An unusual look at art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Sacred art is traditionally linked with the period stretching from the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century. In reality, it has never completely vanished, and this book retraces its history in the years between the 1880s and 1950, both in Italy and abroad. Taking an unprecedented approach, Divine Beauty sets out to investigate the relationship between art and the Church, a connection that had been unbreakable in previous centuries and that seemed to have been lost in the modern era. This is a unique work, which brings together such great names as Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Edvard Munch, Giovanni Segantini, and Lucio Fontana.

Lucia Mannini has taught at universities in the U.S. and in Florence, Italy. She specializes in the Italian art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Anna Mazzanti teaches at Milan Polytechnic; she focuses on nineteenth and twentieth-century art. Ludovica Sebregondi is director of exhibition activities at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence. She has also edited and authored monographs on medieval and modern art. Carlo Sisi is a curator and expert on nineteenth-century art. He is chairman of the board of governors of the Museo Marini in Florence, and has been director of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna and the Galleria del Costume at Palazzo Pitti in Florence.