Books published by Skira

A vast catalogue dedicated to Leonardo's entire oeuvre on the occasion of the largest exhibition ever realized on the genius, symbol of Italian art and creativity, on the occasion of Milan Expo 2015.

Giuliano Pisani takes us into the heart of one of the greatest masterpieces of Western art, Giotto's fresco cycle for the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.

A tribute to the master of Urbino on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of his death.The most important exhibition devoted to the painter in 2020.Published in collaboration with the greatest museums in the world, this monograph proposes an original journey backwards, "à rebour", in the universe of Raphael, where his relationship with the ancient and with Rome guides the reader in an unprecedented journey from the artist's death in 1520 to his formative years between Urbino, Città di Castello, Perugia and Siena. The monograph - published on the occasion of the major exhibition in Rome - has a scientific committee of excellence, composed by Matteo Lafranconi, Marzia Faietti, Sylvia Ferino, Alan Brown, Dominique Cordellier, Guido Cornini, Francesco Paolo Di Teodoro, Vincenzo Farinella, Achim Gnann, Barbara Jatta, Alessandro Nova, Nicholas Penny, Mario Scalini, Alessandro Viscogliosi; each member of the committee is the curator of one section of the catalogue which is introduced by his essay and accompanied by the entries of the works.For centuries Raphael (1483-1520) has been recognised as the supreme High Renaissance painter; though he died at 37, Raphael's example as a paragon of classicism dominated the academic tradition of European painting until the mid-19th century.Raphael was born in Urbino where his father, Giovanni Santi, was court painter. He almost certainly began his training there and must have known works by Mantegna, Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca from an early age. His earliest paintings were also greatly influenced by Perugino. From 1500 (when he became an independent master) to 1508 he worked throughout central Italy, particularly Florence, where he became a noted portraitist and painter of Madonnas.In 1508, at the age of 25, he was called to the court of Pope Julius II to help with the redecoration of the papal apartments. In Rome he evolved as a portraitist, and became one of the greatest of all history painters.He remained in Rome for the rest of his life and in 1514, on the death of Bramante, he was appointed architect in charge of St Peter's.

A comprehensive survey of the art of the kakemono, classic Japanese paintings on vertical scrolls.Once displayed for the tea ceremony and in the alcove (tokonoma) of traditional houses, the kakemono or kakejiku is a `painted hanging scroll,¿ which, in the variety of its themes, describes changing beauty and the flow of time. Subjects are in fact selected to satisfy the taste of the visitors, and harmony with seasons and events. As with Japanese writing, it should be read from right to left.Verisimilitude being of subordinate importance, what really matters is to convey `the power of the brush.¿ As long as the spirit and the essence of the image can be appreciated, any painting can be enjoyed as a journey into the artist¿s mind.Edited by Matthi Forrer and realized in collaboration with the Fondazione culture e musei of Lugano and the Fondazione Torino Musei, the book presents a selection of 120 kakemono from the important private Perino collection, offering a unique opportunity to discover Japanese painting between the 16th and 19th centuries.Most of the subjects are drawn from nature (flowers, birds and fish), painted realistically in extraordinarily precise detail. They include works of rare beauty by artists such as Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795), who worked in the imperial court and founded Maruyama-Shijo, one of the most prestigious naturalist schools of the period, Kishi Ganku (1749/56-1838/39), famous for his paintings of tigers, and Kusumi Morikage (1620-1690), painter of the Edo period whose works reflect his sympathy for farmers and the poor.

The dominant role of female beauty in sixteenth-century Venice is unique both in the history of the Republic and other parts of the world. One reason for this is the Serenissimäs distinctive political-social structure, which granted women special rights in connection with their dowry and their ability to inherit; another was Venice¿s pivotal role as an international cultural centre. The rise of influential publishing houses attracted renowned poets and humanists such as Pietro Bembo, Sperone Speroni and Lodovico Dolce, who in their writings increasingly focused on women and their vital role for the family and the continuation of humanity as such. The crucial impetus for the visual realisation of this idea came from the Serenissimäs greatest artist: Titian. For him, artistic beauty was identical with female beauty. He was less interested in the canon of exterior beauty than in a women¿s character, in femininity as such. Titian elevates every depiction of a woman into a celebration of womanhood. Published for the exhibition in Vienna and Milan, the book aims to present the female image through the spectrum of possible themes and to compare individual artistic approaches between Titian and other painters of the time. The reader will experience the various aspects of female idealisation.