Victoria Charles

The Renaissance began at the end of the 14th century in Italy and had extended across the whole of Europe by the second half of the 16th century. The rediscovery of the splendour of ancient Greece and Rome marked the beginning of the rebirth of the arts following the break-down of the dogmatic certitude of the Middle Ages. A number of artists began to innovate in the domains of painting, sculpture, and architecture. Depicting the ideal and the actual,...

A bridge is a link between two worlds, a point of tension between two separate and often disparate locations. Free, belonging neither to one region or another, the bridge imposes upon the landscape and defies nature. Its existence embodies the will of mankind to construct these necessary bonds between people and places. A symbol of progress and innovation, the bridge, anonymous demonstration of the mastery and the durability of new techniques, is...

The lighthouse, an indefatigable watchman, ceaselessly guides boats to their ports. This beacon of maritime signalization has guided sailors since antiquity. The first known lighthouse appeared on the island of Pharos, and was the remarkable Lighthouse of Alexandria; however, it seems that volcanoes like Stromboli and its frequent eruptions were possibly at the origin of this invention, as the fires guided boats to their shores. Faced with the increasing...

Gothic art finds its roots in the powerful architecture of the cathedrals of northern France. It is a medieval art movement that evolved throughout Europe over more than 200 years. Leaving curved Roman forms behind, the architects started using flying buttresses and pointed arches to open up cathedrals to daylight. A period of great economic and social change, the Gothic era also saw the development of a new iconography celebrating the Holy Mary –...

Développé à travers l'Europe pendant plus de 200 ans, l'art gothique est un mouvement qui trouve ses racines dans la puissante architecture des cathédrales du nord de la France. Délaissant la rondeur romane, les architectes commencèrent à utiliser les arcs-boutants et les voûtes en berceau brisé pour ouvrir les cathédrales à la lumière. Période de bouleversements économiques et sociaux, la période gothique vit aussi le développement...

Vincent van Gogh's life and work are so intertwined that it is hardly possible to observe one without thinking of the other. Van Gogh has indeed become the incarnation of the suffering, misunderstood martyr of modern art, the emblem of the artist as an outsider. An article, published in 1890, gave details about van Gogh's illness. The author of the article saw the painter as "a terrible and demented genius, often sublime, sometimes grotesque, always...

Cézanne transformed a teacup into something alive, raising still-life to the point that it ceased to be inanimate. Wassily Kandinsky said about the French artist: "He painted these things as human beings because he was endowed with the gift of divining the inner life in everything." In addition to those of Cézanne, this book is devoted to still-life paintings by artists such as Van Gogh, Matisse, Chardin and Picasso.

El Renacimiento se inició a finales del siglo catorce en Italia y ya estaba extendido por toda Europa en la segunda mitad del siglo dieciséis. El redescubrimiento del esplendor de la antigua Grecia y Roma supuso el comienzo del renacimiento de las artes como consecuencia de la descomposición de la certeza dogmática de la Edad Media. Surgió una generación de artistas que comenzaron a innovar dentro del ámbito de la pintura, así como de la escultura...

Cézanne fue capaz de transformar una taza de té en algo vivo, elevando el género de naturaleza muerta a un nivel en el que sus elementos dejan de ser objetos inanimados. Wassily Kandinsky dijo de este artista francés: "Pintó estos elementos como seres humanos porque poseía el don de adivinar la vida interior que se oculta en todas las cosas". Además de las naturalezas muertas de Cézanne, este libro incluye también obras de artistas como Van...

Avant le XVIIe siècle, l'école française n'occupait qu'une modeste place dans la peinture européenne. C'est seulement à partir de cette date que les peintres anonymes cédèrent la place à toute une pléiade de noms devenus célèbres : Nicolas Poussin, Georges de la Tour, Claude Le Lorrain, les frères Le Nain...Aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, la peinture française est à son apogée. Les musées du monde entier conservent aujourd'hui les toiles...