Transformations

Unprecedented in scope - like its companion volume on the High Renaissance, Mannerism - this sixth volume in the Architecture in Context series traces the development of architecture and decoration in the 17th and early 18th centuries - particularly the transformation of rationalist Classical ideals into the emotive, highly theatrical style known as Baroque and the further development away from architectonic principles to the free-ranging decorative style known as Rococo.

It begins with an outline of the politics of Absolutism and its opposite over the century from the Thirty Years' War to the War of the Austrian Succession: this is illustrated with images largely chosen from the major artists of the day; a supplementary introduction outlines the cross-currents of painting in the early Baroque era. The first substantive section deals with the seminal masters active in Rome - Maderno, Cortona, Borromini and Bernini - and their contemporaries there, in Venice and in Piedmont. The second section deals with the seminal French masters - above all Fran�ois Mansart, Louis Le Vau, Andre Le N�tre, Jules Hardouin-Mansart and the latter's followers who developed the Rococo style in the domestic field. The rest of the book is divided into three large sections: the Protestant North - the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Britain; the Divided Centre - the Catholic powers of central Europe and southern Germany, the Protestants of northern Germany and the Orthodox Russians; the Catholic South - the Iberian kingdoms and their dominions in southern Italy and the Americas.

Cu un domeniu de aplicare fara precedent - la fel ca volumul sau insotitor despre Inalta Renastere, Manierism - acest al saselea volum din seria Arhitectura in context urmareste dezvoltarea arhitecturii si a decorului in secolele XVII si inceputul secolului al XVIII-lea - in special transformarea idealurilor clasice rationaliste in emotiv, stilul extrem de teatral cunoscut sub numele de baroc si dezvoltarea in continuare de la principiile arhitectonice la stilul decorativ liber cunoscut sub numele de rococo. Incepe cu o schita a politicii absolutismului si a opusului sau de-a lungul secolului, de la razboiul de treizeci de ani pana la razboi. a succesiunii austriece: aceasta este ilustrata cu imagini in mare parte alese dintre artistii importanti ai zilei; o introducere suplimentara prezinta curentii incrucisati ai picturii in epoca barocului timpuriu.