The princes and artists of the Italian Renaissance strove mightily to revive the glories of classical Greek and Roman culture. In one respect, they certainly hit the mark: Even the more outlandish of the Caesars had nothing on the colorful bunch of men who ascended to the papacy in those years, though most of the popes were a tad less likely to kill their relatives.

From the intellectual Nicholas V through the warrior Julius II and on to the Counterreformation popes, these were guys with big ideas. The biggest, at least in material terms, was tearing down the hallowed Basilica of St. Peter, dating to 326, and replacing it with the St. Peter’s that many today consider the architectural highpoint of the Roman Catholic Church. While Nicholas conceived the idea around 1450, it was Julius who laid the first stone of the new church on April 18, 1506 500 years ago. To mark that anniversary, author R.A. Scotti has written Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal, Building St. Peter’s, a brisk and satisfying narrative history of the two-century building project that involved a procession of hero-artists: Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Bernini. Raphael was a young man during his brief tenure running the project, but Scotti makes it clear that it was old men in a hurry who really drove the work forward. That was particularly true of the storied dome, an engineering marvel. Scotti writes of Bramante setting the foundation piers that made the Basilica his own, Michelangelo approaching his 89th year and staving off death to assure that his dome would crown the mother church, [Pope] Sixtus V holding his architects to a frenzied schedule. By the time Bernini put the finishing touches on the basilica in the mid-17th century, the world of the Roman Church had changed. The project itself helped trigger the Reformation, as Martin Luther protested what he perceived as the popes’ outrageous fundraising to pay its massive expense. The popes who followed responded aggressively, in part with the crowd-pleasing Baroque style that Bernini’s work epitomized. Combining as it does Renaissance brilliance and Baroque drama, Scotti writes, the Basilica was truly catholic. Anne Bartlett is a journalist in Washington, D.C.

Frank Lloyd Wright was not only a giant among architects, he was also a towering personality. His life (1867-1959) spanned critical junctures in two centuries, through which he changed the face of building design both residential and commercial and became a controversial firebrand for the pursuit of artistic freedom as best expressed through what he characterized as organic architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright: The Interactive Portfolio is a simply fascinating collection of Wrightiana, capturing the essential man and artist in a unique, multimedia format. The text, written by Wright archivist Margo Stipe, touches sensitively on Wright’s professional accomplishments as well as on his sometimes tempestuous personal life, but the rarer value here is the collection of photos, previously unpublished architectural sketches, and facsimiles of various documents and letters written both by and to the master. The elegantly handsome package is slipcased, and it also features a fabulous CD presenting excerpts from Wright lectures and interviews through the years, including an entertainingly contentious 1957 tete-a-tete with television reporter Mike Wallace. A one-of-a-kind gift item.

The centenary of the birth of choreographer George Balanchine this year has created cause for celebration and revival of many of his most famous ballets among them “Serenade,” the first ballet he choreographed in the United States, “Four Temperaments,” “Jewels” and “Allegro Brillante.” Robert Gottlieb, an editor and dance critic, served on the board of directors of the New York City Ballet, the company Balanchine founded, and brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge to George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker, his straightforward narrative of Balanchine’s remarkable life. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, George Balanchivadze was thrust into the dramatic political and social fabric that soon produced World War I and the Russian Revolution. He entered the Imperial School of Ballet and Theater at age nine after arriving too late to take entrance exams to the Naval Academy. Balanchine’s subsequent development at the school as a musician, dancer and choreographer served as the springboard for his phenomenal output of dances.

So did money or lack of it. Though never outwardly bothered by either having money or being penniless, Balanchine always seemed to thrive in situations where time was of the essence, money was on the line or a problem presented itself. Throughout his prolific career his five marriages (all to ballet dancers, most of them much younger than he), his early wandering years after he left Stalinist Russia creating works for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and other European companies, his time as a choreographer on Broadway and in Holly-wood, and his subsequent maturation with the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet Balanchine, like Shakespeare, seemed to create his most inspired works out of the most mundane of circumstances. Bonnie Arant Ertelt is a writer in Nashville.