BELLAS ARTES

The world appears to be divided into cat and dog lovers, but fortunately Walter Chandoha, the 20th century’s greatest pet photographer found himself happily in the middle. He loved these intriguing creatures equally for their unique beauty and individualism, and as subjects to photograph in a career spanning over 70 years. While working on his critically acclaimed TASCHEN book Cats, Chandoha handpicked his favorite dog photos for a potential follow-up title, putting into carefully marked boxes hundreds of contact sheets, prints, and color transparencies, many unseen for at least 50 years, and some totally unseen. Chandoha sadly passed away in 2019 at the age of 98, but his legacy lives on in this dashing sequel dedicated to man’s best friend. “Walter Chandoha’s photographs of dogs are compelling not just because dogs have an inherent charm, but because the person behind the camera was a master of his craft,” writes the photography critic Jean Dykstra in the book’s introduction. We see terriers, collies, beagles, bloodhounds, poodles, small dogs, big dogs, show dogs, working dogs, and many more, featuring over 60 breeds photographed in both black-and-white and glorious Kodachrome.Spanning a 50-year period, the book is divided into six sections, and each chapter reveals Chandoha’s exceptional combination of technique, versatility, and soul. The opening chapter “In the Studio” focuses on formal portraiture; next it’s “Strike a Pose” where our canine companions ham it up for the camera; in “Out and About” they get to roam and play, often photographed with Chandoha’s own children; next it’s “Best in Show” with Chandoha using his reportage skills to capture vintage dog shows from the Mad Men era; in “Tails from the City,” the dogs are hitting the streets of mid-century New York; and in the closing chapter “Country Dogs,” it’s back to nature, the fields, and the beaches. Dogs is an unleashed photographic tribute to these lovable and loyal creatures.

“Tú ya eres famosa, el que se va a hacer famoso ahora soy yo”, le dijo el fotógrafo Lawrence Schiller mientras hablaban de las fotografías que estaba a punto de hacerle. “No seas tan arrogante”, le respondió burlona Marilyn. “Sustituir a un fotógrafo es fácil”. Esto ocurrió en 1962, y Schiller, que por entonces tenía 25 años, cumplía un encargo para Paris Match. Conocía ya a Marilyn (ambos habían trabado amistad dos años antes, cuando se conocieron durante el rodaje de El multimillonario), pero esto no le sirvió de nada el día en que ella accedió a posar desnuda ante su cámara durante la escena de la piscina en Something’s Got to Give.

Art in Renaissance Italy (4th Edition) With a freshness and breadth of approach that sets the art in its context, this book explores why works were created and who commissioned the palaces, cathedrals, paintings and sculptures. It covers Rome and Florence, Venice and the Veneto, Assisi, Siena, Milan, Pavia, Genoa, Padua, Mantua, Verona, Ferrara, Urbino and Naples. Chapters are grouped into four chronological parts, allowing for a sustained examination of individual cities in different periods. 'Contemporary Scene' boxes provide fascinating glimpses of daily life and 'Contemporary Voice' boxes quote from painters and writers of the time. Innovative and scholarly, yet accessible and beautifully presented, this book is a definitive work on the Italian Renaissance. This revised edition contains around 200 new pictures and nearly all colour images. The chapter structure has also been improved for yet greater geographic and chronological clarity, and a new page size makes the volume more user-friendly.

French artist, designer, and talented antique hunter Marin Montagut celebrates the joy of collecting everything from textiles to barware to architectural details, taking readers inside a dozen private homes, flea markets, and unusual ateliers to discover the most whimsical treasure troves in France. From a film prop house’s array of leather sporting goods and playing cards to a travel buff’s vintage maps and globes, and from a sculpture studio’s Grecian plaster casts to an amateur designer’s spiral staircase models, and from Montagut’s own wonder wall assemblages to a cook’s haven filled with porcelain dessert molds and copper pots—objects, when presented together as a series, create unforgettable interiors that radiate charm. Inspiration comes in repetition: wooden zigzag rulers with engraved numbers aligned on a wall in a herringbone pattern create an artful space. The spare wooden forms of capipotes—devotional statues used in religious processions, their eyes turned heavenward in ecstasy—and silver ex-votos can be the point of departure for the theme of an entire room. Montagut’s mood boards for each chapter provide endless ideas for the home.

In ten chapters—each an important moment in food history, from Ancient Rome to Al-Andalus in Spain, from the Ethiopian Empire to nineteenth-century New York City—the authors pair menus with immersive retellings of historic culinary breakthroughs, and present the ingredients and modern techniques adapted for today’s kitchens to allow cooks of all abilities to entertain with dishes that were created and enjoyed hundreds of years ago but remain relevant to today’s food tastes and values.

British interior designer Flora Soames founded her eponymous firm in 2009 and launched an acclaimed collection of fabrics and wallpapers in 2019. Informed by her background in art and furniture, her style exudes the traditional charm of English country homes while incorporating modern, original touches that are comfortable and design-led. This embrace of old and new—along with Soames’s passion for collecting, heritage, color, and pattern—has resulted in an impressive portfolio of projects in the UK and beyond.