Earthly Delights

A new, narrative history of the Renaissance that takes in the whole of Europe and its global context, written by one of the UK¿s foremost art critics and respected writers on art. This imaginative reframing of the Renaissance presents its history as that of connections across Europe, where artists from the north and south were, together, products of the brilliantly fertile mix of classical inspiration, observation and selfconsciousness that set European culture alight from the 15th to the early 17th centuries. From Leonardo to Bosch, Bruegel to Titian, this stirring narrative sets the lives of artists against a period of great change across the continent. Across thirteen chapters, art critic and writer Jonathan Jones relates the story of Renaissance artists as pioneers, adventurers and by their own lights `geniuses¿. He reveals how they were inspired by their travels and encounters across Europe and beyond, such as the Aztec treasures upon which Albrecht Dürer gazed with wonder in Brussels in 1520, Antonello da Messinäs arduous journey to Bruges to discover the true nature of oil paint, or Hieronymus Bosch finding inspiration in West African ivory carvings imported by the Portuguese to Antwerp and other cities. In this history of shared ideals, the arrival of a hitherto unknown Netherlandish painter, Pieter Bruegel, in 1550s Rome carries the same importance as the work Michelangelo was engrossed in at that very same moment, in the same city, to raise the new Saint Peter¿s Basilica towards heaven. From Italian palazzi and piazzas to German woods, the royal castle of Prague to the dungeons of the Inquisition, this engaging and evocative read will captivate general readers and scholars alike.