"Sam Hilt's The Renaissance of Imagination reads like an exciting record of discovery, exploring the unique aesthetics of Renaissance painting. He clearly explains how to engage with a work of art in this exceptionally well written text.  Without forgetting the historical moment from which a painting emerged, The Renaissance of Imagination teaches us to trust the voice of our own imagination as evoked by a painting, the better to comprehend its meaning. Hilt focuses on the essence of pictorial experience, which we too often miss while flailing through a morass of details about genre, style, and period. When you read this book, Sam Hilt stands beside you as a friendly, educated, and experienced guide (which he is in real life!) to converse with you about the greatest of Renaissance masterpieces. 

- Loren Lerner, Professor of Art History, Concordia University, Montreal

"In The Renaissance of Imagination, Sam Hilt, helps the reader plumb the depths, both emotional and intellectual, of a number of masterworks by great artists of the Italian Renaissance.  While he uses his voluminous knowledge of mythology, history, philosophy and religion to contextualize each painting or sculpture, he keeps us focused on the image itself, allowing the reader to enter a world we might not otherwise experience.  In other words, he allows us to see how these works are both products of their time and classics, that are ahistorical, speaking to concerns that we all experience currently.

- Gary Schlesinger

- Ronald Krouk