Not to be Missed

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The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe 1520–1630

Since the early Bronze Age the sword has been a sign of wealth, status and the power of divine right. Yet, before the sixteenth century the sword was almost never carried on the person in everyday life. It was a rare, noble weapon, carried into battle by the aristocratic warrior class but set aside in time of peace. However, the increasing prominence of the Renaissance middle classes brought a fundamental change to the sword's place in society. Now large numbers of non-noble but often wealthy and upwardly mobile people could also afford rich things like fine clothes, jewelry and weapons. More

they are all fire and every one doth shine: The Elly Nordskog Collection

The first of two unique catalogues of Japanese art to complete Sydney L. Moss's 2010 First Centenary celebrations this book features Elinor Nordskog's collection of inrõ ensembles, pipecases and netsuke, a selection formed over four decades, starting in the 1960's, and using exacting criteria and exquisite taste. Every object is beautifully illustrated and in life-size, and almost every ensemble of inrõ, ojime and netsuke is photographed both as a composite creative whole on its cord, and also with seperate reproductions of both sides of the inrõ alone. More

One Hundred Years of Beatitude: A Centenary Exhibition of Japanese Art

‘One Hundred Years of Beatitude’ surveys varied highlights of the Sydney L. Moss gallery’s idiosyncratic taste across aspects of mostly Edo period painting, calligraphy, sculpture, lacquer, netsuke and the smoking paraphernalia of ‘tonkotsu’ and ‘tabakoire’. It contains an unmistakable flavour of the Chinese influence and especially of a Confucian content in Japanese art, in both literary and socio-political regards. The survey begins with twenty-plus paintings and calligraphies. More

Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels

The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia (1566–1633), the eldest daughter of Philip of Spain, was one of the most significant female political players of the seventeenth century. Isabel, however should not be seen as political figure alone but also as a woman, embedded in the material culture of her times in manifold roles and through varied practices. More

Antico: The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes

This publication will be the only available English-language monograph to date on sixteenth-century sculptor Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, also known as Antico. Given Antico’s importance for the history of sculpture this book is a much needed resource in the field and will present new scientific research and the results of technical studeis to be undertaken at the National Gallery of Art. A series of essays places Antico’s life, work and technique in a contextual framework useful for understanding his body of work. In addition to providing an overview of the artist’s acareer, the catalogue will also address key topics topics from his workmanship and craft to his relationship with the court of Mantua. More

ITALIAN MASTER DRAWINGS From the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection 1525–1835

This exquisite catalogue of sixty-five Italian drawings ranging in date from 1525 to 1835 celebrates the second part of a major acquisition made by the National Gallery of Art in late 2007, the purchase of one of the finest private European holdings of old master drawings, the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection. The drawings presented here and in the accompanying exhibition span the last flowering of the Renaissance to the rise of neoclassicism. More

Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge

Accompanying an exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, London, this publication is the first to celebrate the important creative collaboration between the artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) and his muse, the dancer Jane Avril (1868–1943). Avril was one of the stars of Moulin Rouge in the 1890s, and was nicknamed ‘La Mélinite’ after a form of explosive. More

Stanley Spencer and the English Garden

Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) is perhaps best known for his mystical biblical scenes and candid self-portraits, but it was his magnificent paintings of gardens, houses and landscapes, set in the small alleys and overgrown backyards of his home village of Cookham, which proved more popular during his lifetime. Published to accompany an exhibition at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, this book is the first to focus specifically on Spencer’s landscape paintings, and to consider them as a group, rather than as punctuation marks between the figure paintings. More

Watteau at the Wallace Collection

One of the most famous and influential artists of the eighteenth century, Jean-Antoine Watteau (c. 1684–1721) fundamentally changed the course of French painting. With masterpieces such as Les charmes de la vie, Lady at her Toilet and Les Champs Élisées, the Wallace Collection preserves one of the three outstanding collections of his paintings worldwide (together with Paris and Berlin) but it has never before been the subject of a special exhibition or a separate study. More

MUGHAL AND DECCANI PAINTINGS: The Eva and Konrad Seitz Collection of Indian Miniatures

The collection of Eva and Konrad Seitz is one of the most important private collections of Indian paintings in Europe. The 60 works presented here provides an excellent survey of Indian miniature painting from 1575 to 1850 at the court of the north Indian Mughal rulers and at the ateliers in the Deccan further south, which has hitherto received far less attention. More