The Villa Farnesina

James Grantham Turner is James D. Hart Professor in the Department of English at the University of California, Berkeley. A scholar of unusual range who brings together literature, art, the environment, cultural and intellectual history, and gender and sexuality, he is the author of eight books, including the Politics of Landscape and Eros Visible, the latter cited for its 'extraordinary vitality' and as a 'most important' contribution to Renaissance Studies. Turner has won fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others.

• Introduction; 1. 'Antique' Imagination and the Creation of the Villa-Palazzo: Origins and Precursors; 2. The Stanza del Fregio and Peruzzi's first architectural wall-painting; 3. The Lost Façade-Paintings: 'Di terretta con storie di man sua, molto belle'; 4. 1512 Overtures: The Villa, the Landscape Architecture and the Literature of Celebration; 5. The Second Phase, 1518-1519: The 'Hall of Perspectives', the Nuptial Suite and the Loggia di Psiche.

'This book is an absolute masterwork, impeccably and exhaustively researched, the material interpreted with wide and deep expertise filtered through the inspired genius of both the author and his protagonists, and the whole account beautifully written and easy to follow. It is a perfect match of scholar and subject.' Ingrid Rowland, University of Notre Dame