Understanding Italian Art- Book Recommendations

Rick Steves has a very good audio tour for the Uffizi and Accademia. I, like you, knew nothing about art history but I found the audio tours to be both informative and entertaining.

I really like Rick's book, Europe 101: History and Art for the Traveler. It's a fun and entertaining overview of the things you'll be seeing. Good information that puts things in context, in a really readable way. It's under the "books" tab above. Read that before you go, and then I second Scott's suggestion of the free audio tours of the museums. Have a lovely trip-- the art is going to blow your mind!

If you want to go more in depth, a colleague of mine swears by "Italian Renaissance Painting" by James Beck. Used copies are available thru amazon.com for a few dollars. He says it brought all those paintings to life for him. It's not a book you would take with you, though, as it is big and heavy.

Ah, good for you, it's more fun to have some understanding of what you're looking at in an art museum. As Rick himself says, Europe 101 is intended to be very broad brush. Based on your post, it sounds like a good place for you to start, but only certain sections/pages of Europe 101 pertain to what you'll be seeing in Italian art museums in those cities. After you dip into Europe 101, if you want to dig deeper, you could try and locate copies (they're out of print but I think available) of: Vasari's Lives of the Artists or Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy.

My first suggestion would be to go to your local library and pick up any book on the subject of Italian art, or art generally, that catches your interest. The best books, I think, are those with lots of pictures. I also think that the information in Rick Steves' books in the walking tours of the various museums is quite informative; it's especially good for an overall of different artists and different periods. Another good book, which I've read and also bought for my mother, is "The Annotated Mona Lisa," by Carol Strickland. It covers all western art, not just Italian, but you only need to read the parts you're interested in. I found the book informative but still interesting. Another way to go is to read books, fiction or non-fiction, about artists. The "Agony and the Ecstasy," about Michelangelo, is a standard. I read a good one about Raphael and his supposed girlfriend, the subject of his painting "La Fornarina" and other paintings, called "The Ruby Ring," by Diane Haeger, that (I believe) was pretty accurate (to the extent known, anyway). For a less well-known artist (but I think her work is great), "The Passion of Artemisia," by Diane Vreeland, about one of the few female painters (from the Baroque period, not Renaissance), Artemisia Gentileschi. Also pretty accurate, to the extent known.

Several years ago on PBS was a series with an English nun with buckteet who explained art. She was terrific. I just looked her up and looks like there's a bunch on youtube. She's Sister Wendy. My first search for nun art brought up nun chuck and martial art!

"Several years ago on PBS was a series with an English nun with buckteet." I hope she had buckteeth rather than....

Hi Trevor. Here are my suggestions (I have an MA in art history so some of these may be on the academic (i.e. boring) side): For a general overview of art history, including ancient Roman, Renaissance, and Baroque art, I like Marilyn Stokstad's survey (two volumes - these are quarto, or oversize books - check if your local library has an edition) "The Art of Florence" by Glenn Andres, John Hunisak, and A. Richard Turner (two volumes, also quartos) "Leondardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings" by Pietro C. Marani "Italian Renaissance Art" by Laurie Schneider Adams (a good overview of Italian Renaissance art) "The Great Masters: Giotto, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leondardo, and Titian" by Giorgio Vasari (if you aren't a Renaissance scholar, which I'm not, Vasari can be a little dull and he greatly exaggerates/tells bold-faced lies, especially in "Lives of the Artists") "Venice: Art and Architecture" (two volumes, quartos), edited by Giandomenico Romanelli I would also suggest going to a big-box bookstore like Borders or Barnes and Noble and looking through the art section. These stores usually have Renaissance art books, since this period is probably the second most popular after Impressionism.

People have contributed a nice list of books on Italian art. Thanks to all, and especially Sarah.

All of these comments are absolutely fantastic! Thank you all so much. We have quite the reading list in front of us.

You caught me, Kent. I must not have proofread. Usually it'a a...habit.

Trevor: We appreciate you taking the time to say thanks. Your main challenge will be to pick a first book that is at the level you want. Europe 101 is an introductory level book, but for your purposes, it covers much more than just Italy and the Italian contributions to the Renaissance. Unfortunately most of these books that have been suggested are probably not the kind you can "read the pages of" on Google Books or Amazon. However, I'm thinking Europe 101 is the exception to that general statement and probably can be browsed, down to the page level, on Google Books. Certainly you could browse its table of contents, on Google Books or Amazon, to help you decide whether its coverage is too broad for your purpose.

The BBC series Civilisation by Sir Kenneth Clark is an excellent presentation of the history of Western art including much from Italy. Sir Clark talks about art that moves him and us. It was made in 1969, but remains one of the very best. For an entertaining look at painting, music, literature and architecture, it can't be beat.

Trevor, a couple of other suggestions: I always travel with guidebooks from the Blue Giudes series, and they provide excellent coverage of art, architecture, and history. They also include great introductory chapters about the city, culture, art history, etc. I've used the guides for all 3 cities you mention, and highly recommend them. They also provide nice guided walks through the cities (and I find their Grand Canal tour of Venice to be more user-friendly than the one in the RS book). I've also learned a great deal from small guided tours and private guides. Context travel has great small-group walking tours with well educated guides who are fluent in English. I've taken several of their art tours in both Rome and Florence and learned so much... even when I already knew a fair amount about the subject. And a couple of other suggested museums: if you find you like early Renaissance art, the Convent of San Marco in Florence is wonderful; and the Bargello in Florence (Florence's main museum of sculpture) is an often overlooked museum with a wonderful collection. Also, both are in interesting and historically important buildings. Enjoy your trip!

Sherry - thanks for mentioning the San Marco Monastery. It's filled with gorgeous frescoes by Fra Angelico, a 15th-century monk and artist who painted these frescoes inside his fellow monks' cells.