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The Madman's Gallery
The Strangest Paintings, Sculptures and Other Curiosities From the History of Art
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The Madman's Gallery
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
The stories behind some of the most unusual and remarkable artworks from around the world, beautifully illustrated throughout
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Description
Enter The Madman's Gallery - the perfect gift book for any art lover. Discover an eccentric exploration through the curious history of art, to find the strangest paintings, sculptures, drawings, and other artistic oddities ever made.
From the author of the bestseller The Madman’s Library (Sunday Times Literature Book of the Year 2020, Radio 4 Book of the Week) comes an extraordinary new illustrated collection. This unique exhibition gathers more than a hundred magnificent works, each chosen for their striking beauty, weirdness, and captivating story behind their creation.
Obscure and forgotten treasures sit alongside famous masterpieces with secret stories to tell. Here are Doom paintings, screaming sculptures, magical manuscripts, impossible architecture, dog-headed saints, angel musketeers, and the first portrait of a cannibal. Stolen art, outsider art, ghost art, revenge art, and art painted at the bottom of the sea take their place alongside scandalous art, forgeries and hoaxes, art of dreams and nightmares, and cryptic paintings yet to be decoded. Discover the remarkable Elizabethan portraits of men in flames, the mystery of the nude Mona Lisa, the gruesome ingredients of lost pigments, the werewolf legion of the Roman army, and the Italian monk who levitated so often he’s recognised as the patron saint of aeroplane passengers.
From prehistoric cave art to portraits painted by artificial intelligence, The Madman’s Gallery draws on a remarkable depth of research and variety of images to form a book that surprises at every turn, and ultimately serves to celebrate the endless power and creativity of human imagination.
‘…a feast of artistic curiosities’ – The Telegraph
‘What that last book did for bibliophiles, this new, beautifully produced and elegantly written anthology does for art lovers … The research that has gone into this is prodigious, but Brooke-Hitching loves storytelling even more than scholarship, and he has a gift for it.’ - The Spectator
‘Extraordinary’ – Artists & Illustrators
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
The Madman's Gallery by Edward Brooke-Hitching is a beautifully illustrated book that delves into the fascinating world of art curiosities and the bizarre aspects of art history. Reviewers acclaim it as a captivating collection of muses, masterpieces, and unusual inspirations, enriched with lavish illustrations. It's lauded as the perfect gift for art lovers, celebrated for its depth of research and as a visually and intellectually stimulating read.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781398503571
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 13 October 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd
Illustration: Full Colour Throughout
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 189.0mm
Height: 246.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 256
About the Author
Edward Brooke-Hitching is the author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling books The Phantom Atlas (2016), The Golden Atlas (2018), The Sky Atlas (2019), The Madman's Library (2020) and The Devil's Atlas (2021), all of which have been translated into numerous languages; he is also the author of Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling and Other Forgotten Sports (2015). He is a writer for the BBC series QI. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an incurable cartophile, he lives surrounded by dusty heaps of old maps and books in Berkshire.
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