The Italians: History, Art, and the Genius of a People

ISBN 10 : 1178656829 ISBN 13 : 9781178656824

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

There are two I talys -the one that Italians themselves live in and the one that foreigners see. Both are made up of the same elements, but seen from different angles they can seem almost two different countries. In the succeeding chapters ot this book the viewpoint will be consistently I talian, presenting the history and people of Italy in their own terms and through their own works. In this opening section we approach them from outside and ask: what draws people from all over the world to I taly? What do they go to see? What do they see? From the Renaissance to the i8th century foreigners went to Italy primarily for the sake of its classical remains. This was natural enough at a time when education was itself primarily classical, when Roman history was more familiar to most European gentlemen than the history of their own country and when surviving Roman buildings were the models for architects from Russia to A merica. From the mid-18th century and throughout the 19th this classical interest remained paramount, but visitors also expected to study and admire the splendours of Renaissance art and to learn something of Italian literature and music. In the 20th century that interest has expanded: todays tourist is ready to appreciate everthing from the Roman Forum to Milan Railway Station. But while dutifully absorbing the artistic achievements of I taly, the Northern visitor increasingly found himself succumbing to another charm that of the Italian way of life itself Here he found many of the qualities that captivated him in Italian culture -an apparently innate sense of style; a warmth of emotion spilling over from the family circle and expressed directly and without inhibition; an instinct for display, for the large gesture in life as in art; and underneath it all, the feeling of a community rooted in the past with intense local loyalties. All these go to
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

À propos de cette édition

• ISBN 10: 1178656829
• ISBN 13: 9781178656824
• Reliure: Livre broché