A Documentary History of Art

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In this unique collection of notebooks, letters, treatises, and contracts dealing with the art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the reader is not only given an extraordinary insight into the personalities and conditions of the times but is also provided with basic and illuminating documents revealing the stylistic and philosophical concerns which evolved during these intensively creative eras. Many of these works have never before been available in English or assembled together in one volume. From Raul Glaber's famous treatise of 1003 on the synthesis of old and new art forms and Durand's essay on Christian symbolism in art, to the writings of Leonardo and Dürer on anatomy, perspective, and the recreation of reality, the medieval conception of life, inspired, oriented, and dominated by the Church, evolves gradually into the great awakening in which mankind itself assumes primary importance for art.