From 1500 to 1825, Europe remained in an almost perpetual state of war. Religion, politics, economics, and dynastic ambition all played a role in the turmoil that spread across the continent. War-related printed images also proliferated during this time, serving a variety of functions―commemorative, propagandistic, iconic, narrative, eulogistic, critical, or instructional. 
This handsome volume is the first graphic print survey of the theme of war in the early modern period. Featuring work by such artists as Dürer, Goya, and Géricault, the book presents varied images of soldiers; battles (including specific historical events); production, innovation, and instruction in arms and armor; and representations of abstract concepts related to war and peace. The text includes essays by eminent authorities that illuminate artistic and historical issues of the era.

The Plains of Mars: European War Prints, 1500-1825, from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation

Arts & Photography

Clifton, James

Scattone, Leslie

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

The first major English-language survey of the artist's life and work
A brilliant colorist and masterful storyteller, Dutch mannerist Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638) wielded a remarkably skilled brush and the technical ability to show it off in intricate compositions. He took inspiration from a wide range of biblical and mythological sources to create imaginative, often quite erotic scenes. While such pictures were prized in Wtewael's time, more recently they were hidden away―behind other paintings, in leather folders on bookshelves, and in the reserves of great museums. This richly illustrated volume brings together more than fifty of Wtewael’s finest paintings and drawings, from a small jewel-like picture on copper depicting Mars and Venus to large-scale mannerist showpieces such as The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and Perseus and Andromeda.
A pillar of the Utrecht community, Wtewael was engaged in business, religion, and politics as well as art. He adopted the exotic mannerist style, full of artifice and inventive manipulation, and continued to be fascinated by the challenge of creating sophisticated variations well into his maturity, when other Dutch artists had turned to naturalism. This book explores Wtewael’s amazingly refined and detailed paintings and drawings, shedding light on his reputation, his life, and the conflicted times―marked by iconoclasm and strife―in which he thrived.

Pleasure and Piety: The Art of Joachim Wtewael

Wheelock Jr., Arthur K.

Helmus, Liesbeth M.

Princeton University Press

The paintings of Willem van Aelst (1627–1683) are known for their fine finish, innovative compositions, sumptuous subject matter, and rich, jewel-toned palette. Published on the occasion of an unprecedented traveling exhibition, this book celebrates Van Aelst’s achievements and his significant impact on Dutch still-life painting. Van Aelst masterfully depicted arrangements of fresh fruit and flowers, displays of dead game, and evocations of the forest floor, as well as elegant objects such as nautilus cups, distinctive silver vessels, and Venetian glassware. This book features twenty-five paintings from throughout his career. Catalog entries and a biographical essay are provided by Tanya Paul, James Clifton writes about the Medici court, Julie Berger Hochstrasser analyzes Van Aelst’s choice of subject matter, Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. discusses Van Aelst’s time in Amsterdam, and a team of conservators reveals his technical process.

Elegance and Refinement: The Still-Life Paintings of Willem van Aelst

Paul, Tanya

Berger Hochstrasser, Julie

Skira/Rizzoli

Some 75 paintings, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts, prints, and textiles are featured, including works by Sandro Botticelli, Carlo Dolci, Albrecht Durer, Bernardino Luini, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacopo Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese and Francisco de Zurbaran. The works range from intimate and private devotional pieces as small as three inches high to altarpieces and church furnishings. The Body of Christ focuses on two aspects: the meaning of the subject matter within the Christian culture of the period (specifically that of the Catholic Church), and how these symbolic images of Christ were used - or intended to be used - in religious practice, particularly from the late Middle Ages through the iconoclastic controversies of the sixteenth century. The Body of Christ is divided into four thematic sections. "The Word Made Flesh" includes images of the Madonna and Child, the Annunciation, Nativity, and Adoration. "Suffering and Triumph" illustrates the Passion and the Resurrection of Christ. "The Eucharistic Body" explores the explicit correlation between Christ's body and blood, and the bread and wine of the Mass. "The Visionary Body" presents devotional experiences and miracles, and saints, religious, and lay persons experiencing visions of the image of Christ.

The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New Spain, 1150-1800

Nirenberg, David

Neagley, Linda Elaine

Museum of Fine Arts. Houston

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

A Portrait of the Artist, 1525-1825 reveals how artists depicted themselves and their profession from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. This richly illustrated book presents more than eighty engravings, etchings, woodcuts, mezzotints, and lithographs from the collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation. It provides an in-depth examination of works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Claude Lorrain, Adriaen van Ostade, Salvator Rosa, William Hogarth, Francisco Goya, and many other European masters. A Portrait of the Artist, 1525-1825 accompanies an exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation. The prints in this book are organized into four themes: "Icon," "Work," "Genius," and "Market." Together the themes present a comprehensive look at how artists used art to define individual and group identities. From the late Middle Ages onward, artists struggled to improve their social status. This quest affected the ways in which they represented themselves, other artists, and subjects relating to their profession. The prints featured in this book focus on artists' lives and work and on the roles that both artists and the arts held in society. Many of the examples are self-portraits, whereas others depict artists at work, interacting with clients, or in training.

A Portrait of the Artist, 1525-1825: Prints from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

118 pages : illustrations, maps and portraits

People of the Three Fires: The Ottawa, Potawatomi, and Ojibway of Michigan

McClurken, James

Cornell, George

Gritc Pub

This new volume opens up our understanding of the design, production and market for Biblical prints and illustrated Bible images in 16th century Flanders, and explores the central role they played in one of the most dramatic artistic and religious transformations in European history. Prints are often seen as merely following artistic developments in the more prestigious medium of painting and, in turn, the visual arts are seen as mirroring changes in society, but this groundbreaking book challenges these views. Featuring approximately 130 engravings, woodcuts, and illustrated Bibles and books by Lucas van Leyden, Maarten van Heemskerck, Philips Galle, Hendrick Goltzius, Hieronymus Wierix and others, it reveals that biblical prints were a dynamic force both in the transformation of Northern European art between Albrecht Durer and Rembrandt van Rijn, and in the intensified attention to Scripture in the religious turmoil of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation.

Scripture for the Eyes: Bible Illustration in Netherlandish Prints of the Sixteenth Century

Melion, Walter S.

GILES

The Body of Christ: In the Art of Europe and New Spain 1150-1800

Religious

Prestel Pub

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