Seit Erscheinen der Erstauflage ist dieses Buch zu einem Klassiker geworden, der die Verbindung zwischen der Architektur und der Kultur der Renaissance beleuchtet. Wittkower hat definitive Erklärungen der wahren Bedeutung bestimmter Architekturformen gegeben und gleichzeitig die Grenzen einer rein ästhetischen Theorie der Architektur der Renaissance aufgezeigt. Hervorragend aufgemacht, integriert diese 2. Auflage zum ersten Mal Abbildungen und Text im Großformat. (05/98)

Rudolf Wittkower was born in Berlin in 1901. Leaving Germany when the Nazis came to power, he was one of the animators of the Warburg Institute of London. In 1941 he organized, with Fritz Saxl, the exhibition British Art and the Mediterranean, the publication of which (1948) forms an important document of the aims and methods of the Warburg Institute. A great scholar of Italian Renaissance and Baroque art, Wittkower taught at both the University of London and Columbia University. His books, all important works of scholarship, include Die Zeichnungen des Gian Lorenzo Bernini (with H. Bruer, 1931), The Drawings of the Carracci at Windsor Castle (1952), Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the Sculptor of Roman Baroque (1955), Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750 (1958), Born under Saturn (with Margot Wittkower, 1963), and Divine Michelangelo: The Florentine Academy's Homage on His Death in 1564 (with Margot Wittkower, 1964). In addition, he was a frequent contributor to the Journal of the Warbung and Courtauld Institute, the Art Bulletin, Burlington Magazine and the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, among others.