Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Dark Water : Flood and Redemption in Florence--The City of Masterpieces - Robert Clark
eTextbook alternate format product

Instant online reading.
Don't wait for delivery!

Go digital and save!

Dark Water

Flood and Redemption in Florence--The City of Masterpieces

By: Robert Clark

Paperback | 6 October 2009 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $33.86

$32.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $8.25 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 7 business days

A dramatic account of the 1966 flood that ravaged Florence, Italy, Dark Water re-creates the disaster and its aftermath through the voices of witnesses, past and present. ANCHOR PAPERBACK.

Birthplace of Michelangelo and home to untold masterpieces, Florence is a city for art lovers. But on November 4, 1966, the rising waters of the Arno threatened to erase over seven centuries of history and human achievement.

Now Robert Clark explores the Italian city's greatest flood and its aftermath through the voices of its witnesses. Two American artists wade through the devastated beauty; aphotographer stows away on an army helicopter to witness the tragedy first-hand; a British "mud angel" spends a month scraping mold from the world's masterpieces; and, through it all, an author asks why art matters so very much to us, even in the face of overwhelming disaster.
Industry Reviews
"Gripping.... Clark's stories of the flood are the stuff of thrilling documentaries." --The Washington Post Book World

"A meditation on art, religion, the power of nature to destroy man's legacy on this Earth and the against-all-odds determination of people--young and old, working class and cultured, rich and poor-to save it." --The Seattle Times

"Lovers of Florence/Firenze will fall into Dark Water headfirst.... A formidable accomplishment." --Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun

"[A] vivid canvas of a city submerged." -Men's Vogue

"With the skill of an investigative reporter who can write beautifully, Clark not only describes the disastrous flood but also gives a history of Florence and the story of the people from all over the world who came to help save the city and its art." -ARTnews

"History and art criticism, with a dash of memoir.... Evocative." -BookPage

"A wonderfully intimate evocation both of the geniuses that created Florence's masterpieces and the teams of art experts and 'mud angels' who rescued them. Anyone visiting Florence after reading Dark Water will find the city all the more precious and miraculous." -Ross King, author of Brunelleschi's Dome

"Enthralling." -The Economist

"Dark Water is not simply the best book yet about the flood that devastated Florence in November, 1966; it's a new kind of art history-one that reflects on the transformation of a real Italian city (Firenze) into an imaginary city that's become almost a museum of itself (Florence)." -Robert Hellenga, author of The Sixteen Pleasures

More in Renaissance Art

Holbein : Renaissance Master - Elizabeth Goldring

RRP $82.95

$60.75

27%
OFF
Italy: In the Footsteps of the Great Artists : Art of Travel - Nick Trend
Hieronymus Bosch. The Complete Works. 45th Ed. : 45th Edition - Stefan Fischer
Still Life : Timeless Beauty - Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

RRP $85.00

$61.99

27%
OFF
The Medici - Mary Hollingsworth

Paperback

RRP $24.99

$19.75

21%
OFF
The Book of Miracles. 45th Ed. - Till-Holger Borchert

RRP $54.99

$42.75

22%
OFF
Truth and Beauty : Pre-Raphaelites and their Sources of Inspiration - Melissa E. Buron
The King's Painter : The Life and Times of Hans Holbein - Franny Moyle
Leonardo da Vinci : An Untraceable Life - Stephen J. Campbell

RRP $59.99

$47.75

20%
OFF
The Study : The Inner Life of Renaissance Libraries - Andrew ) Hui
Perspectives - Laurent Binet

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF
Siena : The Rise of Painting, 1300 - 1350 - Joanna Cannon

RRP $82.95

$60.75

27%
OFF
Women in Early Modern Venetian Art : Fluid Identities - Sabrina  DeTurk