Sylvia Ferino Books

The book provides a comprehensive overview of the works of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, renowned for his imaginative portraits that blend human faces with elements of nature and various objects. It explores the unique and enigmatic qualities of his art, highlighting his status as one of the most extravagant painters in art history. The description emphasizes the fantastical nature of his creations, inviting readers to delve into the intriguing interplay between portraiture and symbolism in Arcimboldo's oeuvre.

The dominant role of female beauty in sixteenth-century Venice is unique both in the history of the Republic and other parts of the world. One reason for this is the Serenissima's distinctive political-social structure, which granted women special rights in connection with their dowry and their ability to inherit; another was Venice's pivotal role as an international cultural centre. The rise of influential publishing houses attracted renowned poets and humanists such as Pietro Bembo, Sperone Speroni and Lodovico Dolce, who in their writings increasingly focused on women and their vital role for the family and the continuation of humanity as such. The crucial impetus for the visual realisation of this idea came from the Serenissima's greatest artist: Titian. For him, artistic beauty was identical with female beauty. He was less interested in the canon of exterior beauty than in a women's character, in femininity as such. Titian elevates every depiction of a woman into a celebration of womanhood. Published for the exhibition in Vienna and Milan, the book aims to present the female image through the spectrum of possible themes and to compare individual artistic approaches between Titian and other painters of the time. The reader will experience the various aspects of female idealisation.

The Spanish artist Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) was one of the most important painters of the Golden Age. Taking as its starting point a group of masterly children's portraits from the high-profile collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, this opulent volume shows a representative cross-section of Velázquez's oeuvre, which also includes kitchen still lives, religious subjects, mythological themes and history paintings. As the court painter of King Philip IV of Spain, Diego Velázquez advanced to become one of the outstanding portraitists of his time. Through their modern and psychologically profound representation of the subject, his likenesses remain an experience for the viewer to this day. Above all the Spanish master's highly individual view of man and his world make his paintings stand out among contemporary works and render him unique. With contributions by renowned specialists the volume shows Velázquez's development as a painter and traces his uniqueness through comparisons with works by famous contemporaries.