The exhibition brings together some of the most important paintings in the Royal Collection from the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace. Usually on public view during the annual Summer Opening of the Palace, the paintings will be shown in The Queen?s Gallery while Reservicing works are carried out to protect the historic building for future generations. The Picture Gallery was originally designed by the architect John Nash for George IV to display his collection of Dutch, Flemish and Italian Old Master paintings. Artists represented in the exhibition include Titian, Guercino, Guido Reni, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens, Jan Steen, Claude and Canaletto.00Exhibition: The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, UK (dates TBD).

Eight papers previously published, 1981-1994.

The Purple Palace & other Poems is the debut Poetry collection by Artist Shayna Klee. The semi-autobiographical book is divided into two parts and takes place between two countries; Part I, "is a cloud a living thing?", takes place during the Author's tumultueuse teen years with tropical Florida as a backdrop. Part II, "Inside my Shell", explores themes of transformation as the Author creates a new life for herself in Paris, France. The poems in this collection explore the surreal rollercoaster of youth, the performance of identity, being an outsider and the tension between romantic idealism and the dystopic world in which the author finds herself. Her approach to her work as a visual artist is mirrored in her poetry style, which is accompanied by all original illustrations by the Author.

Philip IV of Spain (ruled 1621-1665), known as the 'Planet King', shone more brightly in the sphere of the arts than would Louis XIV the Sun King after him. The focus of much of his patronage was the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid, which was once hung with some eight hundred paintings, specially gathered during the 1630s in order to decorate it. They included work commissioned from the finest masters available in all Europe, including the court painters Velázquez, Zurbarán and Ribera (Spanish), the honorary court painter Rubens (Flemish), Claude Poussin (French), Jan Both and Herman van Swanevelt (Dutch), and Domenichino and Lanfranco (Italian). Much about the Buen Retiro Palace and its decoration has remained mysterious, as in the the course of time the palace itself lost its identity and its paintings were dispersed throughout the realm or were lost or stolen. But in 2005 the Museo del Prado has mounted a major exhibition reconstituting the essence of the Buen Retiro and displaying its finest paintings, many of them of great size and magnificence, as a group. This catalogue provides a comprehensive guide and display of the paintings that were once brought together for the Buen Retiro Palace.--Book jacket.

Kensington Palace is renowned for its architecture, splendid interiors, internationally important collections, and, of course, its royal residents. This lavish book thoroughly explores Kensington's physical beauty and its history, presenting new material drawn from archives, newspapers, personal letters, images, and careful analysis of the building itself. Originally a fashionable Jacobean villa, Kensington was dramatically rebuilt in 1689 by Christopher Wren for the newly crowned monarchs, William III and Mary II. The palace became the favored London home of five sovereigns, surviving fires, partial collapse, bombings, and periods of neglect. Queen Victoria recognized its national significance and set about restyling the massive structure with some of England's greatest architects and artists. With over 450 illustrations, including specially commissioned reconstructions and historic plans, this volume explores the personal tastes and fashions of the British monarchy over the course of 300 years and provides insight into the 20th- and 21st-century royal family's domestic life.

Excerpt from The Art of the Pitti Palace: With a Short History of the Building of the Palace, and Its Owners, and an Appreciation of Its Treasures About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Published in paperback for the opening of the new Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art at the V&A, this fascinating introduction to Islamic art and culture draws on examples from its magnificent collections. It is an invaluable overview of a complex subject, exploring the cultural significance of objects in different media, from ceramics, miniature painting and textiles to wood-carving and metalwork, while the superb photographs highlight their unique craftsmanship. From the Middle East came the earliest astrological clocks, the finest ceramics and lustreware, the development of calligraphy and Arabic scripts, and the intricate skills of carpet-weaving, among many other profoundly significant cultural developments. This cradle of empires was also a vibrant commercial centre, exporting raw materials, skills and techniques to surrounding lands, and spreading its web of influence from Southern Spain to Northern India. Palace and Mosque distills a rich and vibrant culture, and will be of lasting value to all those interested in the glories of the Islamic world.

Even many Renaissance specialists believe that little secular painting survives before the late fifteenth century, and its appearance becomes a further argument for the secularizing of art. This book asks how history changes when a longer record of secular art is explored. It is the first study in any language of the decoration of Italian palaces and homes between 1300 and the mid-Quattrocento, and it argues that early secular painting was crucial to the development of modern ideas of art. Of the cycles discussed, some have been studied and published, but most are essentially unknown. A first aim is to enrich our understanding of the early Renaissance by introducing a whole corpus of secular painting that has been too long overlooked. Yet "Painted palaces" is not a study of iconography. In examining the prehistory of painted rooms like Mantegna's Camera Picta, the larger goal is to rethink the history of early Renaissance art.