Dark Water
Art, Disaster, and Redemption in Florence
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · October 6, 2009
Birthplace of Michelangelo and home to untold masterpieces, Florence is a city for art lovers.
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- Who it’s for
- A city’s flood becomes a vivid meditation on what art means when history is in danger.
- Themes
- Art and cultural heritage, Natural disaster and recovery, Why art matters
- Genres
- Italian History, Natural Disasters, Art History
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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.
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Two American artists wade through the devastated beauty; a photographer 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.
Art Under Threat
A city’s flood becomes a vivid meditation on what art means when history is in danger.
Come here for
- Florence’s masterpieces seen through disaster and its aftermath
- Witness voices that bring the flood’s human cost close
Expect
- A sustained narrative shaped by artists, a photographer, and a “mud angel”
- Questions about art’s meaning amid overwhelming loss
Where it sits
| Natural Disasters | 56% |
|---|---|
| Art History | 48% |
| Italian History | 36% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Renaissance Art History
- Italian History
- Natural Disasters
- Authors
- Robert Clark
- Publisher
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Published
- October 6, 2009
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Art and cultural heritage · Natural disaster and recovery · Why art matters
- Reading lane
- Renaissance Art History