The Northern Renaissance was a period of profound social and religious upheaval in Europe, with the rapid spread of humanism and the burgeoning Protestant Reformation sweeping the continent. Reflecting this momentous change is the glorious art of the period, which draws on the complex themes of religion, allegory, and classical myth and is further characterized by superb technical skill coupled with an interest in capturing likeness with almost psychological precision. 
This sumptuously illustrated volume features works by German artists Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein—two of the great masters of the Northern Renaissance. Working in a variety of media that included engravings, woodcuts, illuminated manuscripts, and oil paintings, Dürer and Holbein created landscapes, still lifes, and portraits of near-photographic realism, including Holbein’s superlative drawings of members of Henry VIII’s court. Examined here alongside a selection of works by other Northern Renaissance masters—including Lucas Cranach, François Clouet, Jan Gossaert, and Joos van Cleve—the works of Dürer, Cranach, and Holbein are shown to be a blend of techniques and ideals old and new. 
Drawn from the Royal Collection’s world-class paintings and drawings, The Northern Renaissance marks a major reexamination of works that have been little considered during the past forty years and offers a uniquely beautiful overview of a fascinating period in European art.

The Northern Renaissance: Dürer to Holbein

Heard, Kate

Whitaker, Lucy

Reference

Royal Collection Trust

Portly squires and rake-thin curates. Jane Austen heroines and their gruesome chaperones. Dashing young officers and corrupt old politicians. The keenly observant caricatures by English cartoonist Thomas Rowlandson (1757–1827) make clear his sharp eye for current affairs as well as for his appreciation of the humor in everyday life. High Spirits brings together more than one hundred caricatures by Rowlandson, with subjects spanning the entire range of English society, including numerous satires of politics and well-known political figures. Full-color illustrations are accompanied by details drawn from new archival research on both the cartoons and their royal collectors, from George IV to Victoria and Albert. Rowlandson is among the most important contributors to the country’s Golden Age of Caricature, and High Spirits will be a welcome addition to studies of his work.

High Spirits: The Comic Art of Thomas Rowlandson

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

2014 marks the three-hundredth anniversary of the succession of the House of Hanover to the British throne. In celebration of this historic milestone, The First Georgians explores the rich artistic patronage of the early Hanoverian period. Georges I and II, along with Queen Caroline and Frederick, Prince of Wales, were all great patrons of the arts and together they amassed a broad and diverse collection of works. From sculptures, paintings, and miniatures to fascinating examples of the applied arts, including maps, crowns, books, and clocks, their collections reflect the spirit of the early Georgian era. This catalog showcases three hundred full-color photographs of the finest works from among the collection, many of which have never before been published or made available for public display. Produced in Germany, France, and Britain during one of the most dramatic periods of change across all aspects of political, intellectual, and cultural life, the works reflect changing views of science, politics, and art throughout the early to mid-eighteenth century―the period when modern Britain was coming into being. Despite the depth of this collection and its cultural importance, artistic production during the early Hanoverian period has been less well-documented than during the late Hanoverian period. With this volume, Desmond Shawe-Taylor directs our attention to this relatively neglected period.

The First Georgians: Art and Monarchy, 1714-1760

Bird, Rufus

Burchard, Wolf

Jones, Kathryn

Shawe-Taylor, Desmond

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) trained as an artist under her stepfather in Nuremberg. Fascinated by butterflies and moths from an early age, she studied the insect life cycle through the animals she found in local fields and gardens, recording her discoveries in meticulous watercolors and prints. After she moved to Amsterdam in 1691, Merian became interested in the wildlife of Suriname, which she encountered in the collectors' cabinets and botanical gardens in the city. Merian's fascination with Suriname led her to undertake a trip to the country, then a Dutch colony, to study insects in their natural habitat. Between 1699 and 1701, she worked in Suriname, making expeditions around the country to collect specimens, rearing butterflies and moths and recording their eating habits and metamorphoses. Merian's work in Suriname was published on her return to Amsterdam as the Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, or The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname. This groundbreaking book presented the insects that Merian had studied, with each insect life cycle shown on the correct host plant—an approach which has seen her described as “the first ecologist.” Merian’s illustrations are scientifically rigorous, but they are also beautiful, reflecting her training as an artist in the still-life tradition. Her approach to scientific illustration would be adopted by many of the natural historians who followed her. Maria Merian’s Butterflies tells Merian’s story through her works in the Royal Collection. The core of these is a set of plates from the Metamorphosis, partially printed and partially drawn on vellum, which were acquired by George III as part of his extensive scientific library. Over three hundred years after they were made, these meticulous, brilliant works celebrate a woman whose art and whose story are enduringly popular.

Maria Merian's Butterflies

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

A collection of portraits made during Hans Holbein's time as the leading artist at the court of Henry VIII. &nbsp; Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) first went to England in 1526, and by 1535 he was King's Painter to Henry VIII. Holbein at the Tudor Court focuses on the internationally significant collection of portraits by Holbein from that period that is part of the Royal Collection. Along with beautiful reproductions of Holbein's drawings, miniatures, and paintings, the book offers an introductory essay as the artist of the Tudor court in England, as well as a series of entries on individual works. It delivers insights about the portraits and their subjects, and it also brings in voices from the period, as found in letters, poems, administrative records, and diplomatic accounts, to bring the world of the sixteenth-century English court to life. &nbsp;

Holbein at the Tudor Court

Individual Artists

Maria Sibylla Merians Schmetterlinge

Gerstenberg Verlag

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