The Italian Renaissance is a pivotal episode in the history of Western culture. This book discusses a range of works from across Italy, examines the issues of materials, workshop practices and artist-patron relationships, and explores the ways in which visual imagery related to contemporary sexual, social and political behaviour.

New edition of this key guide to art history, which takes a critical reading of the field's most innovative and influential texts over the past two centuries, including the most important new writing on the most recent work in a variety of new media.

Explains why innovation and controversy are valued in the arts, bringing together philosophy, art theory, and many examples. This work discusses blood, beauty, culture, money, sex, web sites, and research on the brain's role in perceiving art. It is suitable for the public, introductory students, and teachers in the arts.

Arts in Health: Designing and Researching Interventions provides a complete overview of how to go about undertaking research and practice in the field of arts in health. It starts by exploring the context for arts in health interventions, including the history of the use of arts in health and the theoretical and political developments that have laid the foundations for its flourishing. It also considers what 'arts in health' encompasses and the range of disciplines involved.

As well as 'The Aspern Papers', this selection includes 'The Death of the Lion', 'The Figure in the Carpet', and 'The Birthplace'. All four stories concern the figure of the artist and the cult of celebrity. This new edition includes extracts from James's Prefaces and Notebooks that shed light on the genesis of the stories.

Astrobiologists study the origin and evolution of life on Earth and the possibility of life beyond Earth; a question that has fascinated scientists for hundreds of years. In this Very Short Introduction, David C. Catling introduces the latest scientific understanding of astrobiology, incorporating aspects of microbiology, geology, and astronomy.

Astrophysics is said to have been born when Isaac Newton saw an apple drop in his orchard and had the electrifying insight that the Moon falls just like that apple. James Binney shows how the application of physical laws derived on Earth allows us to understand objects that exist on the far side of the Universe.

In this Very Short introduction Paul Palmer looks at the structure and basic physics and chemistry of the Earth's atmosphere, comparing it to the atmospheres of other planets, particularly our neighbours, Venus and Mars. Palmer looks at the effects of pollutants and climate change, and what may happen to our atmosphere in the future.