The Great Masters of European Art by Stefano G. Casu, Giorgio Bonsanti (Introduction), Alena Franchi, Andrea Franci

From the Publisher

Like great novels, the masterpieces of painting are linked to the society and the historical period in which they were created, and constitute indispensable keys to their interpretation. So turning the pages of this book, looking at the reproductions of the pictures and reading the comments on the works and the biographies of the individual artists is equivalent to exploring the great periods in Western culture, from the end of the Middle Ages to the dawn of the contemporary era.

A careful selection that presents "some of the highest peaks of achievement in the painting of the European tradition," from the precious paintings on a gold ground of the Italian primitives to the subtleties of Flemish art, from the visionary qualities of German painting to the concreteness of Caravaggio and from the tragic realism of Goya to the golden age of French Impressionism.

Giorgio Bonsanti, formerly the director of the Galleria Estense in Modena and of the Museo di San Marco and Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, is now professor of the History and Technique of Restoration at Florence University. In his capacity as superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, he has overseen important works of restoration. He has published extensively on Italian and foreign art from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century and edited the volumes on the basilica of San Francesco in Assisi in the series "Mirabilia Italiae."

Stefano G. Casu has a research doctorate in art history. Lecturer at Florence University, he has written essays on the fifteenth-century painting of the Veneto region and on the relations between Humanism and the figurative arts.

Elena Franchi collaborates with the department of History of the Arts at Pisa University and the Laboratory of Visual Arts at the Scuola Normale Superiore in the same city. She devotes herself to the conservation of the artistic heritage and to the history of the teaching of art history. She has published numerous works.

Andrea Franci teaches art history and focuses his attention on Italian art from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. He has published his researches in Paragone, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, Arte Cristiana and Miniatura.

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