A man will do anything if he is desperate enough. Following his disastrous attribution of a forgery to Rubens, famous art expert Matthew Pierce's only chance of redemption is to help the dangerous Lord Marr purchase a reputedly cursed fresco for his sickening collection of the macabre. As Matthew and his wife Victoria are dragged into an underground world of gruesome murders and the profane, their only hope of salvation lies in uncovering the truth of the cursed fresco. Is it a genuine work by the master Giotto? Is it truly cursed? Is there a link with secret C.I.A experiments on people's minds? And how could Dante's Inferno link Giotto and Pope Boniface in the creation of a cursed work of art? Matthew's rationalist mind is tested to the point of insanity as he wrestles with these questions.

The startling conclusion of Fresco. A man will do anything if he is desperate enough. Returning from his gruesome quest around Europe, Matthew discovers his wife Victoria is missing. Wanting to rid them both of the hateful Frescom Victoria has broken into Lord Marr's Castle and is now held hostage by Father Nicholas. Worse, Matthew is arrested on suspicion of multiple murders, including Victoria's. Matthew's descent into hell accelerates as new sadistic murders force him to finally confront the shocking truth behind the fresco, and the carnage it has caused over centuries.

In May 1555, a broadsheet was produced in Rome depicting the torture and execution in London and York of the Carthusians of the Charterhouses of London, Axeholme, Beauvale and Sheen during the reign of Henry VIII. This single-page martyrology provides the basis for an in-depth exploration of several interconnected artistic, scientific and scholarly communities active in Rome in 1555 which are identified as having being involved in its production. Their work and concerns, which reflect their time and intellectual environment, are deeply embedded in the broadsheet, especially those occupying the groups and individuals who came to be known as Spirituali and in particular those associated with Cardinal Reginald Pole who is shown to have played a key role in its production. Following an examination of the text and a discussion of the narrative intentions of its producers a systematic analysis is made of the images. This reveals that the structure, content and intention of what, at first sight, seems to be nothing more than a confessionally charged Catholic image of the English Carthusian martyrs, typical of the genre of propaganda produced during the Reformation, is, astonishingly, dominated by the most celebrated name of the Italian Renaissance, the artist Michelangelo Buonarotti. Not only are there direct borrowings from two works by Michelangelo which had just been completed in Rome, The Conversion of St Paul and The Crucifixion of St Peter in the Pauline Chapel but many other of his works are deliberately cited by the broadsheet's producers. Through the use of a variety of artistic, scientific and historical approaches, the author makes a compelling case for the reasons for Michelangelo's presence in the broadsheet and his influence on its design and production. The book not only demonstrates Michelangelo's close relationship with notable Catholic reformers, but shows him to have been at the heart of the English Counter Reformation at its inception. This detailed analysis of the broadsheet also throws fresh light on the Marian religious policy in England in 1555, the influence of Spain and the broader preoccupations of the Counter Reformation papacy, while at the same time, enriching our understanding of martyrology across the confessional divide of the Reformation.

Despite the large number of monumental Last Supper frescoes which adorn refectories in Quattrocento Florence, until now no monograph has appeared in English on the Florentine Last Supper frescoes, nor has any study examined the perceptions of the original viewers. This study examines the rarely considered effect of gender on the profoundly contextualized perceptions of the male and female religious who viewed the Florentine Last Supper images in surprisingly different physical and cultural refectory environments. In addition to offering detailed visual analyses, the author draws on a broad spectrum of published and unpublished primary materials, including monastic rules, devotional tracts and reading materials, the constitutions and ordinazioni for individual houses, inventories from male and female communities and the Convent Suppression documents of the Archivio di Stato in Florence. By examining the original viewers? attitudes to images, their educational status, acculturated pieties, affective responses, levels of community, degrees of reclusion, and even the types of food eaten in the refectories, Hiller argues that the perceptions of these viewers of the Last Supper frescoes were intrinsically gendered.

How does a visual artist manage to narrate a story, which has a sequential and therefore temporal progression, using a static medium consisting solely of spatial sign elements and, what is more, in a single image? This is the question on which this work is based, posed by its designer, Alberto Argenton, to whose memory it is dedicated. The first explanation usually given by scholars in the field is that the artist solves the problem by depicting the same character in a number of scenes, thus giving indirect evidence of events taking place at different times. This book shows that artists, in addition to the repetition of characters, devise other spatial perceptual-representational strategies for organising the episodes that constitute a story and, therefore, showing time. Resorting to the psychology of art of a Gestalt matrix, the book offers researchers, graduates, advanced undergraduates, and professionals a description of a large continuous pictorial narrative repertoire (1000 works) and an in-depth analysis of the perceptual-representational strategies employed by artists from the 6th to the 17th century in a group of 100 works narrating the story of Adam and Eve.

"The chronology of the Italian Renaissance, its character, and context have long been a topic of discussion among scholars. Some date its beginnings to the fourteenthcentury work of Giotto, others to the generation of Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and Donatello that fl ourished from around 1400. The close of the Renaissance has also proved elusive. Mannerism, for example, is variously considered to be an independent (but subsidiary) late aspect of Renaissance style or a distinct style in its own right."

Katalog over museets samlinger

In 'GOD: Beyond the Veil of the Cosmos,' embark on an extraordinary intellectual and spiritual journey that transcends the boundaries of conventional thought. With meticulous research and profound insight, author takes readers on a quest to unravel the enigmatic mysteries of the universe, exploring the existence of a higher power beyond the grasp of human comprehension. Delving into the realms of philosophy, science, and spirituality, this book challenges the limitations of human understanding, delving into the profound question that has captivated humanity for eons: What lies beyond the veil of the cosmos? Drawing upon ancient wisdom, modern scientific discoveries, and the timeless quest for meaning, this ground-breaking work invites readers to contemplate the divine intricacies of existence, urging them to contemplate their place within the grand tapestry of the universe. 'GOD: Beyond the Veil of the Cosmos' is a profound exploration that not only expands the boundaries of human knowledge but also ignites the spark of spiritual awakening in the hearts and minds of all who dare to seek the truth.

In this book, Brian Bishop simply pauses to look at fifty-seven beautiful images that feature the life and death of Jesus and the supper at which he appeared three days after his burial to two broken-hearted disciples. He finds the visual approach to the gospel stories rewarding and attempts to place the paintings in some historical context as an aid to understanding, but, essentially offers pauses for thought and reflection upon world-changing events. The book may be dipped into as time and interest allows. The beautifully produced color images of wonderful works of art provide constant companionship.