Books in the Reinterpreting Classicism: Culture, Reaction and Appropriation series

Focusing primarily upon books devoted to Renaissance and Baroque art, this collection of edited papers addresses the issues raised by the illustration of books from the 16th to the 20th century.

Loosely modelled on Palladio's Villa Capra, Chiswick House by Lord Burlington was one of first designs to compete with the Baroque style that had influenced Inigo Jones and others. These essays explore new approaches to British architecture during the 18th century.

The Rise of the Image reveals how illustrations have come to play a primary part in books on art and architecture. Italian Renaissance art is the main focus for this anthology of essays which analyse key episodes in the history of illustration from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. The authors raise new issues about the imagery in books on the visual arts by Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgio Vasari, Sebastiano Serlio, Andrea Palladio, Girolamo Teti and Andrea Pozzo. The concluding essays evaluate the roles of reproductive media, including photography, in Victorian and twentieth-century art books. Throughout, images in books are considered as vehicles for ideas rather than as transparent, passive visual forms, dependent on their accompanying texts. Thus The Rise of the Image enriches our understanding of the role of prints in books on art.