David Watkin

"There can be few more historic places in the world. Caesar was cremated there. Charles V and Mussolini rode by it in triumph. Napoleon celebrated his Festival of Liberty there. David Watkin's Forum is the site as it was famous for centuries, celebrated in the romantic views of the Grand Tour, not the archaeologists' building site it has become. He helps us rediscover the Forum's rich history during and since antiquity, and that of the remarkable buildings which later centuries have added to this evocative place."--Global Books in Print.

This title presents a comprehensive study of Thomas Hope, focusing on his multifaceted role as designer and patron. The contributors examine his wide-ranging and intriguing contribution to the arts as well as his extensive writings.

"Showing the wide range of Carl Laubin's work, this book presents him as one of the finest architectural painters of all time. Familiar in some circles for the brilliance of his depiction of architecture, he is known to others as a landscape painter, while his paintings of sculpture are informed by his interest in the human figure. Trained as an architect, he has the unique ability to enter into the minds of past as well as living architects, many of whom have commissioned him to depict and interpret their work." "The book follows the development of the architectural capriccio from the earliest incorporation of whimsical ideas in Laubin's paintings to the more elaborate architectural compositions based on the buildings of Wren, Hawksmoor, Cockerell and Ledoux. Laubin's declaration that from childhood painting 'allowed [me] to be in the world as [I] liked it to be' also points to the idealised nature of life as it appears in his art."--Jacket.

"Quinlan Terry is at home in every traditional style, from Classical Greek to Roman, Gothic to Renaissance, and Baroque to Neoclassical. And yet, though linked with a long tradition, his work is, for its innovation and invention, inescapably modern. In contradistinction to the "signature buildings" by which leading Modernist architects come to be known - buildings frequently to be marked for their structural weaknesses and impractibility, for their immediate glamour and subsequent physical deterioration - Terry's work stands as an elegant and powerful argument for an architecutre built to last centuries."--Jacket.

"George III was an ambitious patron of both the sciences and the arts. In this ground-breaking new survey David Watkin looks closely at the King's contribution to the area that interested him most deeply - architectural design. George III's lifelong involvement in building and landscaping is placed in the context of his keen support for manufacturing, the scientific revolution and agricultural innovation, all of which were characteristic concerns of the Age of Improvement. Furthermore, taking into account the latest research into the role of the court in the political and cultural life of Europe before the French Revolution, Professor Watkin looks afresh at the significance of the King's position within the Holy Roman Empire." "The broad, interdisciplinary approach of Professor Watkin's wide-ranging text suggests new lines of enquiry for historians of architecture and art and offers valuable insights for student of landscape design, court studies and political history."--Jacket.

"Sir John Soane: The Royal Academy Lectures contains the full text of Soane's lectures. It is a revised and abridged edition of his award-winning book Sir John Soane: Enlightenment Thought and the Real Academy Lectures. Watkin explains the significance of Soane's approach to architectural history and theory, as expressed in the lectures delivered from 1810 to 1820 as Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy. Providing a key that enables the modern observer to understand the work of an architect who is widely regarded as the most inventive of his day in Europe, the lectures enable us to enter Soane's private dialogue with an array of philosophers, architectural theorists, art historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists. They are accompanied by a selection of the watercolors that Soane prepared as illustrations."--BOOK JACKET.