Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) is widely regarded as one of the most significant artists of the Northern Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Germany, Dürer became renowned for his mastery of various mediums, including painting, printmaking, and wood-cutting. Throughout his life, Dürer produced a vast array of works that demonstrated his technical skill and innovative vision. His art often incorporated religious and classical themes, and his use of perspective and realism helped to establish new standards in European art. Beyond his artistic achievements, Dürer was also a prolific writer and thinker. His treatises on geometry, human proportion, and the theory of perspective remain …

Over the course of history, many wars have changed the political and cultural landscape of our world. While these events are defined by their upheaval and violence, they frequently contribute to the formation of the identity of entire generations or groups of people, and thus have significant cultural effects. Despite the physical and emotional destruction that occurs during these turbulent periods, they have inspired prolific artistic creation. In the wake of traumatic events over the centuries, a myriad of artists have produced works that immortalise the most dramatic moments of these wars in order to establish them in history forever. …

Icon painting, the ultimate expression of Orthodox Christian art, reached its zenith in Ukraine between the 11th and 18th centuries. This book spans the entire period, showing the development of the style. The Ukrainian icon is a surprising synthesis of the traditions of Eastern Byzantine art and the stylistic characteristics of Russian icon painting. The introduction of this book explains the stages of development of icon-painting over five centuries in Ukraine’s major Centres of art - Kyiv, Chernihiv, Transcarpathia, Galicia, and Volhynia - and discusses the life and work of the masters of icon-painting. Despite the strict stylistic considerations imposed …

Cigar-bands have sdorned cigars for more than 150 years. Until World War I they were produced and printed to the hightest quality using the best methods available, with the result that many cigar-bands of the time are genuine works of art. Images depicted on the bands are varied, but specific themes may be distinguished – flowers and foliage, for example, or heraldic ‘charges’, or of course portraits of contemporary rulers and celebrities. This book features nearly 1,800 cigar-bands drawn from the collection of Roger van Reeth, including some of the most beautiful, some of the rarest and some of the …

Born in 1872, Aubrey Beardsley was, along with Oscar Wilde, an emblematic figure of the decadence that marked the end of Queen Victoria's reign. Largely self-taught, Beardsley's drawings initially show the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites, such as Burne-Jones and Rossetti. Later, he adopted a more radical and innovative style, illustrating Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and participating in the creation of The Yellow Book magazine. But it was through his dark and erotic drawings, notably for Oscar Wilde's Salome, that he best evoked the troubled atmosphere of the time. Stricken with tuberculosis, Beardsley died prematurely at the age of …

Felicien Rops (1833-1898) is a very surprising artist. Engraver and drawer of exception, Felicien Rops captures and anticipates, with astonishing talent, the female body with great modernity. Abandoning the conventional forms of the time, the artist creates a world full of humour, tenderness and, at times, insolence for the jubilation of the spectator's eye. Many of Rops' most famous works dealt with erotic and sensual themes, often depicting nudes or scenes of debauchery. He also frequently incorporated elements of the supernatural and the macabre, such as skeletons or demons, into his works. Some of his pieces were overtly political or …

Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), a prominent German painter of the 19th century, was a vital figure in the Romantic movement. His artwork is characterised by its poetic and melancholic essence, displaying a profound sense of spirituality and transcendence. In his paintings, he masterfully blended external nature depictions with deep inner symbolism. His often desolate landscapes and grand architecture evoke a yearning for peace, solitude, and spiritual elevation. The skilful utilisation of light and shadow in his composition amplifies the emotional resonance of Friedrich's art, imbuing it with an almost mystical quality. The artistic legacy of Caspar David Friedrich continues to …

Lucas Cranach (1472-1553) was one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, as shown by the diversity of his artistic interests as well as his awareness of the social and political events of this time. He developed a number of painting techniques which were afterwards used by several generations of artists. His somewhat mannered style and spending palette are easily recognized in numerous portraits of monarchs, cardinals, courtiers and their ladies, religious reformers, humanists and philosophers. A part of the Great Painters Collection, translated from the Russian by Paul Williams. 109 full color plates and numerous black and white and …