The Arts of Living

Published to accompany the landmark opening of the V&A's new Europe 1600 - 1800 galleries, The Arts of Living explores the breadth, depth and beauty of the V&A's seventeenth- and eighteenth-century collections. Written by a team of experts, this book provides an overview of more than two centuries of cultural development and artistic endeavour. Masterpieces such as the Serilly Cabinet and Gian Lorenzo Bernini's terracotta for his funeral monument the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni are contextualized alongside discussions of Louis XIV's patronage and the seventeenth-century Dutch interior. Many works are shown for the first time, including Count Bru¨hl's Meissen fountain and actor David Garrick's tea service.

This book accompanies the opening of the V&A's newly redesigned Europe gallery, which features spectacular paintings, sculpture, furniture, and decorative arts-textiles, fashion, ceramics, glass, metalwork, prints, and books-created by Europe's finest artists and craftsmen of the 17th and 18th centuries for the period's most important tastemakers, among them Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, and Catherine the Great. Outstanding art and domestic objects are discussed within their original contexts to highlight the rhythms and rituals of life during this period. Lavishly illustrated, the book includes essays explaining the grandeur of court interiors-for which the larger and more elaborate art objects were made-as well as discussion of more-humble period rooms and intimate interiors.

Elizabeth Miller is Senior Curator of prints at the V&A. and a member of the Europe Galleries concept team. She has written extensively on prints in the Italian Renaissance home and the Petrucci Pavement and is author of 16th-Century Italian Ornament Prints (V&A, 1999). Hilary Young is Senior Curator of ceramics at the V&A. and a member of the Europe Galleries concept team. His publications include English Porcelain, 1745 - 95 (V&A, 1999), Elegant Eating (V&A, 2002) and Masterpieces of World Ceramics (V&A, 2008).