This title was first published in 2002: JArg Breu belonged to the generation of German Renaissance artists that included DA1/4rer, Cranach, GrA1/4newald, Altdorfer, and, in his own city of Augsburg, Hans Burgkmair the Elder. His art registered the early reception of Italian art in Germany and spanned the dramatic years of the Reformation in Augsburg, when the city was riven with social and religious tensions. Uniquely, for a German artist, Breu left a diary chronicling his reaction to the massive social and cultural forces that engulfed him, including his own conversion to the Protestant cause. His story is representative of the condition of many artists during the Reformation years living through this watershed between two cultural eras, which witnessed the transfer of creative energies from religious painting to secular and applied forms of art. In this wide ranging and original study, Andrew Morrall examines the effect of these events on the nature and practice of JArg Breu's art and its reception, not just in his own period, but right up to the present day.

About the Author
Andrew Morrall is Professor and Chair of Academic Programmes Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York, USA

Reviews
'..this book offers a new and promising approach to this period of German art as a whole. It is also a model of clear and balanced exposition, and very engagingly written.' Caroline van Eck, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. '...offers a fascinating case study.' The Art Newspaper 'Morrall...thrusts us into a tumultuous sixteenth-century Germany, where one ideology is directly confronting another, with powerful implications for the visual arts. Morrall has focused on a fascinating topic...' The New Republic 'One of the lasting strengths of this book is that it provides critical tools for evaluating the choices or rejections of styles without reduction to empty terms of periodization...For Morrall, the prevailing interpretation of the German Renaissance aesthetic of perceptual realism was only one choice among many for an artist like Breu. Morrall demonstrates that Breu tended to "retreat" from perceptual realism and to embrace an artificial and distancing manner that could fit the demands of Reformation -era secular themes and a growing anxiety about idolatry. This interpretation of style as holding rhetorical force will no doubt enrich treatments of other artists of the era, such as Burgkmair and the Holbeins, or even those working outside the scope of the Renaissance.' CAA Reviews 'Morrall's account of Breu's career provides a fascinating case study of artistic production in an age of rapid social and cultural change... this book will [...] be of interest to print specialists... this volume is a welcome addition to existing scholarship on German art of the Renaissance period, a much-neglected field.' Bridget Heal, Print Quarterly 'Andrew Morrall's work on JArg Breu the Elder of Augsburg (ca. 1480-1536/37) makes many important contributions to the field of Renaissance art History. Morrall skillfully uses the career and production of Breu as a lens through which to focus on vital issues at the hear of art historical interpretation. In order to do this, Mo



Book Information
ISBN 9781138723207
Author Andrew Morrall
Format Paperback
Page Count 308
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 570g