The Vikings and their Origins
Proud to be B-Corp
The feel-good place to buy books

The Vikings and their Origins by David M Wilson
The Arena Chapel is a small plain brick building in Padua whose interior is entirely covered with frescoes by Giotto, painted shortly after 1300 and still miraculously intact. Thirty-six large panels tell the stories of Joachim and Anna (the Virgin's parents), the Virgin Mary, and the life of Jesus from birth to resurrection; and on the entrance wall opposite the altar is a Last Judgment. These frescoes have always been seen as the starting point of Renaissance art, and are among its most famous masterpieces. In 1961-64 the paintings and their setting were cleaned and restored, but they are still threatened by dust from the surrounding streets, damp, movement of the building's structure, and chemical pollutants. As part of a continuing conservation campaign, between 1988 and 1991 they were thoroughly examined and recorded in minute detail. The results of this recording are now made available for the first time in their entirety. All the paintings are shown complete and in a series of details, many of them actual size, in which expressions and brush strokes speak out vividly across seven hundred years. The reproductions are printed in color to the highest standard. Accompanying texts provide the art-historical background, explain the narratives, and describe the frescoes' survival through the centuries. Giotto: The Arena Chapel Frescoes captures as never before the artist's supreme achievement in all its epoch-making power - his magisterial representation of weight and volume, his genius for storytelling, his compassion and his irresistible sense of drama. This is the definitive record of one of Western art's greatest treasures.
Sir David M. Wilson is a British archaeologist, art historian, and museum curator, specialising in Anglo-Saxon art and the Viking Age. From 1977 until 1992 he served as the Director of the British Museum.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780500275429 |
| ISBN 10 | 0500275424 |
| Title | The Vikings and their Origins |
| Author | David M Wilson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Thames & Hudson Ltd |
| Year published | 1989-05-22 |
| Number of pages | 144 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |