The Secret Language of the Renaissance: Decoding the Hidden Symbolism of Italian Art - Softcover

Richard Stemp

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844839370 ISBN 13: 9781844839377

Publisher: Watkins Publishing LTD, 2018

Synopsis

Crack the code of mystery and meaning in the greatest age of Italian art.

We may never know what the Mona Lisa is really smiling about, but we do know that there s much more to the masterpieces of Renaissance art than the beauty that meets the eye. There are layers of significance below the surface of works by Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Angelico, Donatello, Michelangelo and many others - a store of secrets even more fascinating than fiction. This magnificently illustrated guide by an expert art historian gives you the key to unlock those secrets for yourself.

In the mind of the Renaissance artist, meaning took shape through symbols: everything from peacocks to centaurs conveyed a message. Often these meanings drew on a traditional symbolic vocabulary, a common language available to educated people of the time but largely lost to modern viewers. Occasionally a painter, sculptor or architect encoded a more specific meaning in a canvas or a text, a bust or a building - perhaps even an explosive political sentiment or an encrypted expression of heretical faith.

The Secret Language of the Renaissance peels back these layers of meaning in three distinct, detailed sections. Part One is a vivid immersion in the culture of this remarkable period, tracing the profusion of innovations in literature, painting, sculpture and the decorative arts that date to this time. Part Two offers a wide-ranging guide to the essential elements of symbolic language in Renaissance art, including colour, geometry, light and shade, proportion, perspective and body language, using examples ranging from Carlo Crivelli's Annunciation to Donatello's Mary Magdalene.

Part Three, the heart of the book, analyzes more than 40 works grouped around a dozen themes, including Mythology, War and Peace, and Death and Eternity. Each work is shown in full colour, in all its glory; then, through an ingenious technique of ''selective isolation'', each is taken apart to reveal the symbols it contains and to interpret their enigmatic meaning. And throughout the book, fascinating boxes shed light on themes and topics of the time, from guilds and confraternities to the original ''bonfire of the vanities''.

For all those who relish esoteric symbolism, cryptic codes, and the riches of Renaissance Italy itself, The Secret Language of the Renaissance will instruct and delight in equal measure.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Stemp lectures at the National Gallery, Tate Modern and Tate Britain. He wrote and presented the TV series ''Art in the National Gallery'' for Channel 4.

Edition details

• Publisher: Watkins Publishing LTD
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844839370
• ISBN 13: 9781844839377
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224