Items related to Ugly Renaissance

Ugly Renaissance ISBN 13: 9780091944353

Ugly Renaissance - Softcover

 
9780091944353: Ugly Renaissance
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 

The Ugly Renaissance is a delightfully debauched tour of the sordid, gritty reality behind some of the most celebrated artworks and cultural innovations of all time.
Tourists today flock to Italy by the millions to admire the stunning achievements of the Renaissance paintings, statues, and buildings that are the legacy of one of the greatest periods of cultural rebirth and artistic beauty the world has ever seen. But beneath the elegant surface lurked a seamy, vicious world of power politics, perversity, and corruption. In this meticulously researched and lively portrait, Renaissance scholar Alexander Lee illuminates the dark and titillating contradictions that existed alongside the enlightened spirit of the time: the scheming bankers, greedy politicians, bloody rivalries, murderous artists, religious conflicts, rampant disease, and indulgent excess without which many of the most beautiful monuments of the Renaissance would never have come into being.

"

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Lee...lays bare the base tendencies and avaricious impulses that undergirded much of the Renaissance's artistic splendor.... Focusing progressively on the lived experiences of the period's artists, the designs of their patrons and the broader political tendencies reshaping the continent, Lee provides an entertaining frolic buttressed by serious scholarship.... An illuminating look at how the flowering of human imagination celebrated in the Renaissance was fertilized by the excesses of human nature.
--" Kirkus Reviews
"

A "Times Literary Supplement "Book of the Year
Fascinating. . . . Explore[s] the dualities of creative brilliance and human baseness. "The Spectator"
An entertaining frolic buttressed by serious scholarship. . . . An illuminating look at how the flowering of human imagination celebrated in the Renaissance was fertilized by the excesses of human nature. "Kirkus Reviews"
Effortlessly combining scholarly depth with a highly accessible style. . . . Lee has given us a Renaissance that is . . . uglier, but infinitely more interesting. "New Humanist""

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year
Fascinating. . . . Explore[s] the dualities of creative brilliance and human baseness. The Spectator
An entertaining frolic buttressed by serious scholarship. . . . An illuminating look at how the flowering of human imagination celebrated in the Renaissance was fertilized by the excesses of human nature. Kirkus Reviews
Effortlessly combining scholarly depth with a highly accessible style. . . . Lee has given us a Renaissance that is . . . uglier, but infinitely more interesting. New Humanist

"
Book Description:
Featuring the beauties of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, combined with the dark and hidden side of the Renaissance, by an acclaimed historian and expert in the period.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • ISBN 10 009194435X
  • ISBN 13 9780091944353
  • BindingPaperback
  • Rating

(No Available Copies)

Search Books:



Create a Want

If you know the book but cannot find it on AbeBooks, we can automatically search for it on your behalf as new inventory is added. If it is added to AbeBooks by one of our member booksellers, we will notify you!

Create a Want

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780345802927: The Ugly Renaissance: Sex, Greed, Violence and Depravity in an Age of Beauty

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0345802926 ISBN 13:  9780345802927
Publisher: Anchor Books, 2015
Softcover

  • 9780099579472: The Ugly Renaissance: Alexander Lee

    Arrow, 2014
    Softcover

  • 9780385536592: The Ugly Renaissance: Sex, Greed, Violence and Depravity in an Age of Beauty

    Doubleday, 2014
    Hardcover

  • 9780091944346: The Ugly Renaissance

    Hutchi..., 2013
    Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace