures and at different times? What causes our entirely different reactions to precisely the same painting or to the same painter?In this now-classic treatise, published originally in Germany in the early 1920s, Professor Wölfflin provides an objective set of criteria to answer these and related questions. Examining such factors as style, quality, and mode of representation in terms of five opposed dynamisms (the linear vs. painterly, plane vs. recession, closed vs. open form, multiplicity vs. unity, and clearness vs. unclearness), the author analyzes the work of 64 major artists, delving even into sculpture and architecture. 150 illustrations of the work of Botticelli, van Cleve, Durer, Holbein, Brueghel, Bouts, Hals, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Titian, Vermeer, and other major figures accompany Professor Wölfflin's brilliant contributions to the methodology of art criticism.Whether you teach art, study it, or want to understand it purely for your own enjoyment, this epoch-making study will certainly increase your comprehension of and pleasure in the world's art heritage.

A landmark study of the nude in art―from the ancient Greeks to Henry Moore―by a towering figure in art historyIn this classic book, Kenneth Clark, one of the most eminent art historians of the twentieth century, examines the ever-changing fashion in what constitutes the ideal nude as a basis of humanist form, from the art of the ancient Greeks to that of Renoir, Matisse, and Henry Moore. The Nude reveals the sensitivity of aesthetic theory to fashion, what distinguishes the naked from the nude, and just why the nude has played such an important role in art history. As Clark writes, “The nude gains its enduring value from the fact that it reconciles several contrary states. It takes the most sensual and immediately interesting object, the human body, and puts it out of reach of time and desire; it takes the most purely rational concept of which man is capable, mathematical order, and makes it a delight to the senses; and it takes the vague fears of the unknown and sweetens them by showing that the gods are like men and may be worshipped for their life-giving beauty rather than their death-dealing powers.”

"A valuable contribution."—Paul Goldberger, New York Times"Nearly every page of the book is wittily illustrated with cartoons, drawings, and photographs. If the coming generation or architects—and their clients—pay attention to it, America may someday be a much more agreeable place."—John Fischer, HarpersAs teachers of architectural design, Kent Bloomer and Charles Moore have attempted to introduce architecture from the standpoint of how buildings are experienced, how the affect individuals and communities emotionally and provide us with a sense of joy, identity, and place. In giving priority to these issues and in questioning the professional reliance on abstract two-dimensional drawings, they often find themselves in conflict with a general and undebated assumption that architecture is a highly specialized system with a set of prescribed technical goals, rather than a sensual social art historically derived from experiences and memories of the human body. This book, an outgrowth of their joint teaching efforts, places the human body at the center of our understanding of architectural form.Body, Memory, and Architecture traces the significance of the body from its place as the divine organizing principle in the earliest built forms to its near elimination from architectural thought in this century. The authors draw on contemporary models of spatial perception as well as on body-image theory in arguing for a return of the body to its proper place in the architectural equation.

The much overused word genius aptly describes only a few people in the history of civilization. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) unquestionably belongs in this elite group. Anyone who has looked in amazement at the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, or the many drawings that sprang from his fertile imagination may wonder how he accomplished these astounding works of art. Fortunately for posterity, Leonardo left his Treatise on Painting, essentially a primer for students interested in learning the craft of drawing and painting.Even a quick perusal of this multifaceted work will reveal the great artist's famously keen powers of observation and his scientific approach to the study of nature. He begins with careful instructions on drawing the main features of human anatomy, then moves on to techniques of rendering motion and perspective. He discusses aspects of good composition; inventiveness; the expression of various emotions; creating effects of light, shadow, and color; and many other subtle points of artistic composition. Throughout Leonardo stresses the importance of meticulous study of the subjects to be rendered and the need for assiduous practice: "Those who become enamored of the practice of the art without having previously applied to the diligent study of the scientific part of it may be compared to mariners who put to sea in a ship without rudder or compass, and therefore cannot be certain of arriving at the wished-for port."This outstanding edition - complete with anatomical drawings by the French classicist master Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) and geometrical illustrations by the great Italian Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), as well as an informative life of Leonardo and an appendix that lists the artist's manuscripts, principal paintings, and drawings - will make an attractive addition to the libraries of art students, art historians, and anyone interested in the works of the original "Renaissance man"

Serving as both an introduction to fifteenth-century Italian painting and as a text on how to interpret social history from the style of pictures in a given historical period, this new edition to Baxandall's pre-eminent scholarly volume examines early Renaissance painting, and explains how the style of painting in any society reflects the visual skills and habits that evolve out of daily life. Renaissance painting, for example, mirrors the experience of such activities as preaching, dancing, and gauging barrels. The volume includes discussions of a wide variety of painters, including Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Stefano di Giovanni, Sandro Botticelli, Masaccio, Luca Signorelli, Boccaccio, and countless others. Baxandall also defines and illustrates sixteen concepts used by a contemporary critic of painting, thereby assembling the basic equipment needed to explore fifteenth-century art.This new second edition includes an appendix that lists the original Latin and Italian texts referred to throughout the book, providing the reader with all the relevant, authentic sources. It also contains an updated bibliography and a new reproduction of a recently restored painting which replaces the original.

A classic work of advice, criticism, and inspiration for aspiring artists and lovers of art"Art when really understood is the province of every human being." So begins The Art Spirit, the collected words, teachings, and wisdom of innovative artist and beloved teacher Robert Henri. Henri, who painted in the Realist style and was a founding member of the Ashcan School, was known for his belief in interactive nature of creativity and inspiration, and the enduring power of art. Since its first publication in 1923, The Art Spirit, has been a source of inspiration for artists and creatives from David Lynch to George Bellows. Filled with valuable technical advice as well as wisdom about the place of art and the artist in American society, this classic work continues to be a must-read for anyone interested in the power of creation and the beauty of art.

Winner of the National Book Critics' Circle Award for Criticism.One of the most highly regarded books of its kind, Susan Sontag's On Photography first appeared in 1977 and is described by its author as "a progress of essays about the meaning and career of photographs." It begins with the famous "In Plato's Cave"essay, then offers five other prose meditations on this topic, and concludes with a fascinating and far-reaching "Brief Anthology of Quotations."