Product Description

A guide to the history of architecture in Venice, encompassing the city's fascinating variety of buildings from ancient times to the present day. Completely updated, this edition of Deborah Howard's volume (first published in 1980) is filled with illustrations, most of them new and reproduced in colour. Howard invites those who visit Venice in person, armchair travellers, and all students of Venetian art and architecture to look more closely at the unique architecture of one of the world's most beautiful cities. Believed to have been founded by refugees at the fall of the Roman Empire, Venice became a semi-independent outpost of Byzantium and eventually an independent Republic. The city flourished for centuries as a trading centre between east and west, and its visual traditions were continually enriched by exposure to outside influences. When the long-lasting Republic fell to Napoleon in 1797, many attempts at modernisation followed, especially under 19th-century Austrian administration. Howard traces the entire evolution of Venice's architecture, placing special emphasis on the political, social and economic framework that supported it. She highlights the achievements of individual architects from the Renaissance onwards, including Sansovino, Palladio, Longhena, Massari, Selva and others. Throughout the book, the author stresses the visual qualities of the buildings themselves, seeking to enhance our appreciation of individual structures built in Venice and providing a view of the city that inspired their creation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1455359 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
"Well documented and superbly illustrated... This will surely remain the standard work on the subject, based on acquaintance with the architecture of western Asia as well as that of Venice about which she has written the best brief history." Hugh Honour, New York Review of Books; "Howard has produced a thoughtful work, almost meditative at times, whose original and creative approach will leave readers wanting to visit both Venice and the realm further east from which it received so much." John Renard, Religion and the Arts; "An expanded and updated edition of Howard's concise summary of Venetian architecture... This new edition is most notable for its very fine selection of colour photographs, a significant improvement over earlier versions. The clear prose and direct style, coupled with the author's obvious familiarity with the trends in scholarship on Venetian architecture, make the book useful for anyone interested in the subject, from first-year undergraduates to faculty members and researchers." Choice"

About the Author
Deborah Howard is Professor of Architectural History at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. She has also published with Yale University Press Venice and the East: The Impact of the Islamic World on Venetian Architecture (ISBN: 0300085044) and Jacopo Sansovino: Architecture and Patronage in Renaissance Venice.