The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Softcover. VG- (Some soiling to page edges; Light wear to extremities; Former owner's name written on title page). Color illus. wraps with French flaps; 528 pp. Appx. 292 color & bw plates. Published in conjunction with the exhibition held at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1994 and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. in 1995; Venice, home of Tiepolo, Canaletto, Piranesi, Piazzetta, and Guardi, was the most artistic city of eighteenth-century Italy. This beautiful book examines the whole range of the arts in Venice during this period, including paintings, pastels and gouaches, drawings and watercolours, prints and illustrated books and sculpture. The book begins with an introduction by Andrew Robison, and a general introduction to Venetian art by Michael Levey. Essays by other eminent authorities then discuss the international taste for Venetian art and major aspects of the art of the period. The essays are followed by a catalogue that discusses and reproduces many of the finest works of the time along with biographies and critical discussions of the artists. The selection of works emphasises the beauty, quality, distinctiveness, variety, balance, and unity of Venetian art. It includes altarpieces by Tiepolo, Piazzetta, and others that demonstrate the importance of profoundly serious and grand religious art; it presents the finest examples of history painting and allegory, views and landscapes, architectural fantasies, decorative paintings, and portraits; and it offers a large selection of particularly fine graphic art, for many of the greatest painters - Marco Ricci, Piazzetta, Canaletto, and Tiepolo - also devoted themselves to printmaking, book illustration, and designs for stage sets and the decorative arts, and often found greater freedom for their fantasy in such works. Contents as follows: The Glory of Venice / Andrew Robison -- Introduction to 18th-Century Venetian Art / Michael Levey -- The International Taste for Venetian Art / Christoph Becker, Axel Burkarth, August Rave and Francis Russell -- Aspects of Cultural Politics in 18th-Century Venice / Giovanni Nepi Sciré -- Sebastiano Ricci and the New Century / Francesco Valcanover -- Townscapes and Landscapes / William Barcham -- Rococo Artists / Alessandro Bettagno -- The Piazetta Paradox / Alice Binion -- Giambattista Tiepolo / Adriano Mariuz -- Canaletto / J.G. Links -- The Neo-Palladians and Mid-century Landscape / John Harris -- Artists of Religion and Genre / Filippo Pedrocco -- The Brothers Guardi / Mitchell Merling -- Domenicio Tiepolo and his Contemporaries / Catherine Whistler -- Bernardo Bellotto / Edgar Peters Bowron -- Giovanni Battista Piranesi / Andrew Robison -- Antonio Canova / Giandomenicio Romanelli.