Leonardo da Vinci, the absolute master of the Renaissance, a universal artist, inventor, and visionary, comes back to life in this clear and lively book by Vincent Delieuvin, curator at the Louvre Museum. From timeless masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and Saint Anne to his research notebooks, the book reveals the full extent of the creative freedom and power of a universal genius.

Painter, sculptor, and architect, Michelangelo is one of the most widely viewed artists in the world, with his works discovered each year by millions of visitors to the Vatican. From the Sistine Chapel to his great marble sculptures, this monograph highlights a monumental career in which painting and sculpture engage in a shared pursuit of excellence.

Written by Neville Rowley, a specialist in 15th-century Italian painting and sculpture, it offers insight into the singularity of an artist whose legacy still profoundly shapes our understanding of the Renaissance.

As a celebrated and accomplished artist of the 19th century, Rosa Bonheur succeeded in elevating animal painting to the status of art. Defying the social conventions of her time, she became the first female artist to receive the Legion of Honour, making her work a symbol of independence and freedom. Her realistic animal depictions and naturalistic style established her as a pioneer of her era. Largely forgotten after her death, her work, in this book, is being brought back into the spotlight by Armelle Fémelat, art historian, journalist, and specialist in the Italian Renaissance and animal studies. This book offers a precise and attentive reading of the artist’s work, allowing readers to appreciate the uniqueness of both her art and her life.

This comprehensive monograph is dedicated to the work of the practice founded in Muralto (Canton of Ticino) by Nicola Baserga and Christian Mozzetti in 1999. The majority of their buildings are located in Ticino, where the practice has established itself as a defining voice on the younger architectural scene.

The works are recognized and appreciated for their original combination of structural research – developed in close collaboration with the Ticino-based firm ingegneri pedrazzini guidotti – and a careful, sensitive interpretation of the brief and site. This approach results in buildings of high spatial quality, in which the structural system, spatial organization and expression are inextricably linked. Examples include Chiasso Secondary School and the home for the elderly in Giornico.

Preceded by an essay discussing the characteristic features of their architecture against the backdrop of current Swiss discourse, the bilingual book (English and Italian) presents a comprehensive selection of their works through analytical entries, supplemented by a complete list of works.

Text in English and Italian. 

The volume invites readers to reconsider the symbolic complexity of the Colosseum through the works of one of the most captivating contemporary photographers, Olivo Barbieri. ​Famous for his unique use of perspective and light, Barbieri transforms the Colosseum into a disquieting visual narrative, highlighting its history, modernity, and architectural seriality. Each photograph, turning space into time, captures the monument’s infinite grandeur and its most auratic details. This significant sequence of images offers a singular perspective from unprecedented viewpoints, making the ancient world extraordinarily present while preserving its timeless vastness. The book is enriched with texts by Andrea Cortellessa and Luca Fiore.  

Text in English and Italian.

A dialog between Rome and Vienna unfolds through the masterpieces of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, tracing the cultural ties that united the two capitals and shaped their artistic traditions. Featuring over fifty works commissioned by the Habsburg imperial family between the 16th and 18th centuries, the volume offers a privileged insight into the splendor, collecting taste, and political vision of one of Europe’s most powerful dynasties. Through essays and scholarly contributions, the book explores the relationship between art, history, and power, highlighting masterpieces by Peter Paul Rubens, Diego Velazquez, Anthony van Dyck, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Arcimboldo.

Palazzo Giovanelli in Santa Fosca is certainly one of the most prestigious private buildings in Venice. While its first nucleus dates back to the fourteenth century, in 1527 it was donated by the Doge Andrea Gritti to Francesco Maria I, Duke of Urbino. The palace remained property of the family until its transfer to the Donà family, which gathered an important collection of works of art inside. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the palace reached the Giovanelli family, who expanded and modernized it. However, it was during the nineteenth century that the residence took on its definitive appearance. In an initial neoclassical phase, Count Andrea commissioned the arrangement of his private apartment to Giuseppe Borsato and Francesco Hayez. Shortly afterwards, in 1847, Giovambattista Meduna arranged one of the façades like that of a small Ducal Palace. In 1860, Meduna carried out further expansions, setting up a prestigious collection of paintings, including a masterpiece of Venetian art: Giorgione’s Tempest. The volume, in both Italian and English, reconstructs the history of seven centuries of the palace, the events it witnessed, and the artistic treasures inside it.

Text in English and Italian.

The Bargue-Gérôme Drawing Course is a complete reprint of a famous, late nineteenth century drawing course. It contains a set of almost two hundred masterful lithographs of subjects for copying by drawing students before they attempt drawing from life or nature. Consequently it is a book that will interest artists, art students, art historians, and lovers and collectors of drawings. It also introduces us to the work and life of a hitherto neglected master: Charles Bargue.

The Drawing Course consists of three sections. The first consists of plates drawn after casts, usually of antique examples. Different parts of the body are studied in order of difficulty, until full figures are presented. The second section pays homage to the western school of painting with lithographs after exemplary drawings by Renaissance and modern masters. The third part contains almost sixty académies or drawings after nude male models, all original inventions by Bargue, the lithographer. With great care, the student is introduced to continually more difficult problems in the close observing and recording of nature.

Practiced professional artists will see at once the problems of representation that are approached by Bargue, and they will delight in his solutions. Figure painters will copy the plates to keep in tune; so to speak, much as pianists practice the exercises of Czerny before performing Beethoven. Art students will find it a practical and progressive introduction to realistic figure drawing. Art historians can learn by studying these drawings just what was prized in late nineteenth century figure painting. They will recognize the reliance upon tradition by the use of antique sculptures as models in the first part: Antiquity is here used, not to impose a classical style, but as an aid in seeing the structure of the human body with clarity and intelligence. The result is a convergence of Classicism and Realism. There are no numerical proportional charts, perspective boxes or geometrical schemata to memorize. All the techniques and schemata are developed out of and for the object or person in view.

The drawings are splendid; beautiful; not simply products of assiduity, but of careful observation and the wish to transcribe and communicate the beauty of nature and light, as well as the manifold appearances of the human body. These are objectives that will touch and move any careful reader of drawings, and the figurative arts.

Text in French.
The Bargue-Gérôme Drawing Course is a complete reprint of a famous, late nineteenth century drawing course. It contains a set of almost two hundred masterful lithographs of subjects for copying by drawing students before they attempt drawing from life or nature. Consequently it is a book that will interest artists, art students, art historians, and lovers and collectors of drawings. It also introduces us to the work and life of a hitherto neglected master: Charles Bargue. The Drawing Course consists of three sections. The first consists of plates drawn after casts, usually of antique examples. Different parts of the body are studied in order of difficulty, until full figures are presented. The second section pays homage to the western school of painting with lithographs after exemplary drawings by Renaissance and modern masters. The third part contains almost sixty académies or drawings after nude male models, all original inventions by Bargue, the lithographer. With great care, the student is introduced to continually more difficult problems in the close observing and recording of nature. Practiced professional artists will see at once the problems of representation that are approached by Bargue, and they will delight in his solutions. Figure painters will copy the plates to keep in tune; so to speak, much as pianists practice the exercises of Czerny before performing Beethoven. Art students will find it a practical and progressive introduction to realistic figure drawing. Art historians can learn by studying these drawings just what was prized in late nineteenth century figure painting. They will recognize the reliance upon tradition by the use of antique sculptures as models in the first part: Antiquity is here used, not to impose a classical style, but as an aid in seeing the structure of the human body with clarity and intelligence. The result is a convergence of Classicism and Realism. There are no numerical proportional charts, perspective boxes or geometrical schemata to memorize. All the techniques and schemata are developed out of and for the object or person in view. The drawings are splendid; beautiful; not simply products of assiduity, but of careful observation and the wish to transcribe and communicate the beauty of nature and light, as well as the manifold appearances of the human body. These are objectives that will touch and move any careful reader of drawings, and the figurative arts. Text in French.

Embossing, punching and guilloché engraving are techniques that have almost faded into oblivion. Today they are experiencing a new lease of life in contemporary jewelry. The Manufactory-Style Jewelry Design project fosters the passing down of experiential knowledge through the collaboration of artisans and designers from three generations. The book presents an excerpt of this success story by means of archive material and interviews with former masters, explains how the machines work, and illustrates contemporary examples.

Text in English and German.

Published for JonOne’s solo exhibition at the Magda Danysz Gallery in Paris, the pieces featured in JonOne Rock stunningly capture New York’s dynamic lifestyle and the magic that he felt when he painted there. The book is a testament to how JonOne never fails to produce a piece that is powerful, harmonious, dynamic, and multidimensional. “Jonone’s style is an innovation for street art. He is famous for working outside conventions and not following the “rules” of graffiti. What sets JonOne apart from other artists is his focus on the excitement and movement of colour as opposed to the typical associations of character drawing and insignias. Evolving from his early days tagging the streets of New York his style now goes beyond traditional codes of graffiti and finds its roots in American abstract expressionism.” – Magda Danysz

Dominique Perrault is recognized as one of the outstanding architects of the 21st century. In 2015 he was awarded the prestigious Praemium Imperiale prize. He s world-known as the architect of the BnF François Mitterrand. He has designed major projects around the world, such as the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Velodrome in Berlin, the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg (2008), and the Albi Grand Theater. Recently, the DPA office was selected to create a new hippodrome for Longchamp and to transform the former central office of La Poste rue du Louvre, in Paris. In 2016, his transformation of the Dufour Pavilion in the Château of Versailles where the new ticket office, restaurant, conference rooms and bookstore will be located will be unveiled. Metal mesh tapestries and light fixtures here will evoke the majesty of the “Grand Siècle” in a modern language of design.

For over twenty years now, Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost, in her role as architect-designer associate of Dominique Perrault’s, has been designing the interiors for his architectural projects: seating, light fixtures, partitions composed of metal mesh, etc. The work of these two designers creates environments in which architecture and furniture blend together. The objects designed by Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost are edited by manufacturers around the globe: Fontana Arte, DCW, Silvera, Poltrona Frau, Alessi, Baccarrat, Chevalier, Sawaya & Moroni, Galerie Kréo, FSB, etc.

The book offers an analysis of the design influences of these furniture pieces and light fixtures, enabling the reader to understand their conception. It also presents possible variations in the paths they are likely to take from one project to the next. With over 600 illustrations, plans, models and photographs of pieces Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost has created, some of which, such as the seats for the BnF, have already become iconic.

Text in English and French.

From the white plastic bed for the Prisunic catalogue (1966) to the Culbuto armchair issued by Knoll, and from the Lip watch to the private apartments of the Élysée Palace, Paris, (1983), the furniture and objects conceived by Marc Held have been emblematic of the renewal of French design, following the line of Scandinavians such as Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen… With his gallery L’Échoppe on the rue de Seine, Paris, and then with his agency, the designer and architect Marc Held also took part in major projects for IBM and Renault.

This book traces fifty years of design, whose success with the public at large has contributed to a great liberation in our style of life. The generosity of his vision has remained faithful to the humanist values that guided his childhood in Bagnolet, where he was born in 1932. Having settled in Greece, on the island of Skopelos, over twenty years ago, Marc Held still continues to build houses and furnish them with his creations, working closely with Greek craftsmen.

Text in English and French.

Marc Held made history in 1965 with his famous Culbuto armchair and followed it in 1966 with furniture manufactured by Prisunic. Over a period of fifty years, he created some 150 furniture pieces, notably participating in the interior design of the apartments in the Élysée Palace in 1983. Beginning in the 1970s, he also designed singular works of architecture, for individuals and for corporate clients such as IBM. At the end of the 1980s he chose to focus entirely his passion when he settled on the Greek island of Skopelos. Interested in vernacular architecture, he dedicated a widely acknowledged book on Greece, Maisons de Skopelos, précis d’architecture in 1994, to it. It was also on Skopelos where over a period of thirty years he built eight exceptional villas: Lemonia, Maistros, Nina, Loukas, The Temple, Mourtia, Myrto and Kapsari. Each house is an architectural manifesto in its own right. These eight villas, in spectacular locations beside the sea, built with local materials and in accordance with the construction techniques of the island – all the artisans were from there – with the magical landscapes in which they are integrated, are eight lessons on the notion of genius loci, which so inspired Marc Held’s architecture. Photographed by Deidi von Schaewen – with spectacular shots taken via drone-mounted cameras – his eight beautiful villas are also presented with his drawings and plans developed during their conception phases. Text in English and French.

The American House is an exceedingly diverse collection of contemporary residential designs in the United States. This book follows the successful title European House, likewise a gorgeous collection of new residential architecture. The American House contains cutting-edge residential designs by leading architects from across the United States. Stunning color photographs and plans underline the sensitivity of today’s architects to the natural environment, as well as the care and attention paid to interior design and everyday living. This new volume features an extraordinary variety in style, sophistication, affordability, site and landscape, with an emphasis on sustainability practices in both design and construction. Each project illustrates how architects adapt their signature styles to accommodate the challenges posed by local topography and variations in climate, along with a sharp focus on optimum strategies for sustainable living. A lively introduction by critic Ian Volner comments on the many trends, often contradictory, that characterize the architecture of houses in the 2010s. In its sweeping scope, this book considers the present and points to the future of residential design in the United States.

Interior stylist Bea Mombaers is passionate about vintage and design; she’s always on the lookout for special finds and unique objects. Over time she developed a distinctive signature style. This book presents Bea’s work and universe as seen through the lenses of different photographers. The photos show interiors arranged by Bea, but also intriguing details, beautiful still lifes and objects with a story Bea feels inspired by. The photos are presented according to the key moments in a day: waking up, breakfast, break, lunch, coffee, apero, dinner and party. Bea is a source of inspiration and interior dreams, and a personal view on Bea Mombaers’s world and her favorite projects up to now.

The Razmnama or The Book of War is the Persian translation of one of the great Hindu epics of India, the Mahabharata. The Mughal emperor Akbar took a personal interest in the translation project and a lavishly illustrated copy was prepared for his personal use. Out of the three copies made, the three-volume Razmnama in the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata is the only copy that is complete with 81 miniatures that bear the name of the scribe and the date of completion, 1605. The paintings combine the finest elements of the Mughal court style with the narrative style of storytelling.

This lavishly illustrated volume opens a window into the world of one of the most extravagant and wide-ranging stylemakers of the last century, a pioneer of the cosmetics industry who was also celebrated for the daring and prescience of her art collecting, her decorating, and her personal couture. Four hundred vintage images and a meticulously researched text, including 16 essays by renowned experts in the fields of art and interior design, illuminate and trace the public and private lives of Helena Rubinstein. Rubinstein’s bold and influential flair for decor – sleekly modern at times, and at other times a wildly eclectic sampling from different eras – was showcased globally in her beauty salons and in her glamorous residences in New York, Paris, and the South of France. An astute patron, she invested in artworks by the luminaries of Parisian bohemia just as they began their ascent. Her vast collection included tapestries by Picasso and Rouault, paintings by Dégas, Dufy, Matisse, Miró, Modigliani, and Monet, as well as murals by Dalí. Her striking instinct for fashion (she wore Worth and Poiret at first, and Balenciaga and St. Laurent 60 years later) and her famous overscaled jewellery kept her in the public eye, decade after decade. Rubinstein’s vibrant character, reflected in her personal style and in the interiors of her homes and salons, is captured here in works by photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Brassaï, André Kertész, Dora Maar, and Man Ray – many of which have never before been published. When the flamboyant and decisive Helena Rubinstein died in 1965, at the age of 94, her huge collections were dispersed. But in these pages her world comes alive again: Over the Top is a unique record of the passionate life and style of this self-made mogul and the century she helped define.

This volume shows the diverse ways in which Emiliano López and Mónica Rivera, a young architectural couple from Barcelona, have addressed the question of optimum space utilisation. It includes a series of photographs that the couple took while travelling, presented alongside their own remarkable constructions and treatises on important themes within the study of architecture. Scattered in between are visual case studies dedicated to seven residential buildings, which have been precisely designed to suit their specific spatial situations. The techniques López and Rivera use are described in detail. This exciting monographic collection is complemented by four essays, written by renowned guest authors, which elucidate López and Rivera’s unique style.

Text in English and Spanish.

Bencharong, a unique class of Chinese export ware, was made exclusively for Thai royalty and the ruling elite in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Enamelled porcelain containers and dishes for the table and boudoir are resplendent in kaleidoscopic colors inspired by verdant, tropical vegetation. Lai Nam Thong (‘gold-washed’), a variant, takes the opulence of this ware to a pinnacle by adding gold as an embellishment. Although Bencharong belongs both in place and time to the broader tradition of Chinese export art for the European and American markets, it is distinctively Thai in style and aesthetics. A wealth of lavish illustrations, many never before published, are visual revelations of Bencharong’s splendor.

The author traces the history of Bencharong from the renowned kilns of Jingdezhen to enamelling centres at coastal ports in southern China and its final destination – Ayutthaya and Bangkok.
First book in the exciting Discover Thai Art seriesAn accessible yet authoritative guide to these collectible and beautiful porcelainsExamines the shapes, motifs and origins of each pieceExquisite items from previously unseen private collections Bencharong, a unique class of Chinese export ware, was made exclusively for Thai royalty and the ruling elite in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Enamelled porcelain containers and dishes for the table and boudoir are resplendent in kaleidoscopic colors inspired by verdant, tropical vegetation. Lai Nam Thong (‘gold-washed’), a variant, takes the opulence of this ware to a pinnacle by adding gold as an embellishment. Although Bencharong belongs both in place and time to the broader tradition of Chinese export art for the European and American markets, it is distinctively Thai in style and aesthetics. A wealth of lavish illustrations, many never before published, are visual revelations of Bencharong’s splendor.

The author traces the history of Bencharong from the renowned kilns of Jingdezhen to enamelling centres at coastal ports in southern China and its final destination – Ayutthaya and Bangkok.

David Hockney’s interpretation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales are like no other version you will have read before. Although inspired by earlier illustrators of the tales, from Arthur Rackham to Edmund Dulac, Hockney’s extraordinary etchings re-imagine these strange and supernatural stories for a modern audience, capturing their distinctive atmosphere in a style that is recognizably the artist’s own. Reprinted for the first time since its original publication in 1969, Hockney’s book brings together some well-known tales – Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin – with others that are less familiar. Informed by great art of the past, attuned to idiosyncrasies of character and incident, and fresh in execution and content, his illustrations invite us to read each one as if for the first time.

Carleton Varney is “Mr. Color,” known for his inventive use of unexpected color combinations and for creating bright, happy interiors. His projects have ranged from some of the world’s most famous resorts, such as the Greenbrier in West Virginia, and the Grand Hotel in Michigan, to the White House, as well as residences from Europe to the South Pacific. As a young man, he trained under the tutelage of legendary designer Dorothy Draper. Now as the head of the venerable Dorothy Draper and Company, Inc., Varney continues the tradition of grand scale and bold contrasts in fabrics, wall coverings, and furniture designs, and yet he gives every room his signature style. For the first time, he offers an “on the set” tour of his popular HSN television show, Live Vividly. “Living with color changes your life,” says Varney, and in Mr. Color, more than three hundred dazzling photographs by Michel Arnaud show you how.

In this ode to the charms of Paris and Parisian style, Belgian photographer Henk van Cauwenbergh captures the essence of the city’s most iconic venues and its perennially chic denizens. He seeks out the culinary hotspots of Paris and turns his camera on the places to see and be seen. Inspired by the microcosm of Saint-Germain, his Paris is imbued with the spirit of the places where people gather: the casual efficiency of waiters at Les Deux Magots and the Café de Flore, the boisterous atmosphere of Brasserie Lipp. Long influenced by urban and innate style of Serge Gainsbourg, Charles Aznavour, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau, van Cauwenbergh’s Paris is one of seduction and nonchalance, of beautiful women, and the heady emotions of first love.