James Tice The 1748 Pianta Grande of Rome (Fig. 1) by Giambattista Nolli (1701-1756) is a milestone in the history of cartography. Its copious size (1760 x 2085 mm), intricate detail, and accuracy have made it an essential document for studying the architecture, landscape architecture and urban structure of Rome…
Marion Romberg Objectives of the Project During the late Renaissance, around 1570, humanists developed a new “shorthand” way for representing the world at a single glance: personifications of the four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, and America). While the continent allegory as an iconic type had already been in use…
Paul Niell The criticism leveled at the United States and European nations for their inadequate responses to the devastation of various Caribbean islands—among them St John, Dominica, Martinique, Puerto Rico—by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017 reminds us of the imperial histories that have shaped the region as…
Editors’ Note: Mary D. Sheriff, one of the most brilliant and beloved scholars of eighteenth-century European art, died on October 19, 2016. Among her last essays was a playful and erudite encounter with Casanova’s memoirs, seen through the prism of eighteenth-century European painting. She originally wrote it for the catalogue…
Jacqueline Riding, Basic Instincts: Love, Passion, and Violence in the Art of Joseph Highmore (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2017), 128 pages. At every turn, contingencies pervaded London’s Foundling Hospital. Dedicated to “the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children,” the institution was, after years of debates, granted a…
Wolf Burchard, The Sovereign Artist: Charles Le Brun and the Image of Louis XIV (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2016), 287pp. This impressive new study of Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) argues that the artist was not only responsible for the elaboration of the image of Louis XIV as the absolute monarch,…
The Golconda Coverlet, produced in the dyeing and painting workshops of the Coromandel Coast of southeastern India during the seventeenth century, presents a glimpse into the unique cosmopolitan world of the early modern Deccan (Fig. 1).[1] The term Deccan indicates the plateau in South India surrounded by the Malabar Coast…
Revolution confronted the visitor in “Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715-2015,” an exhibition organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that was on view at the Saint Louis Art Museum from June 25 to September 17, 2017 (Fig. 1). In the first gallery, a mannequin holding the French…
Displaying historical works in contemporary art museums is a risky – yet potentially rewarding – business. Case in point: Dioramas, an exhibition curated by Claire Garnier, Laurent Le Bon, and Florence Ostende that just closed at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and will have a second venue starting…
In the summer of 1815, Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s older brother and dethroned king of Spain, fled Europe and arrived in New York under the assumed name of the comte de Survilliers. He brought with him a veritable art museum, far beyond anything that had been seen before in the Americas.…