European Art History

Europe’s past is characterized by fighting and warfare, and it is punctuated with great works of art, philosophy, science, and technology. Even its recent history is much the same - that’s why, so much of the globe was once ruled by European monarchies. Despite all the infighting and territorial exploits, Europeans have managed to create some of the most beautiful pieces of literature, architecture, political structures, and ideas the world has ever seen.

Western civilization has given us modern science, the wealth of free-market economics, the security of law, a sense of human rights and freedom, charity as a virtue, splendid art and music, philosophy grounded in reason, and innumerable other gifts we take for granted.

If ever a catharsis in Western European Civilization occurred, it had to have been the period we refer to as the Renaissance. After a thousand years of theocracy, manorialism, feudalism and narrow economic development, Europe was ripe for change. She got it with a vengeance.

Are you ready to embark on a journey through the rich history of art? Discover the key movements and artists that have shaped the Western art tradition and gain a deeper understanding of how art reflects the world around us. With this book, you will: Expand your knowledge of art history in an easily digestible format. Engage with key facts and features from significant art movements. Delve into the Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism and other periods as well as lesser known but still highly ...

Juliette Binoche is more than an actress—she is a force of nature. From her breakout role in The Unbearable Lightness of Being to her Oscar-winning turn in The English Patient, from the raw grief of Blue to the daring intensity of Certified Copy and Clouds of Sils Maria, Binoche has built a career defined by bold choices, fearless performances, and a refusal to be categorized. In The Enigma of Juliette Binoche, acclaimed biographer Julien Peltier takes readers on a sweeping journey through the life and career of one of France’s greatest cinematic treasures. With a narrative blending ...

François Mitterrand: The Sphinx of the Fifth Republic By Julien Peltier He was the longest-serving president in French history — a man of paradoxes, secrets, and unshakable composure. François Mitterrand came to power in 1981 with a Socialist programme that promised transformation. By the end of his fourteen years at the Élysée, he had reshaped France, bound it more tightly to Europe, and left behind a legacy both celebrated and contested. Julien Peltier takes us inside the shifting worlds of Mitterrand’s presidency: the exhilaration of early reforms, the sharp turn to austerity, ...

The Da Vinci Legacy by Evan Blackmoor Hidden beneath the majestic beauty of France’s Loire Valley lies a secret Leonardo da Vinci never meant the world to discover… When art historian Claire Martin accepts an invitation to Château de Chambord, she imagines quiet research among Renaissance treasures. Instead, she stumbles into a centuries-old conspiracy guarding one of da Vinci’s most dangerous creations. With the help of Julien, a mysterious archivist whose family legacy ties him to the secret, Claire is drawn into a perilous game of codes, forbidden wings, hidden staircases, and a ...

However, a historical transformation of similar magnitude also took place in northern Europe at the same time. This "Other Renaissance" was initially centered on the city of Bruges in Flanders (modern Belgium), but its influence was soon being felt in France, the German states, London, and even in Italy itself.

Art history encompasses the study of the history and development of painting, sculpture, and the other visual arts. In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, Dana Arnold presents an introduction to the issues, debates, and artifacts that make up art history. Beginning with a consideration of what art history is, she explains what makes the subject distinctive from other fields of study and also explores the emergence of social histories of art (such as feminist art history and queer art history).

Discover the dazzling mind and magnetic voice of one of France’s greatest living actors. From the working-class streets of Montmartre to the grand stages of Paris, Fabrice Luchini has lived a life shaped by language, literature, and laughter. Known for his electrifying performances in the films of Éric Rohmer, François Ozon, and Philippe Le Guay, Luchini has become far more than an actor — he is a philosopher of performance, a guardian of words, and a national treasure of France. In this richly cinematic biography, Julien Peltier traces the extraordinary transformation of a ...

On August 21, 1911, the unfathomable happened - Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa vanished from the Louvre. More than 24 hours passed before museum officials realized she was gone. The prime suspects were as shocking as the crime: Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, young provocateurs of a new art. As French detectives using the latest methods of criminology, including fingerprinting, tried to trace the thieves, a burgeoning international media hyped news of the heist.

Beethoven imbibed Enlightenment and revolutionary ideas in his hometown of Bonn, where they were fervently discussed in cafes and at the university. Moving to Vienna at the age of 21 to study with Haydn, he gained renown as a brilliant pianist and innovative composer. In that conservative city, capital of the Hapsburg empire, authorities were ever watchful to curtail and punish overt displays of radical political views. Nevertheless, Beethoven avidly followed the meteoric rise of Napoleon.

In literary legend, Faustus is the quintessential occult personality of early modern Europe. The historical Faustus, however, was something quite different: a magus—a learned magician fully embedded in the scholarly currents and public life of the Renaissance. And he was hardly the only one. Anthony Grafton argues that the magus in sixteenth-century Europe was a distinctive intellectual type, both different from and indebted to medieval counterparts as well as contemporaries like the engineer, the artist, the Christian humanist, and the religious reformer.

At the end of 1941, it seemed to many people, especially in Germany, that the war was virtually over. Some began to consider what a postwar Europe would look like after a Nazi victory. With nothing to stop them, the Nazis became the most rapacious looters of art the world had ever seen, to the extent that it has been estimated that the Nazis may have acquired up to 20 percent of all art in Western Europe. Some works were returned after the war, many disappeared, and still others have become the subject of intense speculation.

In this examination of Solzhenitsyn and his work, Lee Congdon explores the consequences of the atheistic socialism that drove the Russian revolutionary movement.

It is often claimed that the French invented cinema. Dominating the production and distribution of cinema until WWI, when they were supplanted by Hollywood, the French cinema industry encompassed all genres, from popular entertainment to avant-garde practice. This Very Short Introduction opens up French cinema through focusing on some of its most notable works, using the lens of the New Wave decade (1958-1968) that changed cinema worldwide.

Step into the extraordinary life of Isabelle Huppert, the actress who redefined what it means to be fearless on screen. From her quiet beginnings in Paris to international acclaim across Europe, Hollywood, and Asia, Huppert’s story is one of relentless daring. She has built a career not on safe choices, but on risks that pushed cinema itself forward—playing characters that disturb, provoke, and captivate in equal measure. In The Enigma of Isabelle Huppert, part of the acclaimed series The Stars of French Cinema, biographer Julien Peltier traces Huppert’s journey through decades of ...

Brought to you by Penguin. The Book-Makers is a celebration of 550 years of the printed book, told through the lives of eighteen extraordinary men and women who took the book in radical new directions: printers and binders, publishers and artists, paper-makers and library founders. This is a...

La Ilustración, que se prolongó durante todo el siglo XVIII, provocó cambios cruciales en el pensamiento de la gente y transformó todo el entramado de la sociedad.

G. K. Chesterton was a journalist, playwright, poet, biographer, novelist, essayist, literary commentator, editor, orator, artist, and theologian. Orthodoxy is his great apologia for the Christian faith, which was prompted by a serious attack in 1903 against Christianity by well-known newspaper editor Robert Blatchford.