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Through discussion of 50 portrait drawings by artists of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, this volume of essays, reproductions and commentaries explores the creative encounter between artist and sitter. Discussing works by artists such as Bernini, Dürer and Holbein, the authors address a number of themes, notably the reasons why portrait drawings are produced, and the impact of developments in drawing on the practice of portraiture over a period of around 250 years. Originally accompanied a National Portrait Gallery exhibition.

Beginning in 15th-century Flanders with innovations such as the lifelike imitation of nature and oil paint, this guide introduces key themes, and artists including Leonardo, Michelangelo and Dürer. Slightly off-mint.

Ben Lewis tells the story of a painting that had been the holy grail of art dealers for almost two centuries when it was found, in terrible condition, in 2005: the Salvator Mundi, Christ as saviour of the world, by Leonardo da Vinci. Lewis describes the known history of the painting, its discovery, restoration, authentication and attribution, its sale at auction for $450 million, and how such a sale ‘represents a tragedy for the art world’.

This was the first book in the Frick Diptych series in which each volume focuses on a single masterpiece from the Frick Collection in New York. The painting under scrutiny is Hans Holbein the Younger’s famous portrait of Sir Thomas More (1527), and Xavier Saloman’s in-depth account discusses both artist and sitter, their relationship and their historical context. The book includes ‘A letter to Thomas More, Knight’, a contribution from the historical novelist Hilary Mantel.

After three essays discussing the relationship of politics and the arts, particularly music and humanist literature, in Renaissance Italy, this magnificently illustrated volume is arranged geographically, exploring the architecture and the visual arts of the courts of the Italian peninsula, from the Duchy of Savoy in Piedmont to the Durazzo and Aragonese families in the Kingdom of Naples.

The scion of an immensely powerful family, Vittoria Colonna (1492–1547) was a celebrated beauty, and the first woman in Italy to publish a volume of poetry – devotional sonnets written, as she put it, ‘with Christ’s nails’. Drawing on extensive archival research, this biography charts her early marriage and long widowhood, her friendships with Michelangelo, the Emperor Charles V, and two popes, her passionate religious beliefs and her key role in the Italian Renaissance.

Although an accomplished draftsman and painter, Coecke was famed amongst his contemporaries for his complex tapestry designs, which were acquired by rulers including Henry VIII and the Medici. Focusing on 20 tapestries and produced to accompany an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this well-illustrated volume explores the development of his style, and the scale, innovation and mastery of colour that epitomize his contribution to Renaissance art in Flanders.

Tom Nichols describes how the traditional Venetian preference for anonymity and collaboration was challenged by Renaissance ideas, and how new values placed on innovation and individual expression gave painters, sculptors and architects a licence for artistic invention. In discussions of work by artists including Bellini, Carpaccio, Titian and Tintoretto, Nichols looks at how they transformed the older conventions of Venetian art and developed a new, personalized approach to technique and iconography.

In an authoritative study, illustrated with over 150 colour reproductions, Alison Cole goes beyond the famous centres of Renaissance culture – Florence, Rome and Venice – to explore the splendid and distinctive uses of art and the commissioning of artists at five great secular courts: Naples under Alfonso of Aragon; Urbino under Frederico de Montefeltro; the small principality of Ferrara, ruled by the Este family; the Gonzaga family’s Mantua; and Milan and Pavia under Ludovico Sforza.

Stephanie Porras’s well-illustrated study examines how art in the Low Countries, France, England and Germany responded to rapid political, economic, social and religious changes and the rise of the urban merchant class in the Renaissance period. The work of artists including Van Eyck, Dürer, Holbein and Bosch is discussed in chapters on themes arranged chronologically, from works of art as courtly and devotional gifts in c.1380–1420, to paintings as commodities in the art market of c.1540–60.

Intended as an introduction to the art of Renaissance Rome, this narrative history is structured chronologically, from around 1300 to 1600, and describes the monuments, artists and patrons that were regarded by their contemporaries as the most important. Michelangelo and Raphael are among the dominant figures in this story, and works such as Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescos and Raphael’s School of Athens in the Vatican Palace remain some of the most celebrated in Renaissance art.

Charles Avery is a leading authority on Renaissance art, and an admirer of the 16th- and 17th-century bronze works of Joseph de Levis and his family. This illustrated survey of their lives and works includes church-bells, some of which remain in remote country churches, mortars, inkstands, perfume-burners, door-knockers and firedogs. Each artefact is accompanied by a detailed explanation of its significance and inscriptions, while the family story gives an insight into the Jewish Diaspora of the period.

Jeanne Nuechterlein’s illustrated study focuses on Hans Holbein the Younger’s portraits, examining the artist’s ‘capacity to capture detail with such accuracy, and to turn everyday sights into such sublime representation’. Nuechterlein discusses Holbein’s approach to portraiture and religious subjects, particularly his stark depiction of Christ in Dead Christ (1521–22), in the context of contemporary debates about the nature of the world and how to communicate meaning.

Julia Biggs’s illustrated, introductory account of the origins and development of Renaissance art accompanies 80 reproductions of paintings, altarpieces and frescos, arranged chronologically from late 13th- and 14th-century works by Duccio and Giotto to Veronese’s Feast in the House of Levi (1573), and including masterpieces by Piero della Francesca, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.

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.

Drawing on new research and material, including long-awaited editions of Michelangelo’s correspondence, Hirst’s biography sheds fresh light on the development of the artist’s work in painting, sculpture and architecture and on his relations with family, friends and patrons. Starting with his apprenticeship in the workshop of Ghirlandaio in Florence, the study covers Michelangelo’s first excursion to Rome, the creation of the Pietà, David and the Sistine ceiling, and ends with Michelangelo’s definitive move to Rome in 1534.

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).

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, commissioned by Popes and great European art patrons, and appointed as chief architect of St Peter’s in Rome. With reproductions of over 140 studies, portraits, paintings and frescos, this study traces Raphael’s career, examining some of the most celebrated works of the Italian Renaissance. Masters of Italian Art series.

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. Published to accompany an exhibition at London’s Royal Academy, this volume explains the development of the technique, demonstrates the effects it made possible, and presents 130 woodcuts from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, including some by major artists such as Cranach, Beccafumi and Goltzius.

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.

Each book in this attractive series comprises a short essay on an artist's life and work, including a portrait or self-portrait, and about 80 reproductions of their works, arranged chronologically. The books are presented in an unusual square format with covers and jackets both printed with one of the artist's best-known paintings.

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.

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).

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.