Nathaniel E Silver

"Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) assembled an extraordinary collection of art from diverse cultures and eras--and built a Venetian-style palazzo in Boston to share these exquisite treasures with the world. But her life and work remains shrouded in myth. Separating fiction and fact, this book paints an unforgettable portrait of Gardner, drawing on her substantial personal archive and including previously unpublished findings to offer new perspectives...

The catalogue and exhibition, held at the Gardner Museum, Boston, include loans from European and American public collections. Today the Primavera forms the cornerstone of Botticelli's modern fame, but its familiarity belies distant origins in the intellectual environment of Laurentian Florence and the residences of its moneyed elite. Part of a genre called spalliera, so named for their installation around shoulder (spalla) height, this type of painting...