The Hanau City Map project by Claus Bury relates to the new city of Hanau, which was formed from 1597 on and is characterized by its strictly geometric pattern of streets and star-shaped ramparts. The walk-on granite sculpture on the square directly next to the Walloon-Dutch church references the city map engraved in copper in 1632 by Matthäus Merian and revitalizes Hanau’s historical 17th century topography through its relief-like recesses and encompassing seating areas. An installation spanning centuries that brings the history, present, and future into a flourishing dialog for the visitors of Hanau.
Text in English and German.
The goldsmith and art dealer Johann Karl Bossard (1846–1914) is regarded as one of the key figures of Historicism in Switzerland. This publication focuses for the first time on not only the workshop’s exceptional production and signature style but also the appropriation and adaptation of historical paradigms as well as Bossard’s international network. The production of jewelry, cutlery, weapons, and commissions for the Church are particularly explored in further detail. In addition, an overview is also given of the production by the successors of the Bossard goldsmithing atelier, extant until 1997. The approximately 500 images lend an impression of the immense workshop legacy, which is preserved by the Swiss National Museum. Moreover, key objects from public and private collections are published for the first time and presented in a comprehensive catalog section.
Text in German.
Hidden Holland is an alternative travel guide with inspiring stories about approximately 380 different and unexpected places all around the country. This guide entreats you to leave the beaten path, pointing you to locations that many people didn’t even know existed. Such as a forest full of miniature waterworks, a cellar with a mummy in a small Frisian church and secret NATO headquarters.
This guide introduces you to the lesser-known charms of the Netherlands through surprising places presented in original lists, such as: 5 artworks in unexpected locations, the 7 most authentic pubs, 5 cool repurposed industrial heritage sites, 6 local specialities you should try, and much more.
These previously unpublished images of New York’s waterfront are presented here as part of a unique editorial project: the iconographic perspective is analysed and discussed in Pauline Vermare’s interview with Sophie Fenwick, and finds further literary development in the photographer’s poetry, on which she started working during the pandemic and is used here to accompany the visual narrative.
The language of photography is used here — in a series of black and white and color shots — to retrace the memory of a transformation and to express the urgency of documentation that in these pages evolves from personal to universal. The invitation to travel voiced by Fenwick is visual poetry articulated in a series of pictures, each of which possesses the potential to become a true icon.
Text in English and French.
“This is the very best of Antwerp and the best from here in Oxford.” — The Oxford Times Weekend
“This entertaining exhibition of the 16th- and 17th-century drawings from the Low Countries has energy to spare.” — The Telegraph
This catalogue will accompany the Bruegel to Rubens exhibition held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford between 23 March and 23 June 2024.
Through a selection of over 100 world-class drawings created by Flemish artists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an insightful and comprehensive overview will be given into how these drawn sheets were used as part of artistic practice, within or beyond the artist’s studio. By revealing the drawings’ function, rather than on their attribution or iconography, these sheets will become more fully understood through the eyes of contemporary readers. Identifying how and why these sheets were created will render these artworks more accessible to a wider audience. The three main essays will each deal with one of the principal functions of drawings at the time: studies (copies and sketches), designs for other artworks (paintings, prints, tapestries, metalwork, stained glass, sculpture and architecture), and finally the independent drawings. Each essay will discuss the relevant works within their functional context and compared with other related objects. Introductory chapters will focus on what precisely can be considered a drawing, including its materials, media and techniques, in addition to an attempt to explain the notion of Flanders and Flemish art. Emphasis will be placed throughout the catalogue on how Flemish artists collaborated in creating the most astonishing artworks of their time, unveiling their networks and friendships, as well as their travels across Europe, revealing their international importance.
The exhibition is a partnership with the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp and will bring together for the first time the most stunning drawings from both the Ashmolean and the Plantin-Moretus collections, in addition to further loans from renowned Antwerp and Oxford institutions like the Rubenshuis and Christ Church Picture Gallery. Many of the sheets coming from Antwerp are registered on the Flemish Government’s Masterpieces List and will not be shown again for the next five to ten years to protect them from fading. Prominent artists featured in this catalogue include Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacques Jordaens, among many others. Highlights will include a sketchbook in which a young Rubens has copied Holbein’s Dance of Death woodcuts, intricate pen and ink drawings by Pieter Bruegel, meticulously drawn miniatures by Joris Hoefnagel, portrait studies by Anthony van Dyck, and a rare survival of a friendship album containing numerous drawings and poems dedicated to its owner. Two recently discovered sheets by Rubens will also be included, a design for a book-illustration on optics and an anatomical study of three legs.
In 2023 the Danner Foundation is honoring exceptional achievements in craft at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Landshut, Germany, with the Danner Prize, four additional honorary awards, and a remarkable exhibition featuring a total of 41 artists.
Gunther Pfeffer received the Danner Prize for his display cabinet Raster. The unit comprises fir slats arranged in a grid, which, depending on the angle of view, reveal what is inside and render the grid visible, or obscure the view and meld into a single surface.
The objects are presented in the publication in large-format photographs and informative descriptions of the concepts. Personal statements by the artists provide insights into their various working methods. To conclude, texts by renowned authors look into the significance and development of handicraft today from different perspectives.
Text in English and German.
A stairway to Heaven: this is the perfect description for this publication on one of the most significant places to stay in the world: Hotel Hassler Roma. Never before has a hotel so full of historical and cultural significance been able to create indelible memories for those who stay there (even if only for a few days!). Owned and managed by Roberto Jr. and Veruschka Wirth, the sixth generation of a famous Swiss dynasty of hoteliers, the hotel as it stands today is one of the finest 5-star hotels in Rome. As well as a panoramic Michelin-starred restaurant and luxurious beauty and wellness facilities, the imcomparable and breathtaking views are a feast for the eyes thanks to the hotel’s location at the top of the famous Spanish Steps; a monumental stairway of 135 steps built in 1723–1725, linking the Bourbon Spanish Embassy and the Trinità dei Monti church.
Images of royalty and VIPs (really everyone has stayed at the Hassler!) together with family snaps, and interviews with the protagonists of hospitality intertwine this unique publication, making this is an ideal gift for those with a passion for history and appreciation of refined hospitality.
Text in English and Italian.
“… In fact, my entire journey through Amsterdam’s vibrant house museums was one great historical sensation in a variety of contexts. I followed in the footsteps of Dutch East India Company directors, workers, orphans, writers, artists, architects, and many others, seeing how they lived and worked. How they ate in poverty-stricken 19th-century slums or at lavishly laid tables in canal-side mansions of Van Loon or Bartolotti. How they prayed in secret with Father Parmentier in a clandestine attic church. I am not longer just an Amsterdammer: now I’m an Amsterdammer with a past.” – Froukje Wattel.
Text in English and Dutch.
My first books collection box with four exciting and educational books for children, covering numbers, shapes, colors and opposites, all inspired by Edvard Munch.
Circle? Or Oval? And a diamond shape on the bedspread! My first book of shapes. Yellow hats, purple forest – and what is the color of the moon? My first book of colors. Day and night, light and …? My first book of opposites. I, 2, 7, 9! How many people do you see on the bridge? My first book of numbers.
Ages 3-5.
Also available: Boxed-set, ISBN 9788293560906; Colours, ISBN 9788293560944; Opposites, ISBN 9788293560982; Numbers, ISBN 9788293560869.
Gertrude Vernon, or Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, was an English woman who married a Scot. The American artist John Singer Sargent excelled as a painter in Europe. His portrait of Lady Agnew was painted in London but has found its definitive home in Edinburgh. All these contexts converge in a supremely beautiful painting which is one the icons of the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland.
Created in the 1890s, it proved to be a seminal work in the lives of the artist and his subject and has enjoyed a rich afterlife, inspiring artistic and written responses. This book offers a fascinating biography of this most accomplished, evocative and admired of portraits, placing it in the context of Sargent’s career and how he worked, discussing the life of the sitter and unveiling the picture’s rich critical history.
Santa Maria Assunta in Cremona, among the great Romanesque cathedrals of the Po Valley in northern Italy, is not only one of the most renowned for its artwork, but also one in which the slow stratification of time is most evident. The names of the greatest masters, in the first person or in the medieval sense of workshop, follow one another in quick succession: Wiligelmo, Antelami, the excellent Marco Romano, the Campionesi, enrich the façade with grandiose and superb sculptures, aristocratic and earthy. In the interior, the cycle of frescoes in the main nave with the Stories from the Life of the Virgin and Christ shows, as nowhere else, the symptoms of the pressing renewal taking place in early 16th century Italian painting, from the faultless classicism of Boccaccio Boccaccino to the eccentric Altobello Melone and Gianfrancesco Bembo, the Brescian Romanino and the Friulian Pordenone, who is given the grand finale with the resounding Crucifixion on the counter façade. Alongside these two poles, the façade and the nave, there are masterpieces from all centuries: paintings, sculptures, and goldsmithing, including frescoes and canvases by the Campi, the greatest exponents of the 16th-century Cremonese school of painting.
What do movable dolls’ eyes have to do with a Catholic church? Where could you meet Plain Bob Maximus and Surprise Major? Why does just one person know where Oliver Cromwell’s head is buried? And where is a dog a very large cat?
The answers to all these questions lie in Cambridge, which combines the magnificence of a medieval university with the dynamism of a high-technology hub. Tens of thousands of visitors flock to Cambridge every year to see the colleges, go punting on the river, and shop. But there is much more to Cambridge than its university and Silicon Fen. Over the centuries, town and gown together have transformed this city, which was an inland port until the 17th century. Eccentricity is something of a Cambridge tradition, and the town seems to delight in taking its visitors by surprise, whether that’s with a huge metal time-eating grasshopper, May Balls held in June, sculptures that dive into the ground feet first, or a museum that makes a feature of broken pottery. You will find these and many more curiosities in this book.
“A recent addition to the city’s literary landscape – tantalisingly titled The 500 Hidden Secrets of London – more than lives up to its name. With something for every type of visitor, it is brimming with surprises…” — Worldwide Writer
In this brand new and thoroughly revised edition of the bestselling London city guide author Tom Greig not only shares a lot of new secrets, he also included two outside-the-box city walks: an ideal way to explore a part of the city in a day. Many of the new addresses in this guide are in East-London, an area Tom has explored more intensely since the first publication of The 500 Hidden Secrets of London in 2017.
Of course the best hidden secrets in the rest of the city are still included as well, such as the bakery on Brick Lane that’s open 24-hours and that’s famous for its salt-beef bagels; the only modernist house open to the public; the historic church where you can hear avant-garde electronic music; or the art deco car park that hosts art installations and fashion shows. The book contains 500 places and details that few people know, making it the perfect guide for visitors who want to avoid the usual tourist spots and for residents who are keen to track down the city’s best-kept secrets.
Also available: The 500 Hidden Secrets of Paris, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Boston, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Copenhagen, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Tokyo, and many more. Discover the series at the500hiddensecrets.com
Capturing the juxtaposition between its vibrant beach culture and towering urban landscape, Rob Ball’s photographs of this famous Spanish seaside town consider the promise of the perfect package holiday – and whether it has changed since it’s conception in the fifties. From sunlit palm trees to shimmering neon lights, from pastel-colored high rises to bright pink beach towels, from the greys and browns of backstreets to the pinks and reds of sunburn, this is a visual ode to all the colors of Benidorm and a testament to its irrepressible energy.
Whether you’re a proud Cardiffian, or a curious visitor, this is your ultimate guide to the Welsh capital’s hidden treasures and quirky charms.
From the familiar to the downright bizarre, each entry offers a unique insight into the city’s life. Where can you dare to stand in a hurricane or peek into magical miniature worlds?
Visit the place where Snoop Dogg turned gardener, uncover the unexpected tales behind the Norwegian church, touch walls that have stood for over 1,500 years, and even use a genuine 1920s urinal (gents only, of course!).
But that’s just the beginning. With 111 unique locations to explore, you’ll discover Cardiff’s rich history and vibrant present. Each entry is brimming with fascinating facts, local lore, and practical visiting information, making this book perfect for both day-trippers and residents.
Whether you’re planning a weekend getaway, entertaining out-of-town guests, or simply looking to fall in love with your city all over again, this guide will take you on a journey of discovery.
“A joy.” – Evening Standard
“Writing like [this] lasts forever: and this wonderful, extensive selection is highly recommended.” – Philip Hensher, The Spectator
A. C. Benson (1862-1925), novelist, poet (he wrote Land of Hope and Glory), educationalist and Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, kept a voluminous diary for most of his life. Considered too controversial at the time, it was sealed up after his death. Only now, with the publication of this extensive selection, can his witty and acute judgements on people, institutions and issues – including Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Queen Victoria, Dean Inge, Balfour, Asquith, Eton and Cambridge – be fully appreciated. He paints an endlessly fascinating and often very funny picture of a public life at the heart of the Edwardian literary, educational, church and political establishments; but also of a private life riven by the pressures of unconsummated romantic attachments to young men, and by attacks of appalling depression, an illness then barely understood.
Historians Eamon Duffy and Ronald Hyam made this 300,000-word selection, adding a substantial introduction, footnotes, chronology, index and photographs. It is presented as two hardbacks.
The monumental complex of St Agnes is located on the Via Nomentana in the north-east of Rome. The site consists of an underground cemetery (catacombs), the remains of the ancient circiform sepulchral basilica, commissioned by the imperial family of emperor Constantine, the mausoleum dedicated to St Constance and the basilica of St Agnes Outside the Walls, built by Pope Honorius I (625-638) on the small room with an altar, venerated as the burial place of the martyr Agnes.
The mausoleum dedicated to St Constance, which houses the remains of the imperial princess Constantine, is a splendid example of late antique architecture. The deambulatory is covered by a sumptuous mosaic decoration with Hellenised geometric motifs and cosmic-seasonal phytomorphic and zoomorphic elements, symbolic scenes such as the harvest and portraits of historical figures.
The basilica of St Agnes, until the beginning of the 17th century, was below ground and to reach the ground floor a staircase was used. The basilica still retains many elements unchanged from the time of Pope Honorius: the splendid reused roman columns, the famous mosaic showing Agnes between Honorius I and Pope Symmachus, and the Proconnesian marble and porphyry facing of the apse… Above the high altar is the statue of St. Agnes, made by Nicolas Cordier from gilded metal, using an ancient oriental alabaster for the bust.
Investigations by Sara Penco stem from the insightful finding of the absence of a key figure in the Sistine Chapel’s Last Judgement fresco. Prior to this illuminating research, Mary Magdalene was not unequivocally identified within Michelangelo’s masterpiece. Father Pfeiffer, with whom Penco establishes an inescapable dialectic, had already hypothesized the presence of Mary Magdalene in the fresco, but it is the scholar, for the first time in these pages, who convincingly justifies her identification. Mary Magdalene is closely connected to the salient episodes in the life of Jesus. The author rightly wonders, therefore, how it is possible that a figure so central to the biblical narrative and the Christian imagination could have been excluded from the depiction of the Parousia. This observation gives rise to an accurate reflection on the iconography of the saint and the Judgement, in relation to the sacred texts and in relation to Michelangelo’s poetics and production. Sara Penco traces Mary Magdalene in the tangle of figures on the wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel, contributing to characterize the fresco – one of the best known and most appreciated works in the world – with an unprecedented theological message.
Text in English and Italian.
The Church on Hohenzollernplatz in Berlin, commonly known as ‘Powerhouse of God’, is considered a masterpiece of German brick Expressionism. It is based on a design by Ossip Klarwein (1893-1970) who, despite the importance of his building, is hardly recognized as an architect to this day. Even in Israel, where Klarwein’s construction of the Knesset in Jerusalem and numerous other projects significantly shaped the architectural image of the newly founded state, his legacy has yet to be comprehensively analyzed.
This monograph fills this gap and presents the first comprehensive study of his work, that still resonate today. It is intended as an overview of Klarwein’s entire oeuvre, making available for the first time extensive sources from his scattered estate and thus providing an impetus for further research.
An undeniable pall hangs over the future of our world, with prospects looking increasingly uncertain and frightful. The interlocking social, political, and environmental crises exist on a planetary scale. However, from antiquity forward, the idea of an ark gave hope that humanity will, through resourcefulness, compassion, and solidarity, shepherd the world beyond catastrophe.
The Ark, an extraordinary exhibition at The Church in Sag Harbor, brings together sculptures from several generations of artists who have captured humanity’s deepest pleasures and fears through imagination and self-expression. Curated by renowned artist Eric Fischl, this collection resonates with the ancient story of survival against overwhelming odds. Within this contemporary ark, you’ll discover sculptures that embody the inherent beauty of animals while simultaneously exploring the mythic, visual, and cultural with unexpected power.
This book presents works that are not mere representations but embodiments of mysteries in our struggle for survival and protection against a hostile world. From Louise Bourgeois’s monumental spiders to Deborah Butterfield’s reclining horses, from William Kentridge’s bronze pigeons to Jane Rosen’s ethereal glass raptors—each piece invites contemplation of our place in nature.
In search of a cultural identity, the Dresden-based architect Peter Zirkel has produced materially aware buildings dedicated to a poetic realism since 1995. For example the church in Canitz (2022) is built upon the ruins of its 13th-century predecessor using a sophisticated wooden structure. The Museum Lützen 1632 (2024) exhibits a mass grave that was excavated in 2011, representing a silent place of remembrance, while also fulfilling the demands of a modern place of knowledge and cultural education.
Text in English and German.
History of Italian Watchmaking takes readers on a centuries-long journey that begins with the marking and measuring of time in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the apex of modern watchmaking revived by ‘Made in Italy’ stylistic trends and precision craftsmanship. Italy’s peninsula occupies only 0.5% of the world’s surface but has given birth to 70% of the world’s art. Italy’s pursuit of art, beauty, and elegance is a defining trait of Italian watchmaking. Italians have always been voyagers to far away lands, from Marco Polo on, poets, artists, and creators of iconic fashion brands and car design. It is not surprising that this genius has been applied to clocks and watches as well. Hourglasses, sundials, and church bells marked time over many centuries. Illustrious geniuses such as Dante Alighieri, Galileo Galilei, Giorgio Vasari, Filippo Brunelleschi, and Leonardo da Vinci were intensely interested in the measuring of time passing.
While the Renaissance is primarily associated with the development of linear perspective and the rediscovery of the antique within European contexts, it was also a period of global multi-sensory exchanges: perfumes and spices were traded over land and by sea, while chocolate, gold, silver, cochineal, ivory, and lapis lazuli were extracted from Africa, Asia, and the Americas for consumption and transformation into a multitude of objects – with both productive and destructive results. Renaissance Wonders: Art & The Senses, which focuses on the ‘long’ Renaissance (c.1450-c. 1650), highlights global connections within Europe and between Europe and other cultures in order to investigate how new navigational technologies and the ambitions of exploration led to an exponential growth in the exchange of works of art and other crafted artifacts, as well as of materials, technologies, skills, and ideas.
Featuring twenty saints from a range of places and centuries – from familiar names such as Peter, Paul, and Francis of Assisi to the less well-known figures St William of York and St Dorothy – Lives of the Saints is a beguiling series of artworks by acclaimed illustrator Kate Baylay, whose extraordinary work for the Ashmolean Museum, The Folio Society (their youngest ever commissioned artist), the Everyman Library, the Royal Collection and Fendi has established her as one of the most distinctive illustrators working today. Here, she presents a personal selection of those saints whose lives and deeds inspired her to creativity. Accompanied by pen portraits of their subjects, these artworks glow with inner intensity, and in form and treatment are redolent of the finest works in stained glass.
Featured Saints include: St Augustine of Canterbury, St Balthazar, St Bede the Venerable, St Catherine of Alexandria, St Cecilia, St Christopher, St Cuthbert, St Dorothy, St Francis of Assisi, St George, St Jerome, St Joan of Arc, St John the Baptist, St Martin of Tours, St Mary Magdalene, St Michael the Archangel, St Paul Apostle of the Gentiles, St Peter, St Sebastian, St William of York.