Rome Book

For almost a thousand years Rome held sway as the spiritual and artistic centre of the world. Hughes vividly recreates the ancient Rome of Julius Caesar Marcus Aurelius Nero Caligula Cicero Martial and Virgil. With the artistic blossoming of the Renaissance he casts his unwavering critical eye over the great works of Raphael Michelangelo and Brunelleschi shedding new light on the Old Masters. In the seventeenth eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when Rome's cultural predominance was assured artists and tourists from all over Europe converged on the city. Hughes brilliantly analyses the defining works of Caravaggio Velasquez Rubens and Bernini. Hughes' Rome is a vibrant contradictory spectacular and secretive place; a monument both to human glory and human error. In equal parts loving iconoclastic enraged and wise peopled with colourful figures and rich in unexpected details ROME is an exhilarating journey through the story of one of the world's most glorious cities.

Rome : Paperback : Orion Publishing Co : 9780753823057 : : 05 Apr 2012 : Revised for the paperback edition - a dazzling biography of the Eternal City - 'A tour of the great city with a great guide: who could do this better?' EVENING STANDARD.