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Painting of the Renaissance
This penetrating study of one of the most fruitful epochs in European art presents the Renaissance not simply as the rebirth of classical styles, but also as the period that saw ""the invasion of man and his world into the domain of the arts"".
- GenresArtArt HistoryNonfiction
159 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
About the author
Manfred Wundram
37 books3 followersManfred Wundram (1925-2015) studied art history, archaeology, music history, and German literature. He taught art history at Ruhr University in Bochum for many years and published widely on the Early and High Renaissance.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 11, 2018
A great selection of works, but this thing is written in stilted, ugly, academic prose, and the pictures are not very sharp.
October 17, 2026
Frochs & Styles: Painting of the Renaissance is basically a grand tour of Renaissance art from 1400–1600: saints, status, breasts, death, and some genuinely gorgeous painting. Honestly, based on the pictures, it looks like it would have been a fascinating time to be alive... minus the disease, violence, and alarming mortality rate. 😂
The book leans heavily toward Italy, with the Netherlands, Spain, France, and Germany feeling more like supporting players, but it does give a good visual sense of the shift from Early Renaissance through the High Renaissance and into Mannerism. Botticelli is still one of my favorites, especially Venus and Mars and The Birth of Venus, and I loved seeing Leonardo da Vinci represented with the Mona Lisa and the gorgeous charcoal Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist. The School of Fontainebleau’s wonderfully sassy Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters in the Bath also deserves a mention. There is a LOT of religious art, plus plenty of royal families, wealth, power, piety, and general “look how important and virtuous we are” energy. Historically understandable? Absolutely. Occasionally amusing? Also yes.
For me, the reproductions were the real draw. The text wandered around enough that I sometimes lost the thread, but visually the book is a strong sampler of the period. The portraits especially make it obvious that there was a very specific ideal for how people were supposed to present themselves, and after a while you start to notice the same visual language of status and respectability over and over. With Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Dürer, Carpaccio, Botticelli, Leonardo, and others all represented, there is plenty to look at even if Italy is clearly doing most of the heavy lifting.
The book leans heavily toward Italy, with the Netherlands, Spain, France, and Germany feeling more like supporting players, but it does give a good visual sense of the shift from Early Renaissance through the High Renaissance and into Mannerism. Botticelli is still one of my favorites, especially Venus and Mars and The Birth of Venus, and I loved seeing Leonardo da Vinci represented with the Mona Lisa and the gorgeous charcoal Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist. The School of Fontainebleau’s wonderfully sassy Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters in the Bath also deserves a mention. There is a LOT of religious art, plus plenty of royal families, wealth, power, piety, and general “look how important and virtuous we are” energy. Historically understandable? Absolutely. Occasionally amusing? Also yes.
For me, the reproductions were the real draw. The text wandered around enough that I sometimes lost the thread, but visually the book is a strong sampler of the period. The portraits especially make it obvious that there was a very specific ideal for how people were supposed to present themselves, and after a while you start to notice the same visual language of status and respectability over and over. With Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Dürer, Carpaccio, Botticelli, Leonardo, and others all represented, there is plenty to look at even if Italy is clearly doing most of the heavy lifting.
May 27, 2016
this book covers full color examples of almost all religions and includes a timeline at the bottom of the page so the reader can tell what else was going on during the time period. Wonderful for your own armchair education or for memory care story hours, used sparingly.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews