Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace

This book features 65 of the most celebrated paintings from the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace, including works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, van Dyck, Rubens, Titian and Canaletto.

Familiar as many of these masterpieces are, the authors ask us to look at them afresh, asking why they have achieved such renown, what is radical and innovative about them and how the artists achieve their effects – through the subjects they choose to paint, the symbolism of the objects and allusions to classical and Biblical narratives, the way the subject is framed, the choice of colour, the way the paint is applied and the impact that their carefully thought-out work has upon us as observers.

Desmond Shawe-Taylor, gives us the benefit of a lifetime’s experience as an art historian to help us analyse, understand and enjoy these and other works of art, while Isabella Manning explains the origins of the Picture Gallery and provides a history of the works collected by a succession of British monarchs from Charles I onward, leading to the formation of one of the world’s most important collections of Old Master paintings.

By Desmond Shawe-Taylor and Isabella Manning.

Hardback.

25.5 × 20 cm.

160 pages

85 colour illustrations.

ISBN 978 1 909741 73 7