The Mirror of the Gods : Classical Mythology in Renaissance Art
This is a scholarly study but plainly written with a minimum of technical artistic terms, which makes it accessible to the lay reader. It is as informed about the European late mediaeval and Renaissance mindset as it is about the artworks the period produced, showing how the Christian world managed to assimilate the pantheon of classical gods into its culture and politics. The book is also stuffed with amusing and affectionate anecdotes, which bring to life not only the art but the men and women who made it and their patrons. Raphael, for example, as official inspector of antiquities for Rome, so frequently muddled in classical and non-classical types that later commentaries described him as ‘an ass compared with the ancients.’
An entertaining read in its own right and a useful resource for those writing fiction about the period.