Botticelli

Category: Books,New, Used & Rental Textbooks,Humanities

Botticelli Details

From Publishers Weekly With the dimensions of a 16.5"×12"-tank, and armored in a special tissue-lined black box, this blockbuster picture book is ready to roll into the holiday season. Starting with possibly the least-scintillating opening sentence ever ("Art history is the scholarly discipline that addresses the ubiquitous medium of the visual image"), University of Leipzig art history professor Zöllner proceeds to deliver an accurate if thoroughly stodgy account of Botticelli's life (1444/45–1510). Fortunately, the story is often fascinating enough to overcome Zöllner's dry, professorial style. The explanation behind the eerie symbolism in some of Botticelli's portraits, and of how this symbolism was tied to the murderous political machinations of Florence's ruling Medici family, for example, is bound to please Da Vinci Code fans. And anyway, the obvious attraction of a large-format picture book is the pictures. Like the text, the book's layout is not especially imaginative, but it hardly matters when the reproductions themselves are as good as they are here, with vibrant colors and crisp details. Seen at this size, and with such intense clarity, Botticelli's nymphs and noblewomen are intoxicating. Especially captivating are the glorious, full-page details splashed across the frontispiece of each chapter. A good basic reference on the painter, this volume will also make for some seriously heavy artillery for anyone's holiday gift list. (Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Read more Review "...Seen at this size, and with such intense clarity, Botticelli’s nymphs and noblewomen are intoxicating..." -- Publishers Weekly, November 2005"...the book provides a reasonably comprehensive survey of the artist’s career and works..." -- Library Journal, January 2006"Luxe volume.. sumptuous reproductions of Botticelli’s majestic mythology paintings.. the enormous pages allow the reader to pore over enlarged details." -- Newsday, December 2005"This year’s coffee-table sensation… this is one stocking stuffer that will throw Satna’s back out..." -- Wall Street Journal, December 2005 Read more About the Author Frank Zollner has been Professor of Art History at the University of Leipzig since 1996. Read more

Reviews

I was hoping for a stunning, quality coffee table book as a gift and this is neither. The cover you see is the actual cover of the book, not a dustcover, and it has that lumpy, plasticized look that gives the appearance of a bargain table find rather than a fine art book. Nor did I find the quality of the photographs to be impressive when in fact they are somewhat poor in many instances. The binding is also poor, making the textblock look slightly warped. There is a great deal of text but I have not read enough of it to form an opinion as I was looking more for a representation of the artists work and not a discourse on the man and the period in which he worked. However, since I bought this at such a low price, I will keep it for my own bookshelf but will continue to look for another for the gift I was seeking - something more along the lines of Taschen's Van Gogh with its fabulous reproductions.

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