A Place Apart: The Artist's Studio 1400 to 1900

藝術家的畫室展現了他們的個性、他們工作的方式、喜好與執著。

有些畫室是還在追尋風格與自我的藝術家慘敗的戰場；有些已成為知名藝術家用華麗鋪張、充滿異國情調的家飾來彰顯榮耀的所在；有些則在蒙馬特裡吸鴉片吞雲吐霧尋找靈感。

作者也是藝術史研究者Caroline Chapman引領我們穿越500年西洋藝術史，看藝術家們創作時的心境與歷程。米蓋朗基羅在為西斯汀禮拜堂天花板作畫時的痛苦和喜悅；模特兒和畫家間微妙模糊的關係；梵谷第一間畫室；傑利柯如何畫出知名的《梅杜莎之筏》；雕刻家羅丹是如何完成他的雕塑；以及19世紀在巴黎的印象派工作坊等，伴隨大師們的傑作，一探璀璨西洋藝術史背後，偉大藝術家與作品的故事。

Exotic lair, freezing garret or convivial rendezvous, artists’ studios reflect their personalities, the way they work, their dreams and obsessions.

Some are battlegrounds where hopes are dashed and original concepts fail dismally in their execution. A few artists became celebrities and flaunted their success by furnishing huge studios with exotic objects, while others lived in a haze of opium in squalid tenements in Montmartre.

Spanning 500 years of Western art history from 1400 to 1900, and accompanied by glorious images, Caroline Chapman describes the skilful techniques employed in a Renaissance workshop; Michelangelo’s agony and ecstasy while painting the Sistine Chapel; the murky world of the artist’s model; the looting by Napoleon of Veronese’s masterpiece; Van Gogh’s wretched first studio; how Géricault painted his Raft of the Medusa; the way Rodin worked in his plaster-spattered environment and the ateliers of the Impressionists in Paris.