This pioneering art series combines stunning high-quality color reproductions with expert commentary on the most popular artists of all time at an extremely accessible price. Giotto, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Vermeer are names well known to any student of art history, museumgoer, or culturally engaged individual. Rizzoli is pleased to launch its Classics of Art series with monographs on these six world-renowned painters, whose signature styles and sheer genius continue to inspire both scholars and lay people to this day.
Often regarded as the founder of traditional European painting, Giotto revolutionized the way artists interpreted the human condition at the turn of the fourteenth century. Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo each brought Renaissance notions of humanism to unparalleled heights. Botticelli's poetic delicacy created a magical world in which allegory and idealism are reflected. Vermeer's light-infused elegies on the everyday are some of the most exquisite paintings in the history of Western art.
Each book in this series features a literary introduction and thoroughly researched essay followed by a section devoted to a detailed description of a selection of the artist's masterpieces. An extensive chronology of the artist's life and important historical events of his era as well as a compilation of remarks by famous historians, modern and old, add cultural perspective and insight into each painter's stylistic development. A visual chart with captions as to the whereabouts of every painting and a concise bibliography with suggested further reading provide invaluable research tools.
With authoritative text by leading art historians from around the globe, these lavishly illustrated editions provide fresh insights into the art and lives of the most brilliant artists in the history of painting. No matter what your knowledge of art history, this series will compel you to explore a world of art beyond the canvas.

There is no artist more celebrated than Michelangelo. Yet the magnificence of his achievements as a visual artist often overshadow his devotion to poetry. Michelangelo used poetry to express what was too personal to display in sculpture or painting. John Frederick Nims has brought the entire body of Michelangelo's verse, from the artist's ardent twenties to his anguished and turbulent eighties, to life in English in this unprecedented collection. The result is a tantalizing glimpse into a most fascinating mind.

'Wonderful. . . . Nims gives us Michelangelo whole: the polymorphous love sonneteer, the political allegorist, and the solitary singer of madrigals.'--Kirkus Reviews

'A splendid, fresh and eloquent translation. . . . Nims, an eminent poet and among the best translators of our time, conveys the full meaning and message of Michelangelo's love sonnets and religious poems in fluently rhymed, metrical forms.'--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

'The best so far. . . . Nims is best at capturing the sound and sense of Michelangelo's poetic vocabulary.'--Choice

'Surely the most compelling translations of Michelangelo currently available in English.'--Ronald L. Martinez, Washington Times

John Frederick Nims (1913-1999) was the author of eight books of poetry, including Knowledge of the Evening, which was nominated for a National Book Award. Among his many translations is The Poems of Saint John of the Cross, also published by the University of Chicago Press.