The Power of Beauty

The legacy of antiquity, Arabian influences via Sicilly, Byzantine traces in Venice, German, French and Spanish rulers: Italy was as strongly shaped by outside forces as by its inner diversity. With an authority lent by decades of research, Volker Reinhardt elucidates how Italian culture has grown since the 11^thcentury. Reinhardt brings to life paintings, buildings and gardens, poetry, opera and film, political thinkers and scientists, culinary culture and design. The book takes the long view: from Sicilian barons to the mafia, from the Renaissance to the Risorgimento, from Boccaccio’s proximity to working class people to their importance for Fellini. Italian culture emerged out of crises and catastrophes and is yet shaped by an optimistic vitality and zest for life.  This book is an invitation to readers to immerse themselves in that vitality and to be enchanted by the power of beauty.