The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England

This is what every coffee table book dreams of being, not just gorgeous throughout but also a great work of real scholarship. I highly recommend this book.

High quality text. Informative and enjoyable

It’s a world tour of the great museums of England, Europe, and North America for Renaissance/Tudor painting, sculpture, textile art and historical events.

The content of this book is amazing, thorough and contains gorgeous illustrations. However, someone on the publishing side fell down on the job of proofing the final print, as there are multiple instances of pages printed on top of other pages. I have to return this book and hope that this is corrected for the next edition, or a print edition. The book is far too expensive not to demand better from the printing.

I am a British History major and still learned so much from this book. I wish I could have seen the exhibition first hand, but this is the next best thing.

Excellent print quality.

This catalogue from a Metropolitan Museum exhibition is one of the most wonderful art books I have come across in quite a long while.Firstly, the production values are excellent: paintings and sculptures are in superb focus, coloration is unimpeachable, and the layout and juxtaposition of imagery meticulously designed.The illustrations themselves are breathtaking: page after page of magnificent Tudor portraits of patrons in the most sumptuous costumes imaginable, by a legion of artists who should be much more famous, but have faded into obscurity: Frank Cadogan Cowper, Anthonis Mor, Hans Eworth, Daniel Mytens, Guillim Scrots, Pietro Torrigiano (who had to flee Florence after breaking Michelangelo’s nose in a fight over who was the more talented - and judging by the quality of his work, this was not entirely misplaced), and on and on and on (sadly, one struggles to find any monographs of their work, although I just managed to order a book on Michel Sittow from Princeton University Press). And of course, many pages of works by artists whose names still resonate like Hans Holbein or Quentin Metsys. Then there are the design drawings, tapestries, jewels, vessels in gold and crystal and agate and porcelain, manuscripts, armour, furniture, houses …. Such an unimaginable array of treasures to dazzle and delight.The text is informative and detailed without being overly dry and academic, written in a style that is approachable and unpretentious.In conclusion, it has been a long time since I have derived so much pleasure from an art publication.

A great book. Informative and everything is beautifully described. A real treasure.

Scholarly and sumptuous. Recommended.