Enfilade

John Carter, View of the Library at Strawberry Hill, watercolour, 23.7 × 28.8 cm, from Horace Walpole, A Description of the Villa … at Strawberry-Hill (Strawberry Hill, 1784). The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

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The 100 Most Important Books for Understanding British Art, 1600–1850
Nominations due by 1 June 2016

As a cooperative initiative with Choice Magazine, the Historians of British Art (HBA) is working to assemble a list of the most important books for understanding British art produced between 1600 and 1850. The project, which will result in a bibliographic review essay for Choice, is particularly aimed at strengthening library holdings, and so nominations of studies broad in scope or significance are especially encouraged. In addition to studies of paintings, sculpture, and print culture, scholarship addressing country houses, gardens, decorative arts, patronage, and the history of exhibitions and collections for the period are welcome. Exhibition catalogues, historiographical studies, and works that situate British art within international contexts are also welcome. Books published within the past 10–20 years will anchor the final list, but nominations of titles from any period are eligible. Self-nominations are entirely appropriate. Don’t be shy. Nominate early and often!

Nominations may be submitted at the HBA website or emailed directly to HBA president, Craig Hanson, Top100BritishArtBooks@gmail.com. Nominations due by June 1.

From Artbooks.com:

Esther Alegre Carvajal and Consuelo Gómez López, Ordenes y espacio: sistemas de expresion de la arquitectura moderna, siglos XV–XVIII (Madrid: UNED, 2016), 311 pages, ISBN: 978-8436269970, 30€ / $58.

Un recorrido por la arquitectura y el urbanismo europeos de la Edad Moderna nos muestra un lenguaje arquitectónico vinculado al Clasicismo, que con la articulación de los órdenes clásicos, sus normas y sus proporciones crea espacios arquitectónicos y urbanos para los usos culturales, ideológicos y políticos del momento. Con este encuadre es necesario centrarse en el estudio del lenguaje de los órdenes arquitectónicos y los debates teóricos que surgieron durante los siglos XV al XVIII; el proceso de configuración formal y simbólico del espacio arquitectónico y su interpretación historiográfica; la creación de tipologías arquitectónicas, la relación entre el edificio y su espacio urbano; cómo influyeron las fuentes impresas y su circulación en la configuración de tipologías y modelos espaciales, o la recepción y aplicación que tuvo el Clasicismo como un sistema arquitectónico válido en los diferentes territorios europeos.

From Artbooks.com:

Leonarda Di Cosmo and Lorenzo Fatticcioni, Elegantiores statuae antiquae: Parole e immagini per una fruizione ‘turistica’ dell’Antico nella Roma del Settecento (Rome: Bentivoglio, 2016), 350 pages, ISBN: 978-8898158553, 40€ / $70.

Legato al genere degli ‘atlanti’ statuari, il volumetto Elegantiores statuae antiquae in variis romanorum palatiis asservatae di Dominique Magnan (1731–1796), offrendo una selezione aggiornata delle più apprezzate statue antiche, si connota come uno dei numerosi canali di divulgazione della cultura antiquaria operativi nel secondo Settecento. Organizzando il testo secondo strategie comunicative mutuate dalle più aggiornate ‘guide di Roma’ e coniugando nell’apparato iconografico le immagini di consolidate e nuovissime eccellenze statuarie, Magnan realizza un prodotto editoriale nuovo e di sicuro impatto commerciale. Configurate dunque come un’antologia del ‘più bello’ delle collezioni romane di antichità e quasi anticipando le rubriche ‘da non perdere’ o ‘vale il viaggio’ delle guide turistiche a noi contemporanee, le Elegantiores si proponevano come un agile prontuario che poteva essere acquistato ad accompagnamento di altri prodotti dell’ ‘industria’ culturale basata sull’Antico.

Leonarda Di Cosmo e Lorenzo Fatticcioni, studiosi di Storia dell’Archeologia Classica, svolgono la loro attività di ricerca presso la Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Si occupano in particolare di antiquaria e di ‘fortuna dell’Antico’, di Storia del Collezionismo e, in parallelo, di Metodologie Informatiche applicate ai Beni Culturali. In quest’ultimo settore si dedicano alla progettazione di banche dati per la gestione di fonti storico-artistiche e documentarie e di siti web per la Museologia e la Comunicazione del Patrimonio Culturale. Hanno coordinato, tra l’altro, i progetti Monumenta Rariora. Metamorfosi dell’Antico, sulla fortuna della statuaria antica in età moderna e Arretinum Museum, sulla storia del collezionismo di antichità in territorio aretino. Tra le loro pubblicazioni più recenti si segnalano i volumi Le componenti del classicismo secentesco: Lo statuto della scultura antica e Le regole della bellezza: Saperi antiquari e teorie dell’arte nei ‘Segmenta nobilium signorum et statuarum’ di François Perrier.

From Brill:

George Carhart, Frederick de Wit and the First Concise Reference Atlas (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 600 pages, ISBN: 978-9004299030, 125€ / $162.

This book is about the life and work of Frederick de Wit (1629–1706), one of the most famous dealers of maps, prints and art during the Dutch Golden Age, and his contribution to the dissemination of the knowledge of cartography. The Amsterdam firm of Frederick de Wit operated under the name ‘De Witte Pascaert’ (‘The White Chart’) from 1654 to 1710. It offered all kinds of printing and was one of the most successful publishers of maps and prints in the second half of the seventeenth century. The description of De Wit’s life and work is followed by an in-depth analysis and dating of the atlases and maps issued under his name.

After a career in yacht, boat, and historic building restoration and a stint in the army, George Carhart began his second career in academia with a BA in history from the University of Southern Maine. The history of cartography has been a central point of his interests. After receiving his BA in 1998 he joined the staff at the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, working there as the assistant curator. After leaving the Osher Map Library in 2006 to complete his doctoral work, he has continued to research, publish, and teach in the field of cartographic history. Since receiving his PhD from the University of Passau in 2011, he has worked on projects at several universities including Dresden University of Technology and Trinity College Dublin.

C O N T E N T S

Acknowledgments

Introduction
1  Frederick de Wit’s Biography and His Business
2  The First Modern World Atlas
3  Frederick de Wit’s New Concise Reference Atlas
4  Today’s Bibliographic Methods Collide with Printing and Publishing Methods of the Early Modern World, 1577–1800
5  Dating De Wit’s Maps and Atlases
6  De Wit’s Legacy
7  The Cartographic Origins of De Wit’s Maps
8  Conclusion

Overview of the atlases published by De Wit
Cartobibliography of maps in De Wit’s atlases
List of consulted libraries
Acknowledgement of the illustrations

A fully detailed table of contents is available here»

From Yale UP:

Rosalind P. Blakesley, The Russian Canvas: Painting in Imperial Russia, 1757–1881 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), 380 pages, ISBN: 978-0300184372, $75.

The Russian Canvas charts the remarkable rise of Russian painting in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the nature of its relationship with other European schools. Starting with the foundation of the Imperial Academy of the Arts in 1757 and culminating with the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, it details the professionalization and wide-ranging activities of painters against a backdrop of dramatic social and political change. The Imperial Academy formalized artistic training but later became a foil for dissent, as successive generations of painters negotiated their own positions between pan-European engagement and local and national identities. Drawing on original archival research, this groundbreaking book recontextualizes the work of major artists, revives the reputations of others, and explores the complex developments that took Russian painters from provincial anonymity to international acclaim.

Rosalind P. Blakesley is reader in Russian and European art at the University of Cambridge.

Blakesley is also the curator of the exhibition now on view at London’s National Portrait Gallery Russia and the Arts: The Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky (17 March — 26 June), which addresses the period from 1867 to 1914.