Parkstone International: 854 books

From its prehistoric origins to the conceptual modernity of the 21st century, sculpture has literally and figuratively moulded the art world. Offering an integral view at its evolution of form across civilisations and epochs, this work presents the masterpieces of sculpture that, with their timeless...

In the 5th century, the Champa kingdom held sway over a large area of today’s Vietnam. Several magnificent structures still testify to their former presence in the Nha Trang region. Cham sculpture was worked in a variety of materials, principally sandstone, but also gold, silver and bronze. It was...

For more than a millennium, from its creation in 330 CE until its fall in 1453, the Byzantine Empire was a cradle of artistic effervescence that is only beginning to be rediscovered. Endowed with the rich heritage of Roman, Eastern, and Christian cultures, Byzantine artists developed an architectural...

Dürer is the greatest of German artists and most representative of the German mind. He, like Leonardo, was a man of striking physical attractiveness, great charm of manner and conversation, and mental accomplishment, being well grounded in the sciences and mathematics of the day. His skill in draughtsmanship...

Behind Frida Kahlo’s portraits, lies the story of both her life and work. It is precisely this combination that draws the reader in. Frida’s work is a record of her life, and rarely can we learn so much about an artist from what she records inside the picture frame. Frida Kahlo truly is Mexico’s...

The art of Siberia is a fascinating subject, and the artifacts discovered in the hidden archives of the Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg are nothing less than extraordinary. Artwork, day-to-day subjects and photos dating from the turn of the century all represent the testimonies of the Siberian people who refused to yield to the hegemony of a modern world.

The five hundred or more paintings of Caillebotte werenot given much attention during his lifetime. For years, he was considered primarily a generous patron ofimpressionists, but not as a painter in his own right. Later,his style was seen to be more realistic than those of his friends Degas, Monet...

A bridge is a link between two worlds, a point of tension between two separate and often disparate locations. Free, belonging neither to one region or another, the bridge imposes upon the landscape and defies nature. Its existence embodies the will of mankind to construct these necessary bonds between...

Encounter one of history’s greatest civilisations through miniatures. In Persian Miniatures, the story of the magnificent Persian Empire is told by way of a small but vibrant artistic tradition. The colourful images, which are, in fact, elaborate book illustrations, introduce a curious world of...

Claude Gellée (Le Lorrain) (Chamagne, 1604 – Rome, 1682) Claude Gellée, surnommé Le Lorrain, ne fut ni un grand homme, ni un esprit noble comme Poussin. Toutefois, on ne peut nier son génie et il fut, à l'instar de Poussin, un inventeur profondément original dans les limites imposées par...

Not only was Leonardo da Vinci (1453-1519) an astonishing painter, but also a scientist, anatomist, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, inventor, and more. The question is rather, what was he not? During the Italian Renaissance, he mastered the most beautiful works of art for the Medicis’ in...

Raphael (1483-1520), the Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, was a genius in and ahead of his time. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he formed the classical trinity of this era and elaborated a rich style of harmony and geometry. As one of the great masters of the...

The watercolour technique was for a long time the great companion to drawing. A mixture of water and pigments permitting great artistic freedom, it was often employed for preparatory sketches. Albrecht Dürer was one of the first to take advantage of all that watercolour offered. In the 18th century,...