 Italian Women Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque by Claudio Strinati, Jordana Pomeroy – Hardcover: 352 pages; Skira (May 15, 2007) Italian Women Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque aims to provide the first survey of women professionally active as painters, engravers and sculptors in 16th and 17th century Italy, and to document the sociocultural context that contributed to shape their lives and oeuvres.
This catalogue, published in association with the traveling exhibition which opens at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D. C., examines the artistic practices and achievements of these remarkable women who managed to gain public, if not international, acclaim.
Featuring 60 outstanding works by a dozen of the foremost Italian female artists, this volume offers an unparalleled opportunity to understand their social, personal, and stylistic developments. This scholarly publication will undoubtedly make a significant contribution to the re-emergence of these women as artists of stature and thus constitute a new departure for historical investigations into the way gender has affected how we perceive works of art and into issues of attributions and art market economics.
 Northern Renaissance Art by James C. Snyder – Hardcover: 559 pages; Harry N. Abrams; 1st edition (Jan 1, 1985) Published jointly by Prentice Hall and Harry N. Abrams Inc., this text/anthology provides balanced, in-depth coverage of the painting (including miniatures), graphic arts, and sculpture (including minor arts), in Northern Europe—from the International Style to the Renaissance styles of the 15th and the 16th centuries.
 The Art of Florence by Glenn Andres, John Hunisak, Richard Turner, Takashi Okamura (Photographer) – Hardcover: 1312 pages; Artabras; Revised edition (May 1, 1999) Three leading art historians immerse readers in a city and a time of unparalleled cultural ferment—analyzing Florentine art as revealed through hundreds of glorious color photos. 701 color illustrations. 854 b&w. 2 volumes w/slipcase.
 The Aesthetics of Italian Renaissance Art: A Reconsideration of Style by Hellmut Wohl – Hardcover: 376 pages; Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (Jun 28, 1999) In this incisive study, Hellmut Wohl redefines style in the Italian Renaissance in light of contemporary testimony and close rereadings of seminal works. Through analysis of visual and textual evidence, he posits that Renaissance artists and their viewers conceived of art as decoration of surfaces. Offering a new approach to the issue of style, Wohl suggests that the scientific dimensions of early modern art works were less important to contemporaries than their function as ornamentation.
 History of Italian Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture by David G. Wilkins, Frederick N. Hartt – Hardcover: 696 pages; Harry N. Abrams, 4th edition (Mar 1994) Reader review: A perfect book for a library and coffee table. Fredrick Hartt is a man whose love of his subject is only equal to his willingness to expalin it in terms of the layman. He does not limit the purview of the book to merely the depiction of Italian life and piety, but brings in narrative and anecdotes to enliven the tome. He introduces us to the vocabulary of the arts, not consigning them to an inconvenient niche in the appendix, neither condescending incessantly or immersed in jagon. The resplendent illustrations, true eye candy, fill the book, making it a true bargain. Hartt truly deserves the copious awards given to him by the patrons of the arts.
 Art in Renaissance Italy by John T. Paoletti, Gary M. Radke, John T. Paletti – Hardcover: 480 pages; Prentice Hall; Trade edition (Jan 2, 1997) A glance at the pages of Art in Renaissance Italy shows at once its freshness and breadth of approach, which includes: How and why works at art, buildings, prints, and other kinds of art came to be; how men and women of the Renaissance regarded art and artists; and why works of Renaissance art look the way they do, and what this means to us. Unlike other books on the subject, this one covers not only Florence and Rome. Here too are Venice and the Veneto, Assisi, Siena, Milan, Pavia, Padua, Mantua, Verona, Ferrara, Urbino, and Naples—each governed in a distinctly different manner, every one with its own political and social structures that inevitably affected artistic styles. Spanning more than three centuries, the narrative brings to life the rich tapestry of Italian Renaissance society and the art works that are its enduring legacy. Throughout, special features evoke and document the people and places of this dynamic age.
 Virtue and Magnificence: Art of the Italian Renaissance Courts (Perspectives) by Alison Cole – Paperback: 192 pages; Harry N. Abrams (Mar 1, 1995) This text combines a discussion of history and art as it focuses on the smaller courts of Mantua, Ferrara, Naples, and Urbino that produced an extraordinary amount of great art. The book presents the work created there as the culmination of the desire of princes and dukes wishing to show the world their magnificence as rulers and their virtue as leaders of culture.
|  The Northern Renaissance: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575 by James Snyder – Hardcover: 592 pages; Prentice Hall; 2nd edition (Aug 15, 2004) Published jointly by Prentice Hall and Harry N. Abrams Inc., this text/anthology provides balanced, in-depth coverage of the painting (including miniatures), graphic arts, and sculpture (including minor arts), in Northern Europe -- from the International Style to the Renaissance styles of the 15th and the 16th centuries.
 Durer to Veronese: Sixteenth-Century Painting in the National Gallery by Jill Dunkerton, Susan Foister, Nicholas Penny – Paperback: 329 pages; Yale University Press (Oct 1, 2002) Focused on the marvelous collections of London's National Gallery and written by gallery staff, this is an accessible consideration of picture types (altarpieces, private devotions, palace decoration) and technique (painting on panel, painting on canvas, and preparatory drawings and studies) in the age of discovery. Using the collection for interpretive writing of high quality makes this more than just a catalog of pictures done at the same time and now in the same place. The authors provide detailed discussions of particular works and fit them into the artistic framework and understanding of the time, a time when art schools began to develop and when the world known to Europeans was expanding exponentially. A fine addition to both general and specialized art collections, this is highly recommended for all readers. — Jack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago Lib.Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc
 Bruges and the Renaissance: Memling to Pourbus by Maximiliaan P. J. Martens, Wim Blockmans, Maryan Wynn Ainsworth – Hardcover: 320 pages; Harry N. Abrams; 1st edition (Jun 1, 1999) In the sixteenth century, the Belgian city of Bruges was a great cultural and economic center. It was invariably depicted in both art and literature as the vibrant and sophisticated "Athens of the North," in which humanist ideas took root and flourished. This lavishly illustrated and wide-ranging study brings Bruges' Renaissance to life. It opens in the 1480s, when artist Gerard David settled in Bruges and Hans Memling was painting some of his greatest masterpieces, and ends in 1584, when Pieter Pourbus, the most important painter working in Bruges in the second half of the sixteenth century, died in the port city. Essays by a team of experts explore the artistic developments of the intervening nine decades, with a focus on the spread of ideas from the Italian Renaissance to Northern Europe. 300 illustrations, including 250 in full color
 Art and Life in Renaissance Venice (Perspectives (Harry N. Abrams, Inc) by Patricia Fortini Brown – Paperback: 176 pages; Harry N. Abrams (Sep 1, 1997) What was Venice like during the Renaissance, at the height of its power? How did the city look, and how did its citizens live? And just who were the people of this most cosmopolitan republic, a leading port city of Europe and gateway to Byzantium and the Muslim Levant? How did its splendid art differ from that of mainland Italy, and why? Through close examination of Renaissance paintings, drawings, book illustrations, and other art works, Patricia Fortini Brown brings this world alive, revealing a culture of high beauty, artifice, and craftsmanship.
 Art and Society in Italy 1350-1500 (Oxford History of Art Series) by Evelyn S. Welch – Hardcover: 352 pages; Oxford University Press; 1st edition (May 8, 1997) An excellent examination of the role of art in Renaissance life, including the actual day to day workings of the artists, their roles in the society as a whole, and the role of art itself in the display of "Magnificence" of the respective ruling authorities of the various Italian states. I have run across no other book with this unique perspective. It also discusses the role of women and women artists, while recognizing the extreme limits set for women, both in the society and in the creation of art works. I regret not being able to contact the author directly to offer my respect and admiration for such a formidable and at the same time completely accessible work of scholarship.
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The Mirror of the Artist: Northern Renaissance Art
Giotto to Durer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery
Renaissance Florence: The Invention of a New Art (Perspectives) 
Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence, 1300-1450 
