DIALOGUE OF FORMS: Prague Baroque Architecture

One of the world's most photogenic subjects, the Baroque architecture of Prague, is framed, caressed, scanned, analyzed, compared and contrasted in this large (11 x 12 3/4), ravishing volume. Architectural historian Pavlik takes up the formal elements--building materials, rhythm, light and shade, ornament--which architectural photographer Uher pictures in images of undulating plaster and granulated sandstone; single, endless repetition and intricate rhythmic systems; severe frontality and dizzying curves within curves. They close, appropriately, on ""contradiction and unity""--as manifest particularly in two adjacent monuments. A supplementary catalog provides a history, description, and drawing of all the structures featured, and helps to compensate for the difficulty of relating section-text to grouped photographs and terminal captions. But anyone with an eye for bravura building will pour over these pages gladly.