|
Loading...
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendationsLoading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Nothing special, but no complaints. (  ) Kynaratholis | Dec 11, 2007 |  A well-written introduction to the Renaissance. In six chapters, Johnson presents the period's economic foundation (1), the literary and scientific progress (2), sculpture (3), architecture (4) and painting (5) as well as its reach beyond Italy (6). While the first two chapters work well, the visually oriented chapters on sculpture, architecture and painting need graphic support (such as the Taschen book on Sculpture) to understand, appreciate and distinguish the evolution. The most interesting aspect of the Renaissance is - using Gibson's phrase - the unevenly distributed future of people living in the Renaissance mindset already in the 13th century to the 16th century - colleagues dispersed in time and space. What Johnson does not highlight is the fact that the Renaissance is also a product of a very violent society. The Italian city states, later the French and German kings as well as the Pope, were rivals in arts and war. Competition among artists, patrons and cities kickstarted by learning from the Ancients, the Arabs and the Byzantines as well as experimentation led to one of mankind's hotbeds of innovation. (  )1  jcbrunner | Feb 4, 2007 | The reader gives good pace to this excellent summary of an important step in the evolution of Western civilization. Mr. Howard's English is clear and easy to understand; his French and Italian skills are convincing. The narrator's smooth movement through a factual forest adds to the mood of awe the author intended for his subject. There is little opportunity for theatrics or characterization in the text, and the restraint doesn't in any way detract from what is a gifted mix of biographies and history. The development of the first universities from the 12th century onwards, growing wealth and patronage in certain cities, and above all the invention of printing and cheap paper, provided essential conditions for the Renaissance. And it was in literature and scholarship that it began, in the rebirth of classical culture that loosened the Church's iron grip on visual art. Paul Johnson tells the story, in turn, of Renaissance literature, sculpture, building and painting. Despite the critical importance of inventions outside Italy - printing in Germany and oil painting in Holland - he locates the Renaissance firmly in Italy and in Florence above all, between 1400 and 1560. There are memorable sketches of the key figures - the frugal and shockingly original Donatello, the awesome Michelangelo, the delicacy of Giovanni Bellini. The final part of the book charts the spread and decline of the Renaissance, as the Catholic Church repositioned itself to counter the Reformation which the Renaissance had itself helped to produce. 1 antimuzak | Dec 6, 2005 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 067964086X, Hardcover)The Renaissance holds an undying place in the human imagination, and its great heroes remain our own, from Michelangelo and Leonardo to Dante and Montaigne. This period of profound evolution in European thought is credited with transforming the West from medieval to modern; reviving the city as the center of human activity and the acme of civilization; and, of course, producing the most astonishing outpouring of artistic creation the world has ever known. Perhaps no era in history was more revolutionary, and none has been more romanticized. What was it? In The Renaissance, the great historian Paul Johnson tackles that question with the towering erudition and imaginative fire that are his trademarks.Johnson begins by painting the economic, technological, and social developments that give the period its background. But, as Johnson explains, "The Renaissance was primarily a human event, propelled forward by a number of individuals of outstanding talent, in some cases amounting to genius." It is the human foreground that absorbs most of the book's attention. "We can give all kinds of satisfying explanations of why and when the Renaissance occurred and how it transmitted itself," Johnson writes. "But there is no explaining Dante, no explaining Chaucer. Genius suddenly comes to life, and speaks out of a vacuum. Then it is silent, equally mysteriously. The trends continue and intensify, but genius is lacking." In the four parts that make up the heart of the book--"The Renaissance in Literature and Scholarship," "The Anatomy of Renaissance Sculpture," "The Buildings of the Renaissance," and "The Apostolic Successions of Renaissance Painting"--Johnson chronicles the lives and works of the age's animating spirits. Finally, he examines the spread and decline of the Renaissance, and its abiding legacy. A book of dazzling riches, The Renaissance is a compact masterpiece of the historian's art. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:10 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia in English (1)
