Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (1698--1782) was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti. In this volume, Pietro Metastasio presents new translations of Dido Abandoned, Demetrius, and The Olympiad that stay close to the original form and wording. Featuring an introduction that highlights the playwright's life and significant innovations in dramatic technique as well as a short bibliography, Fucilla's translations will be of interest not only to literary scholars, but also to those concerned with the history of music.

In the hauntingly beautiful sculptures of Tilmann Riemenschneider, the Late Gothic art of Germany achieved its highest expression. Now, for the first time in English, the eminent art historian Justus Bier accords Riemenschneider the extended attention he so richly deserves.Riemenschneider ( ca. 1460--1531) holds a pivotal place in the development of German art. Rejecting the anonymous soulfulness of earlier Gothic sculpture, he created a style reflecting the deeply spiritual character of his time, yet one that also anticipated the humanism of the Italian Renaissance so soon to revolutionize European art.Bier crowns a lifelong study with this reconsideration of Reimenschneider's life and work, with emphasis on works in North American museums. More than 140 photographs illustrate 46 of the artist's major sculptures.

During the years before World War II, hundreds of traditional musicians were sought out by commercial record companies, brought to New York or into local -- often makeshift -- studios, to cut recordings that would be marketed as "race" and "hillbilly" music. Virginia was home to scores of these performers, several of whom were to become internationally known. Among them were the Carter Family, the Golden Gate Quartet, Charlie Poole, and the Stoneman Family, whose music has touched millions of listeners far beyond the confines of the Old Dominion. It is this historically important body of recordings from this unique period that forms the focus of Kip Lornell's study. In it he combines biographical sketches and bibliographies of the artists and groups with comprehensive discographies of each, covering not only the original 78-rpm issues but also American and foreign long-play releases. The entries incorporate new primary research and contemporary interviews with veterans of early recording sessions. Numerous vintage photographs are also included, some reproduced here for the first time.

Stonlea, a magnificent Colonial Revival, was built in 1890 by the Boston firm of Peabody & Stearns as a summer house overlooking Dublin Lake (New Hampshire) with a view of Mt. Monadnock. A vivid example of 19th century resort architecture, Stonlea bore the telltale patina of many years' of wear and tear when the new owner decided to bring it back not only to its original luster but into the 21st century, including using the latest technology to reduce the impact of the 12,000-square-foot house on the environment. Stonlea: An Old House Remade for Our Times documents the painstaking steps involved in the preservation and renovation of this building, and describes the renovators' techniques. It specifically addresses the renovation of the fabric of the building-the various energy conserving strategies and the mechanical systems-as well as the whys and wherefores of the design, and is intended to serve as a model and inspiration for similar undertakings, regardless of size.

A facsimile edition of Kazimir Malevich, SUPREMATISM 34 Drawings, was published in 1990 by Artists Bookworks accompanied by an introduction to the drawings by Patricia Railing; it is now out-of-print. This 2014 reprint of Malevich’s little book contains a new translation from the Russian and a new introductory text by Patricia Railing, “Reading the 34 Drawings”. The Russian text and plates were scanned from an original copy and the size of this little book conforms to the lithographed Russian edition of 1920.

Musicians make music. Producers make records. In the early days of recorded music, the producer was the "artists-and-repertoire man," or A&R man, for short. A powerful figure, the A&R man chose both who would record and what they would record. His decisions profoundly shaped our musical tastes. Don Law found country bluesman Robert Johnson and honky-tonk crooner Lefty Frizzell. Cowboy Jack Clement took the initiative to record Jerry Lee Lewis (while his boss, Sam Phillips, was away on business). When Ray Charles said he wanted to record a country-and-western album, Sid Feller gathered songs for his consideration. The author's extensive interviews with music makers offer the fullest account ever of the producer's role in creating country music. In its focus on recordings and record production, Producing Country tells the story of country music from its early years to the present day through hit records by Hank Williams, George Jones, Patsy Cline, Buck Owens, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings, and Merle Haggard, among many others.Includes original interviews with producers Chet Atkins, Pete Anderson, Jimmy Bowen, Bobby Braddock, Harold Bradley, Tony Brown, Blake Chancey, Jack Clement, Scott Hendricks, Bob Johnston, Jerry Kennedy, Blake Mevis, Ken Nelson, Jim Ed Norman, Allen Reynolds, Jim Rooney, James Stroud, Paul Worley, and Reggie Young, among others.

Before the foundation of academies of art in London in 1768 and Philadelphia in 1805, most individuals who were to emerge as artists trained in workshops of varying degrees of relevance. Easel painters began their careers apprenticed to carriage, house, sign or ship painters, whilst a few were placed with those who made pictures. Sculptors emerged from a training as ornamental plasterers or carvers. Of the many other trades in a position to offer an appropriate background were ‘limning’, staining, engraving, surveying, chasing and die-sinking. In addition, plumbers gained the right to use oil painting and, for plasterers, the application of distemper was an extension of their trade. Central to the theme of this book is the notion that, for those who were to become either painters or sculptors, a training in a trade met their practical needs. This ‘training’ was of an altogether different nature to an ‘education’ in an art school. In the past, prospective artists were offered, by means of apprenticeships, an empirical rather than a theoretical understanding of their ultimate vocation. James Ayres provides a lively account of the inter-relationship between art and trade in the late 17th to early 19th centuries, in both Britain and North America. He demonstrates with numerous, illustrated examples, the many cross-overs in the ‘art and mystery’ of artistic training, and, to modern eyes, the sometimes incongruous relationships between the various trades that contributed to the blossoming of many artistic careers, including some of the most illustrious names of the ‘long’ 18th century.

The Courtauld Gallery houses one of the most significant collections of works on paper in Britain, with approimately 7,000 drawings and watercolours and 20,000 prints ranging from the REnaissance to the 20th Century. Accompanying the second Summer Showcase at the Gallery, this book serves as an introduction to the largest but least well-known part of the Gallery's outstanding collection - its holdings of prints. This selection of some thirty particularly remarkable and intriguing exapmles spans more than 500 years and encompasses a variety of printmaking techniques. The catalogue opens with Andrea Mantegna's ambitious engraving of The Flagellation of Christ (around 1465-70), in which the Italian Renaissance artist powerfully reinvents this often-depicted Passion scene. By contrast, the grand scale of a ten-part engraving after Michelangelo's celebrated Last Judgment by French printmaker Nicolas Beatrizet exemplifies the ability of a print to reproduce a monumental work of art in spectacular fashion. Subjects of Christian iconography dominate 15th- and 16th-century printmaking but from early on were complemented by secular topics,w ith printmakers catering for a demand amongst colledctors for new imagery. A superb example is Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Rabbit Hunt (1560), the only print known to be executed by the artist himself and one of a group of master prints bequeathed to the collection by Count Antoine Seilern in 1978. Bruegel chose the etching technique whereby its relative freedom and ease is more closely comparable to drawing, allowing him to render a scene with remarkable naturalism.The possibilities of printmaking greatly expanded in subsequent centuries. Prints could record historical events such as battles or pageants, as in the exquisite etchings of Jacques Callot and Stefano della Bella. Canaletto's views of 18th-century Venice play wilful games wiht the city's geography and are shown alongside the striking architectural inventions of his contemporary Piranesi. The 19th century in France saw avant-garde artists embracing printmaking, with Edouard Manet's homage to Old Masters, Paul Gauguin's revival of the woodcut and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec's brilliant adoption of the newer technique of lithography for his evocative depictions of Parisian entertainment such as his highly dynamic Jockey from Samuel courtauld's collection.In the 20th century Pablo Picasso's and Henri Matisse's tireless experimentation with print techniques helped ensure the vitality of printmaking in the art of their time. The catalogue concludes with prints by Lucian Freud, now widely acknowledged as a modern master of the medium, and by more recent work by Chris Ofili, whose prints, both figurative and abstract, continued to reinvent printmaking in the 21st century.

No literary figure of the 18th century was more esteemed than the poet Alexander Pope, and his sculpted portraits exemplify the celebration of literary fame at a period when authorship was being newly conceived and the portrait bust was enjoying new popularity. Accompanying an exhibition at Waddesdon Manor (The Rothschild Collection), this publication explores the convergence between authorship, portraiture, and the sculpted image in particular, by bringing together a wide range of works that foreground Pope's celebrity status.Pope took great pains over how he was represented and carefully fashioned his public persona through images, published letters, and the printed editions of his works. Eaxmined alongside some of the most celebrated painted portraits of the poet, will be a selection of the printed texts which Pope planned with meticulous care. The core of the publication will consist of eight different versions of the same portrait bust by the leading sculptor of the period, Louis François Roubiliac.The marble bust had long been seen as a form appropriate for the celebration of literary fame and Pope's bust in part imitates those of classical authors whose works he both translated and consciously imitated in his own poems. More than any other sculptor, Roubiliac reqorked the conventions of the bust, transforming it into a genre that was considered worthy of close and sustained attention. Nowhere is this seen more tellingly than in his compelling and intense portraits of Pope.Based on a vividly modelled clay original, the variant marble versions were carved with arresting virtuosity, recalling Pope's own phrase, "Marble, soften'd into Life". At the same time, the image was reproduced by both the sculptor himself and by others, in a variety of materials.Multiplied and reproduced throughout the 18th century, Pope's bust was the most familiar and visible sign of his authorial fame. At the same time, it was also used as a way of articulating friendship - a constant theme in Pope's verse - and all the early versions of Roubiliac's bust were probably executed for Pope's closest friends. By bringing together the eight versions thought to have been executed by Roubiliac and his studio, and a number of other copies in marble, plaster, and ceramic, this publication will offer the opportunity to explore not only the complex relationship between these various versions but the hitherto little-understood processes of sculptural production and replication in eighteenth-century Britain.

Patrick Scott is, without a doubt, one of Ireland's most significant exponents of pure abstraction art and now, as he reaches his 87th year, Liberties Press celebrates his career with this stunning retrospective of his life's work. Patrick is most famous for his exquisitely simple abstracts in gold and white on unprimed canvas, and the minimal yet beautiful materials which he uses. These paintings contain a zen-like meditative quality which has attracted international acclaim. In contrast to these quiet paintings are his tapestries which revel in all the colors of the rainbow, and which also feature in the book alongside the paintings, furniture and sculpture. Aidan Dunne – art critic for the Irish Times – has previously written extensively on Scott's work, and this book gives him the opportunity to be involved with a project celebrating one of the High Kings of Irish Art. 'Patrick Scott is best known for his beautifully judged abstract paintings. In a way, his signature image could not be simpler: a disc of shimmering gold leaf applied to bare canvas. But this basic template, and myriad variations of it, have generated an abundance of extraordinarily rich visual statements, demanding our attention and leading us into an imaginative space of profound, meditative clarity'.

Solkattu, the spoken rhythms and patterns of hand-clapping used by all musicians and dancers in the classical traditions of South India, is a subject of worldwide interest - but until now there has not been a textbook for students new to the practice. Designed especially for classroom use in a Western setting, the manual begins with rudimentary lessons in the simplest South Indian tala, or metric cycle, and proceeds step-by-step into more challenging material. The book then provides lessons in the eight-beat adi tala, arranged so that by the end, students will have learned a full percussion piece they can perform as an ensemble. Solkattu Manual includes web links to video featuring performances of all 150 lessons, and full performances of all three of the outlined small-ensemble pieces. Ideal for courses in world music and general musicianship, as well as independent study. Book lies flat for easy use.

American auteur Jeffrey Jacob "J. J." Abrams's genius for creating densely plotted scripts has won him broad commercial and critical success in TV shows such as Felicity (1998--2002), Emmy-nominated Alias (2001--2006), Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Lost (2004--2010), and the critically acclaimed Fringe (2008--2013). In addition, his direction in films such as Cloverfield (2008), Super 8 (2011), and the new Mission Impossible and Star Trek films has left fans eagerly awaiting his revival of the Star Wars franchise. As a writer, director, producer, and composer, Abrams seamlessly combines geek appeal with blockbuster intuition, leaving a distinctive stamp on all of his work and establishing him as one of Tinsel Town's most influential visionaries.In The Philosophy of

This monograph on Iranian-born, Brooklyn-based painter Kamrooz Aram (b.1978) presents the Palimpsest series, which was in part inspired by graffiti on the streets of New York, and its constant painting-over by the authorities, only for it to become covered again in graffiti. The ongoing cycle of painting, covering-up and repainting in the urban environment connects with Aram’s long-standing fascination with modernism and the legacies of Abstract painting. Aram explains: “The word palimpsest derives from the Greek term for a manuscript that has been scraped down so it can be reused. However, this process of erasure is always incomplete and traces of previous layers remain visible beneath the most recent marks. I find the idea of painting as palimpsest compelling because such a painting reveals its own past.” The concept of the palimpsest in relation to Aram’s practice is explored further in the publication in texts by Eva Díaz, Professor of Contemporary Art at Pratt Institute in New York, and art historian and critic Media Farzin.As discussed in an engaging interview between the artist and critic and art historian Murtaza Vali, Aram’s interest in ‘painting as palimpsest’ evolved over years of observing and photographing walls in cities across the world, from Brooklyn and Queens to Beirut and Istanbul. The worn walls of Beirut still bear the scars of the civil war, while in Brooklyn, years of graffiti and its covering-up reveal the history of New York City. This phenomenon takes on a different, but related meaning in a city such as Istanbul, where the graffiti is the result of public demonstrations related directly or otherwise to the Gezi Park protests. Aram states: “The graffiti was obviously political and so the state’s response was rapid. The protesters would write and the state would cover it up immediately.” A photo essay and text by the artist further explore notions of the palimpsest and covering-up.In the Palimpsest series, a floral motif that Aram appropriated from a Persian carpet on sale in a shop in Manhattan becomes a key element in the series, submerging and re-emerging within the many layers of accumulated and erased marks on his canvases. Working serially, the artist begins each painting with this floral form, drawn across the surface of the canvas in a grid, creating an overall pattern. Aram then begins destroying and rebuilding this pattern through a process that involves additive as well as subtractive mark-making: wiping away and scraping down the painted surface over time to reveal previous layers. The relationship between West and East, and more specifically between the United States and the Middle East, has long been a key concern in Aram’s life and work. Central to Aram’s practice to date is the interface between Middle Eastern traditions of pattern-making, decoration and ornamentation, and the 20th century Western tradition of modernist painting, with geometry often intersecting the two worlds. The mixing of these once diametrically opposed paradigms tells a more complex story in Aram’s paintings of interwoven cultures, interconnected politics, and of visual languages that collide, recede and reemerge over time.Kamrooz Aram graduated with an MFA from Columbia University, New York, in 2003. Since then his work has been widely exhibited internationally and featured in publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Art in America, Artforum.com, ArtAsiaPacific, and Bidoun. Aram was a recipient of the Abraaj Group Art Prize 2014. The publication, illustrated with over fifty plates, photographs and details, has been edited by Yasmin Atassi, designed by Joe Gilmore / Qubik, printed by Die Keure, Bruges, and co-published by Green Art Gallery, Dubai, and Anomie Publishing, Wakefield, UK.

Although the earliest records of written French date from the 9th century, it was not until the 13th century, when there was an explosion of texts in the 'mother tongue', that French became widespread as a written language. And only in 1539, by King Francis I, was French deemed the official language of the kingdom.This beautifully illustrated catalogue explores the rise, affirmation, and triumph of the French vernacular, focusing on a group of sixteen manuscripts all written in the French language between about 1300 and 1525. Because many of these manucscripts are virtually unknowna nd previously unpublished, first-hand study of them offers a unique opportunity to reassess certain approaches to later medieval French literature. Mostly illuminated, the manuscripts are widely diverse. They are written in verse and in prose. Some are translations from the Latin, others new compositions entirely in French. They treat a wide variety of subjects ranging from literature and science, to philosohpy and theology, and to history and goverment. There are some unique texts that exist only in the manuscripts included here. A significant nuber of the volumes boast royal provenance. There are signed and dated works by newly identified scribes, as well as works by famous calligraphers. Some of the manuscripts still have their original bindings.PRefaced with an introductory essay by Sandra Hindman, the catalogue divides the manuscripts into five sections: I) Literature and Science: The Rise and Affirmaton of the Vernaular; II) Philosophy and Theology: Translations and Adaptations of the Classics; III) History and Genealogy: the Nation and the Individual; IV) Women Writers and Women Bibliophiles: Memory and Self-Assertion; V) From Manuscript to Print: The Circulation of Texts and the Triumph of the French Vernacular.Published to accompany a travelling exhibition at Les Enluminures gallery in New York and in Paris as well as a colloquium at the Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA), this publication will shed new light on many of these themes and, it is hoped, contribute to the ongoing re-evaluation of medieval literary history and medieval art history. Each work will be catalogued with detailed scholarly descriptions and comparative material.

Director and producer Tim Burton impresses audiences with stunning visuals, sinister fantasy worlds, and characters whose personalities are strange and yet familiar. Drawing inspiration from sources as varied as Lewis Carroll, Salvador Dalí, Washington Irving, and Dr. Seuss, Burton's creations frequently elicit both alarm and wonder. Whether crafting an offbeat animated feature, a box-office hit, a collection of short fiction, or an art exhibition, Burton pushes the envelope, and he has emerged as a powerful force in contemporary popular culture.In The Philosophy of Tim Burton, a distinguished group of scholars examines the philosophical underpinnings and significance of the director's oeuvre, investigating films such as Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003), Sweeney Todd (2007), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Dark Shadows (2012). The essays in this volume explore Burton's distinctive style, often disturbing content, and popular appeal through three thematic lenses: identity, views on authority, and aesthetic vision.Covering topics ranging from Burton's fascination with Victorian ideals, to his celebration of childhood, to his personal expression of the fantastic, the contributors highlight the filmmaker's peculiar narrative style and his use of unreal settings to prompt heightened awareness of the world we inhabit. The Philosophy of Tim Burton offers a penetrating and provocative look at one of Hollywood's most influential auteurs.

Pola Negri (1897--1987) rose from an impoverished childhood in Warsaw, Poland, to become one of early Hollywood's greatest stars. After tuberculosis ended her career as a ballerina in 1912, she turned to acting and worked under legendary directors Max Reinhardt and Ernst Lubitsch in Germany. Negri preceded Lubitsch to Hollywood, where she quickly became a fan favorite thanks to her beauty, talent, and diva personality. Known for her alluring sexuality and biting artistic edge, she starred in more than sixty films and defined the image of the cinematic femme fatale.Author Mariusz Kotowski brings the screen siren's story to English-speaking audiences for the first time in this fascinating biography. At the height of her fame, Negri often portrayed exotic and mysterious temptresses, headlining in such successes as The Spanish Dancer (1923) and Forbidden Paradise (1924), before returning to Europe in the 1930s. The devastating effects of World War II soon drove her back to the United States, where she starred in Hi Diddle Diddle (1943) and pursued her vaudeville career before retiring from the entertainment industry.Kotowski also illuminates Negri's dramatic personal life, detailing her numerous love affairs -- including her engagement to Charlie Chaplin and her romance with Rudolph Valentino -- as well as her multiple marriages. This long-overdue biography not only paints a detailed portrait of one classic Hollywood's most intriguing stars and the film industry's original Jezebel, but also explores the link between Hollywood and European cinema during the interwar years.