In the early sixteenth century, Albrecht Altdorfer promoted landscape from its traditional role as background to its new place as the focal point of a picture. His paintings, drawings, and etchings appeared almost without warning and mysteriously disappeared from view just as suddenly. In Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape, Christopher S. Wood shows how Altdorfer transformed what had been the mere setting for sacred and historical figures into a principal venue for stylish draftsmanship and idiosyncratic painterly effects. At the same time, his landscapes offered a densely textured interpretation of that quintessentially German locus—the forest interior. This revised and expanded second edition contains a new introduction, revised bibliography, and fifteen additional illustrations.

British Museum Keeper of Prints offers complete history, 15th-century to 1914; accomplishments, influences, artistic merit. 111 illustrations. Chapters include: The Earliest Engravers, The Great Masters of Engraving, The Decline of Original Engraving, and more.

The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems - both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.

Shortlisted for the 2008 Katharine Briggs Award. For centuries the witch has been a powerful figure in the European imagination; but the creation of this figure has been hidden from our view. Charles Zika’s groundbreaking study investigates how the visual image of the witch was created in late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe. He charts the development of the witch as a new visual subject, showing how the traditional imagery of magic and sorcery of medieval Europe was transformed into the sensationalist depictions of witches in the pamphlets and prints of the sixteenth century. This book shows how artists and printers across the period developed key visual codes for witchcraft, such as the cauldron and the riding of animals. It demonstrates how influential these were in creating a new iconography for representing witchcraft incorporating themes such as the power of female sexuality, male fantasy, moral reform, divine providence and punishment, the superstitions of non-Christian peoples and the cannibalism of the new world. Lavishly illustrated and encompassing in its approach, The Appearance of Witchcraft is the first systematic study of the visual representation of witchcraft in the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It will give the reader a unique insight into how the image of the witch evolved in the early modern world.

The Silver Library ( Silber Bibliothek) of Albrecht, Duke of Prussia, and his wife Anna Maria is an absolutely unique collection of volumes bound in richly decorated precious metal. It was founded between the end of the 1540s and the beginning of the 1560s as a manifestation of the splendor of the ducal court and a deep reverence for the Word of God and Lutheran thought. Originally it consisted of twenty items mainly created in goldsmith workshops in Königsberg, Nuremberg and probably Münden. This monograph gives a historical overview of the Silver Library against the background of the ducal couple’s lives as well as the culture of the 16th-century Prussia. It also presents an analysis of the bindings as examples of the Renaissance and Mannerist art of goldsmithing.

This newest volume in Hudson Hills Press's acclaimed series about leading collections of master drawings presents sixty-eight great sheets, all reproduced in full-color, including many versos, from one of the finest college museums in America.

The Grove Encyclopedia of Northern Renaissance Art (GENR) deals with all aspects of Northern Renaissance art ranging from artists, architecture, and patrons, to the cities and centres of production vital to the flourishing of art in this period. Drawing upon the unsurpassed scholarship in The Dictionary of Art and adding dozens of new entries, GENR is a comprehensive reference resource on this important area.