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The Villa Farnesina is one of the most complete examples of Renaissance civil architecture. The idea of harmony and proportion finds its full realization in this building and in the decorations which enrich it. Text in Italian. Mirabilia Italiæ is a unique series. It owes its existence to an innovative and ambitious project: an atlas of the great monuments of Italy that will display them in all their details, from the best known to the least. This series represents a completely new way of documenting art. Mirabilia Italiæ provides a guided tour of each monument, fully and accurately explained. Each atlas contains hundreds of color photographs, arranged in a precise topographical sequence and accompanied by diagrams showing the exact location of each detail. The atlas is complemented by a volume of texts edited by the premier scholars in the field, consisting of critical essays and descriptive notes. Essays examine the monument from the art-historical point of view, and record the alterations it has undergone over time. Descriptive notes analyze the content and significance of the images. Extensive cross-references link the essays and notes to the images, facilitating consultation of the work. The General Editor of Mirabilia Italiæ is Salvatore Settis, Director of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa.

These colorful close-ups of cars held together by tape and string show the best (or worst) in Auto DIY and elevate the broken Bentleys and bashed bonnets into abstract art.

“The well-judged employment of classical detail in a new home has an additional significance that cannot be underestimated. It is an expression of an informed personal choice and an evocation of the delight in the human senses. This is true of all the houses featured in this book.” Jeremy Musson
“The architects and craftsmen that Phillip has featured in this wonderful book all have a love for classical detail. The art is alive and well, as can be attested to in these pages.” David Easton
In The Art of Classical Details, Phillip James Dodd takes a close-up look at some of the finest examples of contemporary classical architecture. The book consists of two chapters: The Essays and The Projects. Starting with a foreword by renowned decorator David Easton, The Essays are written by some of today’s most sought after architects, scholars and craftsmen. Accompanied by sumptuous full page photographs and renderings that illustrate a use of fine materials, intricate detailing, and superb artisanship, these insightful texts are essential reading for anyone with an interest in the theory, practice and craft of classical design. The Projects presents an illustrated look at 25 of today’s finest classically-designed homes. Employing the theories prescribed in the writings of the first chapter, this portfolio of contemporary buildings exhibits the work of some of the most recognizable and celebrated architects in Great Britain and the United States. The work featured in within this book demonstrates the timeless beauty of classicism, and delights in the role that superbly crafted details play in creating art.

When you think of Ibiza, you think of sun, sea, sand, and the Mediterranean way of life. But that’s not all: you think of gorgeous design, funky interiors, scrumptious food and breathtaking nature. With that in mind, it’s time for an ode to good taste, La Pura Vida. This magnificent book will bring the summer vibe into your home with the most beautiful interiors, imposing architecture and pictures that will have you imagining you are standing amidst the azure bays yourself. Two hundred and forty pages filled with joy and good taste, interiors, architecture, and scenery.

“Although the street art is generally conveyed in a very natural matter, even his dead animal paintings seem at peace.” – Streetartbio.com “Detached from the artist’s identity, his detailed, illustrative animal paintings have brought him back to the world. With local species of animals as his main focus, ROA inevitably starts a dialogue about human interaction with nature and the environment, whether it is painting on the walls of a museum or in an abandoned rural factory.” – Hi Fructose – The New Contemporary Magazine “One of the most influential acts of street art around the world.” – The Huffington Post Fascinated by nature, the anonymous muralist and street artist ROA is inspired by the beauty of its non-human inhabitants. With great attention to detail, ROA draws over-sized black and white creatures of endemic or endangered species on buildings around the world, from Moscow to Mexico City, and from Los Angeles to London. His subjects are frequently survivors; scavengers, rodents, and unusual animals that thrive in their particular milieu.

“All people need to be seen.” – Bruce Davidson. “America is still out there – You just have to look for it.” – Larry Niehues. “I’m proud to say I’m from the USA because I’ve really seen it with my own eyes – all the beauty and the destruction, the tradition and the innovation, the loud cities and the quiet little spaces.” – Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys). Larry Niehues, a French-born photographer who lives in the United States, traveled around the country for 5 years photographing modern day America while seeking out the continuing presence of a timeless post-war ‘old America’. Photographed using 35mm film, his portraits of people and iconic small town life (motels, diners, gas stations, cars), evoke mid-century American life in a way that is both authentic and powerful in the tradition of William Eggleston, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Davidson, and Robert Frank.

Spanning a wide spectrum of creative constructs emerging from varied ideations and genres, Rini Dhumal’s art is rooted in India’s culture and myth, coupled with her international exposure and imaginative spirit. A flexibility of approach adds an organic energy and innate beauty to Rini’s art. With its focus on the inner feminine psyche, it explores the potential and challenges offered by different media, from two or three-dimensional work in clay or bronze, relief or graphic art. In a fine assimilation of abstraction, myth, landscape and conceptualization, her art is threaded with the face, form and figuration of the ‘goddess’ in various incarnations of Rini’s own design. Her work also makes imaginative use of traditional Indian iconography – birds, animals and floral motifs all reminiscent of religious art, but re-purposed to create a new vocabulary of form and meaning.

Rini’s enduring art and aesthetics, with their distinct feel and flow, speak for a unique assimilation of the personal and universal. This book is an attempt to understand and appreciate the dramatis persona, review her creative journey and take the reader through the various stages of her life and work until the present, with its focus on an exceptionally impressive and extensively varied repertoire.

Contents: Foreword; Creative Constructs; Immersed in Tradition; Catalogue; Ceramics; Rugs-Tapestry-Glass; Paintings and Drawings; Bronze; Artist Biography

The Auroville Architects Monograph Series documents the pioneering work of the architects whose vision shaped Auroville, a unique international township in southeastern India. This monograph, the second in the series, is a comprehensive record of the work of Piero and Gloria Cicionesi, whose architectural legacy translates Auroville’s philosophy of community living into built form. Piero (b 1935) and Gloria (b 1933) Cicionesi hail from the magical town of Florence in Italy. They arrived in Auroville a week after its inauguration on 28 February 1968 and have since made it their karma-kshetra. This unique International Township based on the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother is a source of inspiration to many architects around the world. This publication brings together essays, drawings and photographs to demonstrate the elegant legacy of Piero and Gloria Cicionesi, for whom architecture is not only a search for beauty but also has a deeper social aspiration. This book has been enhanced with 7 augmented reality videos, each linked to a photograph marked with the symbol. These videos include interactions with Piero and Gloria as well as documentation of their journey and work in Auroville. The videos are available through the BooksPlus mobile app. To play the videos, please follow the instructions given on the copyright page.

Rajshree Sarabhai sees things around us in a way that makes us look at the world through her eyes. For her, being in nature with her camera is a form of meditation and, in that, she can lose herself and all sense of time. She captures details in what are common plants, details that bring out the magical beauty of nature which many of us miss. She captures those moments and colours we overlook and through her photographs shares them with us. These unusual photographs are all taken in natural surroundings and in gardens, capturing plants as they are.

It is Cadell’s zest for life and the diversity of his subjects that makes him unique in the group of artists popularly known as the Scottish Colourists. Influenced by direct contact with the European avant-garde movements taking place at the turn of the century and with early knowledge of the work of Matisse and the Fauves, Cadell’s paintings are confident and rich with colour. Celebrated for his stylish portraits of Edinburgh New Town interiors and his vibrantly colored, daringly simple still life’s of the 1920s, exceptional in British art of this period, he also captured the beauty of nature, especially in the evocative works portraying his beloved Iona.

This stunning book documents a collection of 66 extraordinary pieces of petrified wood, mainly from Western United States (Arizona, Oregon, Washington). Specially photographed they are shown in their entirety and in magnificent details.

Petrified wood is formed from fallen trees that in the absence of oxygen and microbes, and with water containing minerals, through a replacement process called permineralization, slowly transform into visually spectacular fossils. But Nature often uses a paintbrush in its preservation magic, splashing the wooden canvas with an array of colors and hues before fixing it in a matrix of hard durable quartz, thereby creating splendid works of art. Petrified wood has been found throughout the world, but actual petrified forests are truly noteworthy in the United States, the most famous being the Chinle Formation forest of Arizona.