{"title":"Luigi Spina","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the evocative photography of Luigi Spina. Capturing the timeless beauty of ancient art and architecture, Spina's work offers a unique lens through which to appreciate classical culture. Browse his stunning collections.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"sing-sing-pompeii-s-body-book-luigi-spina-9788874399161","title":"Sing Sing. Pompeii's Body","description":"This photographic narrative by Luigi  Spina reveals unexpected treasures that hail from Pompeii and Ercolano,  hidden from the public eye and concealed under the roofs of the  National Archaeological Museum in Naples. Spina's collection of black  and white photographs gives the reader a glimpse of the bronze, glass,  ceramic, and terracotta artefacts such as candle sticks, decorations,  handles, statues, pots, oil lamps - and even charred bread, that fill  the cells in this Neapolitan institution.   Text in English and Italian.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49615517024529,"sku":"GOR013229087","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50399495717137,"sku":"CIN8874399162G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51701890777361,"sku":"GOR014368948","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52656270246161,"sku":"NLS9788874399161","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/8874399162.jpg?v=1750936207"},{"product_id":"alexander-mosaic-book-luigi-spina-9788874399260","title":"The Alexander Mosaic","description":"The third volume in the Hidden Treasures series launched in 2018 with the Farnese Cup examines another undoubted masterpiece: The Alexander Mosaic.  It is certainly one of the great attractions for visitors who everyday  throng the rooms of the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.   The  mosaic is made up of over one and a half million tesserae, arranged  asymmetrically using the opus vermiculatum technique, which allows the  figures to be outlined to make them stand out against the background.   Luigi  Spina gets his camera in close to the crush of men and animals to bring  out all the stunning detail in the expressions, gestures, and poses  that the viewer often overlooks when taking in the scene as a whole.  Eyes wide open and alert, loose reins, flying whips, but also unwonted  finery: sumptuous fabrics, precious ornaments, and elaborately coiffed  manes.   Essays by Valeria Sampaolo and Fausto Zevi close the book,  placing the floor mosaic in its context and highlighting its  extraordinary nature within the panorama of ancient art.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49739658264849,"sku":"NGR9788874399260","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/887439926X.jpg?v=1750904310"},{"product_id":"inside-pompeii-a-financial-times-best-book-of-2023-book-luigi-spina-9780500027301","title":"Inside Pompeii  A Financial Times Best Book of 2023","description":"'Not just the best book  of photographs of  one of the greatest – and most photographed – places on earth  but, amazingly (and appropriately), a book  one can live in' Geoff Dyer    'Spina’s seductive photographs chronicle the lush interiors, the rich mosaics and frescoes and a vivid urban streetscape. A visual feast' Best books of 2023 - Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times      A visually stunning, intimate photographic tour of Pompeii’s spaces, including many that have never been seen by the public.    Pompeii, one of the most astonishing and well-preserved sites of classical antiquity, is also one of the world’s most visited architectural sites. This lavish volume takes readers on a tour of Pompeii through an array of visually compelling and original photographs by Italian artist Luigi Spina. Produced in partnership with the Parco Archeologico di Pompei, readers are expertly guided through the Roman city’s nine districts, including many hidden corners that are inaccessible to most visitors.    Pompeii’s architecture is a central feature of the images, which were shot at all times of day, in all seasons, and in natural light. Lacy peristyles and rows of column fragments give way to intimate, atmospheric interior spaces. Mosaic floors and beautiful – albeit fragmentary – wall paintings are reproduced with stunning fidelity and sensitivity. The book also includes an essay by Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii archaeological park, and several meditations on the history, architecture and natural beauty of the city. Inside Pompeii provides the wondrous experience of wandering through this remarkable site without ever leaving home.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49751732224273,"sku":"NGR9780500027301","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0500027307.jpg?v=1751135183"},{"product_id":"hemba-book-luigi-spina-9788874398034","title":"Hemba","description":"Expressing one of many Luba sub-styles, the tall, standing male figures created by master carvers of the Hemba culture in southeastern Congo since at least the mid-1800s arguably rank among the noblest sculptural depictions of the human figure in sub-Saharan Africa. With their serene gaze and meditative expression, they exude a tranquility and dignity that befits these idealized likenesses memorializing esteemed leaders of the past. Infused with a life-force or vital energy, these spirit-invested objects were able to communicate between the living and the dead. Thanks to their inner power they had the capacity to impact the material sphere by allowing the ancestors to positively influence the well-being of their surviving relatives. In this publication, through the perceptive lens of art photographer Luigi Spina, we discover nine of the most accomplished Hemba creations whose classical style has triggered comparisons with some kouroi sculptures of ancient Greece. Spina's photographic interpretations help us understand why these proportionally balanced and symmetrically conceived ancestral figures have earned the admiration of African art lovers around the world. These personal readings of the beloved Hemba commemorative portraits also confirm why these sensitive renderings of the human anatomy deserve inclusion in the universal history of artistic creativity and a place in Andr  Malraux's 'Museum Without Walls'. Text in English and French.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50746036519185,"sku":"GOR014056644","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/8874398034.jpg?v=1751160083"},{"product_id":"mythical-diary-book-luigi-spina-9788874398010","title":"Mythical Diary","description":"Mythical Diary is a visual journey through the classical sculpture of Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. It is a physical engagement with the marble bodies of myth. Through his black and white photography, Luigi Spina disassembles the limbs of the sculptures, emphasising their curves and hidden eroticism, humanising them to establish a dialogue with the observer.  A sculpture is the sign of eternal, unchanging beauty: the only real evidence of the many lives that have passed and come to an end leaving a profound mark in the story of many other existences. For Spina, with his own vision of sculpture, a statue of Aphrodite is not merely a stereotypical portrayal of myth. In it are gathered the anxieties, dreams, hopes and joys of all those who have set eyes on her and dreamed or studied her. In a way, classical sculpture is profoundly present in our veins, in our very breath.  The project takes the form of an imaginary diary covering fifteen days. But this is only an ephemeral period of time, a convention. The whole work developed over a period of days and months amounting to years, always in contact with the circumscribed space made of myriad lives and stories, which we call a museum.  In Mythical Diary, Spina attempts to make classical sculpture interact with the viewer's desire to be a part of this ancient world that has always influenced our way of life, our culture and our society, proving itself to be contemporary with any period.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50794563633425,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50794564256017,"sku":"GOR013551682","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52656402759953,"sku":"NLS9788874398010","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/8874398018.jpg?v=1751160083"},{"product_id":"campi-flegrei-burning-earth-book-luigi-spina-9788874396719","title":"Campi Flegrei. Burning Earth","description":"Campi Flegrei, near Naples, is a seismically active landscape that attracts, stimulates, and challenges. It seduces the soul, engages perception, and demands to be interpreted rather than merely registered.   People have chosen to live amongst these unique geological and volcanic features, weaving the fabric of human occupation and taming a land in perpetual transformation, one of the harshest yet most enchanting environments. Mankind has matched its own impermanence against the earth’s inevitable and unrestrained convulsions, in the process hewing out some of the most glorious examples of human endeavour, such as Cumae, the oldest Greek colony in the Western Mediterranean, the bustling Roman port of Puteoli, and the “dolce vita” savoured in the baths and villas dotted around the Bay of Baiae.   Luigi Spina has been exploring this land since 2020, delving into the complex, stratified geography. Key landmarks include places of memory (archaeological sites, monuments, landscapes), which, like true benchmarks of perception, outline the path towards an understanding of a world that links nature, ancient ruins, and the overwhelming presence of mankind. Balanced between mimicry and contradiction, the Campi Flegrei landscape is now blanketed by a dense urban sprawl, where the ancient and the contemporary coexist in a kind of precarious equilibrium, generating a complex socio-cultural state of affairs that is challenging to govern.   Spina explores and photographs places such as the Dragonara Cave, the Piscina Mirabilis, the Theatre of Misenum, the Flavian Amphitheatre at Puteoli, the Temple of Apollo on the shores of Lake Avernus, and the Temples of Venus and Diana, as he wanders through the hills above Baiae, finally heading towards Cumae.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52111297773841,"sku":"NGR9788874396719","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53007847915793,"sku":"NLS9788874396719","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53345890533649,"sku":"NIN9788874396719","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9788874396719.jpg?v=1757139772"},{"product_id":"canova-four-tempos-volume-iii-book-luigi-spina-9791254600252","title":"Canova. Four Tempos: Volume III","description":"Antonio Canova (1757-1822), is considered the greatest Neoclassical sculptor of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This book, the third in the series Canova: Four Tempos, features a collection of sublime black and white photographs of Canova's plaster models taken by photographer Luigi Spina. The full-size plaster models that preceded the production of his marble sculptures played an important part in Canova’s creative process. Included here are his masterpieces The Three Graces and Sleeping Nymph, and the only work Canova made for an overseas patron, George Washington depicted as a Roman potentate. The text is by the well-known Italian art historian Vittorio Sgarbi.   Also available: Canova: Four Tempos, Vol. 1, ISBN 9788874399215, and Canova: Four Tempos Vol. 2 9788874399598","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53628910305553,"sku":"NLS9791254600252","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9791254600252.jpg?v=1780813920"},{"product_id":"riace-bronzes-book-luigi-spina-9791254600139","title":"The Riace Bronzes","description":"This publication was designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Riace Bronzes. In it, Luigi Spina’s photographic research dialogues with the texts written by Carmelo Malacrino.   The photographer here develops a continued narrative, offering a direct comparison between the two sculptures, identified as A and B, exploring interpretations of the physicality of the two subjects as well as the three-dimensional quality of the bronze bodies, often concealed by the two-dimensional appearance of photographic images.   Carmelo Malacrino analyses these famous 5th century BC masterpieces from two points of view: as ancient works of art on the one hand, and considering their significance for contemporary culture on the other. He retraces the story of the Bronzes beginning with their discovery in August, 1972, exploring the circumstances of their unearthing, the restoration they underwent, the exhibitions in which they were shown, as well as the impact they have had on the public, both nationally and internationally. Equally relevant is the reinterpretation of these two statues, beginning with their contextualisation in the sphere of ancient Greek art, the related stylistic issues, and the reflection upon the practices and the knowledge possessed by Classical sculpture workshops.   This volume will be a pleasant surprise for those of you who love Classical sculpture, for archaeology enthusiasts, and for all those who aren’t satisfied with a quick glance when it comes to admiring a work of art.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53628939075857,"sku":"NLS9791254600139","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9791254600139.jpg?v=1780814108"},{"product_id":"culture-s-book-luigi-spina-9791254600658","title":"Culture(s)","description":"The ancient treasures collected over the past 20 years by Ludovic Donnadieu, hail from a myriad of ancient cultures, famous or obscure, across all five continents. The selection maintains a balanced representation of different geographical areas, ensuring that all regions of the world and all historical or prehistoric periods are accounted for. Through this comprehensive panorama, the viewer is invited on a cultural and anthropological journey through time and space.   The showcased artworks are “miniatures”; few exceed a size of 20 centimetres. Indeed, an artwork doesn't need to be monumental to evoke profound emotional impact and fascination! Fragility can endure, the minuscule can embody grandeur, and singular detail can convey a universal message.   This selection of 99 works, forming a unique ensemble worldwide, adheres to a triple criterion: authenticity, aesthetic quality, and balance, both among the represented subjects and across different forms, materials, or functions. The period covered spans from 6,000 BC to the early 20th century. Presenting this collection to the public holds a dual significance: in a world threatened by uniformity, it celebrates the richness and diversity of human cultures while also highlighting the beauty and grandeur of small-scale formats and the need to protect what is fragile.   The Donnadieu Foundation was established in 2023, under the aegis of the Foundation for Childhood, by Ludovic Donnadieu, art collector, certified public accountant, and founder of the firm Donnadieu \u0026amp; Associates, which specialised in securing funds entrusted to NGOs. The Foundation aims to enable young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to broaden their horizons and engage in civic activism, while also raising awareness among the general public and policymakers about the importance of culture for the world's youth.   Text in English and French.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53638190563601,"sku":"NLS9791254600658","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9791254600658.jpg?v=1781007132"},{"product_id":"red-figures-book-luigi-spina-9791254600290","title":"Red Figures","description":"The red-figure vases from the National Museum “Domenico Ridola” in Matera and the Rizzon Collection – rich in precious Apulian and Lucanian pieces – offer a unique opportunity to grasp Magna Graecia antiquity from an unusual perspective through the photographs by Luigi Spina. Significant testimony to vase painting between the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, the museum's artefacts largely date back to the discoveries of Domenico Ridola (1841-1932) and form part of elaborate funerary assemblages, possessing great aesthetic and historical value through which everyday life is reflected in myths.   In the book, black is the protagonist: it enhances the red figures and brings out the keen eye of photographer Luigi Spina. Anatomical details, drapery, and decorative motifs emerge in all their strength without the filter of museum cases, while touches of white enrich the vases' bichrome palette.   Photographing a work of art means capturing its deep meaning to communicate it to the world. Far from the idea of a museum catalogue, the volume is rather a figurative atlas of antiquity.   Text in English and Italian.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53652004372753,"sku":"NLS9791254600290","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9791254600290.jpg?v=1781226205"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-luigi-spina.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}