VENETIAN COLOUR - Marble, Mosaic, Painting and Glass 1250 - 1550

While the importance of color to the Venetian pictorial tradition has been almost endlessly observed and discoursed upon, never before has this critical topic received so wide-ranging, perceptive, and original a synthesis. Methodically, but with a sometimes uncanny visual sensitivity, Hills (Warwick Univ., England) reconstructs the range and nuance of the Venetian palette as it manifests itself in the specific materials employed in the city's architectural and urban fabric, mosaics, minor arts, textiles, and painting. The evolving and expanding range of coloristic decisions and innovations that culminate in the masterpieces of Bellini, Giorgione, and Titian are savored within the unique effects of Venice's ambiance. Adeptly integrated with the author's always perceptive analyses is a fascinating array of contemporary documents that lay the foundation for the understanding, reading, and appreciation of color as a social phenomenon.

British art historian Paul Hills (himself a painter) argues that the rich color that is perhaps Venice's main contribution to Renaissance painting was a function of the city's entire visual environment: its decorated buildings, famous glassware, colored silk, even the flickering reflections off the canals and lagoon. He bolsters his case with a generous use of color photographs and a multitude of astute observations. . . . Combining art history, aesthetic theory, technical analysis and the science of perception, this book offers a thoroughly refreshing approach to the study of pictures. -- Eric Gibson, Wall Street Journal