Mega Square Herbarium is based on the work of Basilius Besler, the famous plant expert who, for the first time in history, described, painted and engraved over a thousand species of plants. His drawings are of great scientific as well as artistic value, and offer vivid insights into Europe's eclectic flora.

Herbarium

According to the defined canons of art technique, a portrait should be, above all, a faithful representation of its model. However, this gallery of 1000 portraits illustrates how the genre has been transformed throughout history, and has proven itself to be much more complex than a simple imitation of reality. Beyond exhibiting the skill of the artist, the portrait must surpass the task of imitation, as just and precise as it may be, to translate both the intention of the artist as well as that of its patron, without betraying eitherÊs wishes. Therefore, these silent witnesses, carefully selected in these pages, reveal more than faces of historic figures or anonymous subjects: they reveal a psychology more than an identity, illustrate an allegory, serve as political and religious propaganda, and embody the customs of their epochs. With its impressive number of masterpieces, biographies, and commentaries on works, this book presents and analyses different portraits, consequently exposing to the reader, and to any art lover, a reflection of the evolution of society, and above all the upheavals of a genre that, over 300 centuries of painting, has shaped the history of art.

1000 Portraits of Genius

Der Begriff Romanische Kunst bezeichnet in der Kunstgeschichte die Epoche vom 11. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert. Diese Epoche wies eine große Vielfalt an regionalen Schulen auf, die alle spezifische Merkmale hatten. Sowohl in der Architektur als auch in der Bildhauerei wird die Romanische Kunst durch ihre rauen Formen charakterisiert.
Dieses Buch lässt den Leser durch den faszinierenden Text und seinen umfangreichen Bildteil diese Kunst des Mittelalters, die heute im Vergleich mit ihrer unmittelbaren Nachfolgerin, der Kunst der Gotik, so häufig verachtet wird, neu entdecken.

Romanische Kunst

Dürer is the greatest of German artists and most representative of the German mind. He, like Leonardo, was a man of striking physical attractiveness, great charm of manner and conversation, and mental accomplishment, being well grounded in the sciences and mathematics of the day. His skill in draughtsmanship was extraordinary; Dürer is even more celebrated for his engravings on wood and copper than for his paintings. With both, the skill of his hand was at the service of the most minute observation and analytical research into the character and structure of form. Dürer, however, had not the feeling for abstract beauty and ideal grace that Leonardo possessed; but instead, a profound earnestness, a closer interest in humanity, and a more dramatic invention. Dürer was a great admirer of Luther; and in his own work is the equivalent of what was mighty in the Reformer. It is very serious and sincere; very human, and addressed the hearts and understanding of the masses. Nuremberg, his hometown, had become a great centre of printing and the chief distributor of books throughout Europe. Consequently, the art of engraving upon wood and copper, which may be called the pictorial branch of printing, was much encouraged. Of this opportunity Dürer took full advantage. The Renaissance in Germany was more a moral and intellectual than an artistic movement, partly due to northern conditions. The feeling for ideal grace and beauty is fostered by the study of the human form, and this had been flourishing predominantly in southern Europe. But Albrecht Dürer had a genius too powerful to be conquered. He remained profoundly Germanic in his stormy penchant for drama, as was his contemporary Mathias Grünewald, a fantastic visionary and rebel against all Italian seductions. Dürer, in spite of all his tense energy, dominated conflicting passions by a sovereign and speculative intelligence comparable with that of Leonardo. He, too, was on the border of two worlds, that of the Gothic age and that of the modern age, and on the border of two arts, being an engraver and draughtsman rather than a painter.

Dürer

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (June 1599 - August 6 1660), known as Diego Vélasquez, was a painter of the Spanish Golden Age who had considerable influence at the court of King Philip IV. Along with Francisco Goya and Le Greco, he is generally considered to be one of the greatest artists in Spanish history. His style, whilst remaining very personal, belongs firmly in the Baroque movement. Velázquez's two visits to Italy, evidenced by documents from that time, had a strong effect on the manner in which his work evolved. Besides numerous paintings with historical and cultural value, Diego Vélasquez painted numerous portraits of the Spanish Royal Family, other major European figures, and even of commoners. His artistic talent, according to general opinion, reached its peak in 1656 with the completion of Las Meninas, his great masterpiece. In the first quarter of the 19th century, Velázquez's style was taken as a model by Realist and Impressionist painters, in particular by Édouard Manet. Since then, further contemporary artists such as Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí have paid homage to their famous compatriot by recreating several of his most famous works.

Velasquez

In art history, the term 'Romanesque art' distinguishes the period between the beginning of the 11th and the end of the 12th century. This era showed a great diversity of regional schools each with their own unique style. In architecture as well as in sculpture, Romanesque art is marked by raw forms. Through its rich iconography and captivating text, this work reclaims the importance of this art which is today often overshadowed by the later Gothic style.

Romanesque Art

Der vielfach talentierte Albrecht Dürer nimmt einen bedeutenden Platz in der Geschichte der deutschen Kunst ein. In einer Zeit, in der die italienischen Künstler die klassischen Techniken der Ölmalerei, Bildhauerei und Architektur zu neuen Höhen perfektionierten und dadurch glaubten, dass sie das wahre Kunstmonopol besäßen, widmete Dürer sich einem eher vernachlässigten Medium, dass nur im Buchdruck zur Anwendung kam. Er befreite Holzschnitt und Kupferstich von dieser einseitigen Rolle, führte beide Techniken zur Perfektion und räumte ihnen einen Platz im Olymp der angesehenen künstlerischen Techniken ein. Eine Leistung, die sogar Giorgio Vasari in seinen Biographien berühmter Künstler würdigte. In diesem Buch werden nicht nur die bekanntesten seiner Meisterstiche und Stichzyklen aufgeführt, sondern auch seinen weniger beachteten Aquarellen die nötige Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (Aschaffenburg, 1880 - Frauenkirch, 1938)

« Leader » autoproclamé du groupe d'artistes die Brücke (Pont), fondé à Dresde en 1905, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, joua un rôle central dans les premiers développements de l'expressionnisme allemand (fig.186). Ses premières oeuvres révèlent l'influence de l'Impressionnisme, du postimpressionnisme et du Jugendstil, mais dès 1909, Kirchner peignait d'une manière distinctive et expressive grâce à un coup de pinceau audacieux, mais détendu, des couleurs vives et non naturalistes, et des gestes intenses. Il travaillait dans son atelier à partir d'esquisses réalisées très rapidement, souvent à partir de figures mouvantes, de scènes inspirées de la vie en ville ou des excursions du Brücke à la campagne.

Un peu plus tard, il commença à réaliser des sculptures grossièrement taillées dans des blocs de bois. A peu près au moment où il s'installa à Berlin, en 1912, le style de Kirchner, aussi bien de sa peinture que de son oeuvre graphique prolifique, devint plus anguleux, caractérisé par des lignes déchiquetées, des formes élancées et atténuées, et, souvent, un plus grand sentiment de nervosité. Ces traits se retrouvent dans leur expression la plus forte dans ses scènes de rue berlinoises (évoquées dans le chapitre « La Métropole et la Modernité »). Avec le déclenchement de la Première Guerre mondiale, Kirchner devint physiquement faible et enclin à l'anxiété. Conscrit, il fut profondément traumatisé par sa brève expérience de l'entraînement militaire pendant le conflit. De 1917 jusqu'à sa mort par suicide en 1938, il vécut une existence de reclus, bien qu'artistiquement productive, dans la tranquillité des Alpes suisses, près de Davos.

Ses oeuvres

Ses derniers livres