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Beginning around the year 1400, this first volume in the series Renaissance Art Reconsidered is concerned with the theory and practice of making art during the Renaissance in Italy and other parts of Europe. In seven well-illustrated chapters, the contributors examine drawing and workshop practices, perspective in painting, sculpture, the making of altarpieces, prints, architecture, and Renaissance writings on art. Published in association with the Open University.

Starting with a tribute to the series editor by Nicholas Penny, this volume studies and catalogues eight paintings: from The Vendramin Family (c.1540–5) to The Death of Actaeon (c.1559–76).

The essays and catalogue cover paintings from Titian’s early career: with discussions of 13 works, from The Flight into Egypt (c.1507) to The Triumph of Love (c.1544–6).

A painter, inventor, architect, military engineer and musician, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was also a prolific draughtsman and, as Susan Grange argues, ‘it is through his drawings that we can find the most direct access to his genius’. Her illustrated essay introducing the scope and depth of Leonardo’s drawings accompanies 85 full-page reproductions of his studies for paintings, inventions, maps, anatomical drawings and observations of the natural world. From the Masterpieces of Art series.

Analysing the lives and work of four artists in 15th-century Italy – Alessandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Pietro Perugino and Filippino Lippi – Michelle O’Malley explores the impact of economics on Renaissance art. She looks at how the growing demand for art exerted pressure on these sought-after painters who all produced high volumes of work; how they maintained quality; and how judgements made under economic pressures can be traced in specific paintings.

After training in his father’s studio and with Perugino in Urbino, Raphaello Santi (1483–1520), known as Raphael, became spectacularly successful, with commissions from Popes and great European art patrons, and his appointment as chief architect of St Peter’s in Rome. Reproducing over 140 studies, portraits, paintings and frescos, this detailed study traces Raphael’s career, examining some of the most celebrated works of the Italian Renaissance.

Eberhard König begins this study of the life and art of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) by examining the paintings, particularly the Borghese David and Goliath, that may or may not include self-portraits. The book goes on to trace the career of an artist ‘who flouts all the conventions of his age’ and presents 116 reproductions and details of his paintings.

From early drawings, such as Big Fish Eats Little Fish, to the last works, including the portrait of The Old Peasant Woman, Vöhringer presents a detailed study of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525/30–1569), examining the visual language of the paintings, whose other-worldly subjects are presented within the landscape of the Flemish peasant. Illustrated with 141 reproductions.

Illuminated manuscripts are an invaluable resource for understanding medieval and early modern life in castles, palaces and ordinary households, both urban and rural. Reproducing 140 little-known illuminations, mostly from the British Library’s collections, this book shows how these miniatures reflect medieval domestic interiors and how they provide information on topics ranging from the security of dwelling places to creature comforts such as heating and lighting, hygiene, beds and bedrooms, and the display of wealth and treasured possessions.

In the 16th century, German artists discovered that by printing from one or more colour blocks in addition to the line block, they could create a dramatic interplay of light and shade – chiaroscuro. This magnificent volume brings together 130 woodcuts from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, some by major artists such as Cranach, Beccafumi and Goltzius. Published to accompany an exhibition at London’s Royal Academy, it explains the development of the technique, and demonstrates the stunning effects it made possible.

Luca della Robbia’s fine Cantoria – an organ loft and singers’ gallery – was installed in Florence Cathedral in 1438, opposite a similar structure by Donatello. The essays in this beautifully illustrated volume present analysis of details from the Cantoria’s carved reliefs depicting musicians, as well as research into the organs and choirbooks that were once used in the gallery. A postscript describes how this Renaissance masterpiece has been displayed in its new context at the Museo dell’Opera.

The Mantuan court sculptor Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico (c.1455–1528), exemplifies the Renaissance passion for the revival of antiquity. He studied, restored and re-created antique art with unparalleled skill, but also developed new technology and, with his gilded and silvered statuettes, pioneered the genre of bronzes made in multiples. Published to accompany an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, this volume presents the first English-language monograph on Antico, and over 150 colour photographs of his sculptures.

Catherine E King explores the continuities and changes in the iconography of art and the visual representation of artists in the 16th century, dealing mainly with art and artists in Italy and the Netherlands. No jacket.

Professor Humfrey, a leading scholar of the Renaissance, provides a magnificent introduction to the life and work of Titian (c.1488/90–1576), the great Venetian painter whose expressive brushwork and revolutionary use of colour was renowned during his lifetime and has inspired artists down to the present day. Humfrey’s concise account follows Titian’s artistic inspirations and development and is accompanied by over 170 reproductions chosen to give a balanced view of the range of his work and its themes. No jacket.

Half a millennium after their creation, the paintings of Pieter Bruegel continue to fascinate with their juxtaposition of grand visions and telling details of everyday life. This highly original book blends art history and memoir to locate the paintings both in their original social context, and in the modern cities - London, Paris, New York, Antwerp - where they now hang, and to shed light on the enduring appeal of the Flemish master's vivid depictions of human striving and human folly.

The wedding at Cana in Galilee was the occasion of Jesus' first miracle, turning the water into wine. In Veronese's vision, the village wedding is transformed into a sumptuous feast, held amid magnificent buildings. Not least among the strange details explored by Carminati are the identities of the guests and musicians.

The extraordinary artistic revolution known as the Renaissance began in 15th-century Italy, from where it spread throughout the whole of Europe. Concise yet compendious, this one-volume overview recounts its compelling story against the dramatic politics of the time. Lavishly illustrated with colour reproductions, it presents the key paintings, sculptures and buildings, and the ideas behind them. It also profiles their creators such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Botticelli, and their patrons, including the powerful and sinister Medici family.

In this volume, Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones discuss the little we know about the life of Pieter Bruegel (c.1525/30–69) and probe beneath the surface of his work to explore the complex symbolism which gives subtlety and a uniquely disturbing power to Bruegel's tragic and ambiguous vision of the world. The book concludes with a timeline, lists of works and a bibliography. (Previously in Postscript as Pieter Bruegel).

We are accustomed to view Michelangelo as the old master of the Sistine Chapel ceiling without considering the long evolution of his genius. Drawing on his ample correspondence and banking records, this ground-breaking new biography explores the first 33 formative years of his life. Both erudite and entertaining, it charts the development of a charismatic and tenacious young artist utterly convinced of his own exceptional talent, against the turbulent, dangerous backdrop of Renaissance Florence and Rome.

In ten essays, this volume examines Elizabeth I's extensive iconography, focusing on both visual and textual representations of the queen, not only in portraiture and literature, but also in contemporary sermons, speeches and alchemical treatises.

The V&A's collection of medieval and Renaissance stained and painted glass is the largest and most comprehensive in the world. This selection of the Museum's panels spans the period 1140 to 1540 and shows the technical and artistic advances between the Romanesque and Renaissance eras, while also illuminating the beliefs and images, sacred and secular, of the medieval world. The collection is represented here by 110 plates, including full page details of important pieces, with following commentaries.

Analysing texts by Martin le Franc, Jacques Milet, Pierre Michault and Jean Bouchet, this study explores the poetics of literary defences of women written by men in late-medieval and early-modern France.