The Hermitage

Mortimer Wheeler
Roman Art & Architecture

“The author discusses the many diverse qualities of Roman art in terms of its development within Italy and the Empire, but offers as well a perceptive and original account of the cross-currents between Rome and the East. His history is enhanced by hundreds of imaginatively chosen reproductions, which have been specially selected to accompany each section of the text — brilliant and faithful photographs of Rome’s great temples, palaces, circuses, viaducts, frescoes and scuptures, and even of the Romans’ daily utensils and pottery.”

Unpeeling Pompeii 
ed. by Joanne Berry

An archaeological study of Pompeii, one of the oldest archaelogical sites of the world.

Edgar Degas
by Patrick Bade

Degas was closest to Renoir in the impressionist’s circle. He started his apprenticeship in 1853 at the studio of Louis-Ernest Barrias and, beginning in 1854, studied under Louis Lamothe, who revered Ingres above all others and transmitted his adoration for this master to Edgar Degas. Starting in 1854, Degas frequently traveled to Italy where he copied from the Old Masters. His drawings and sketches already revealed very clear preferences, especially in Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Mantegna. After his first compositions, which depicted horses, Degas made yet another discovery. His first painting devoted solely to the ballet was Le Foyer de la danse à l’Opéra de la rue Le

Peletier (The Dancing Anteroom at the Opera on Rue Le Peletier, Musée d’Orsay, Paris). In a carefully constructed composition, with groups of fi gures balancing one another to the left and the right, each ballet dancer is involved in her own activity, each moving in a separate manner from the others. Extended observation and an immense number of sketches were essential to executing such a task. Ballet would remain his passion until the end.

 Used Book, Hardbound, 200 pages