National Gallery of Art

Count Carlo Cesare Malvasia's Felsina pittrice, or Lives of the Bolognese Painters, first published in two volumes in Bologna in 1678, is one of the most important sources for the history and criticism of painting in Italy. This richly illustrated volume provides a translation and critical edition of the opening part of the Felsina pittrice, which focuses on the art of late medieval Bologna. The text is unusual in the context of the Felsina pittrice as a whole in that it seeks to record what survives in the city, rather than focusing on individual artists. In response to Vasari’s account of the Renaissance of painting in Florence, Malvasia offers a colorful and valuable portrait of Trecento painting in Bologna, noting the location and condition of destroyed or whitewashed frescoes, dismantled polyptychs, and paintings for which no other record survives. Malvasia provides crucial information on works by important fourteenth-century painters such as Lippo di Dalmasio, Simone dei Crocefissi, and Vitale da Bologna. Included in the volume are historical notes to the text and to the transcriptions of Malvasia’s preparatory notes, the Scritti originali, published here in their entirety for the first time. The notes enrich our understanding of individual works and identify the sources Malvasia used. Elizabeth Cropper’s introductory essay serves to establish the significance of Malvasia as a historian of art, while Carlo Alberto Girotto’s bibliographical essay analyzes the production and reception of the Felsina pittrice as a whole. Copublished by the National Gallery of Art and Harvey Miller Publishers.

In the 1730s excavations near Naples began to uncover the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Unlike works that focus on the archaeological objects and their documentation, this volume views the discoveries from the standpoint of the immense interest they attracted in Europe and across the Atlantic in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when they were a focus of international scholarship, cultural diplomacy, and privileged tourism. Thirteen essays examine the involvement of kings, statesmen, scholars, and archaeologists in the exploitation of the ancient sites and the imaginative responses of artists, architects, designers, writers, and tourists. The lavish publications that recorded the archaeological finds and the works of art, luxury objects, and popular imagery inspired by them are extensively illustrated. Copublished by the National Gallery of Art and Yale University Press.

This far-ranging collection of essays—the first book-length scholarly exploration of Orsanmichele since 1996—marks the conclusion of a decades-long campaign to restore the magnificent medieval church and its art, most notably Orsanmichele's celebrated niche sculptures. Originally commissioned by Florence's trade guilds acting in competition with one another, the sculptures represent work by some of the greatest artists of the day—including Donatello, Filippo Brunelleschi, Andrea Pisano, Nanni di Banco, Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Andrea del Verrocchio—and are among the finest examples of Renaissance art in the world.

In twenty-two original essays by leading scholars working across disciplines, Orsanmichele and the History and Preservation of the Civic Monument makes important new information about the history and restoration of the church available for the first time, and examines the monument in its broadest context as a civic and religious center from the Middle Ages to the present day, revealing the historic building's evolving role as repository of history and living institution. Copublished by the National Gallery of Art and Yale University Press.

The development of photography from the mid-nineteenth century onward transformed the conditions of appreciation, marketing, and distribution of works of art. The role of the photographic album in this history has not been previously explored in a published study. Here, in twelve collected essays, scholars discuss the many different types of albums that were pioneers in this change, the photographic processes they represent, and their relationship to older reproductive media, with examples drawn mainly from nineteenth-century France, Great Britain, and Germany. Copublished by the National Gallery of Art and Yale University Press.

Fourteen essays by curators, art historians, and artists consider the work of painter Romare Bearden (1911–1988) in the contexts of American and international modernism as well as African American art history. Topics fall into four main areas: the relationship of Bearden’s work to literature, jazz, and modern dance; the sources of his imagery, including radical politics, religion, and southern black culture; his professional development and influence; and the influence of the avant-garde, including cubism and Pop Art, on his paintings and collages. Copublished by the National Gallery of Art and Yale University Press.