Rendez-vous with Art
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
The fruits of a lifetime of experience by a cultural colossus, Philippe de Montebello, the longest-serving director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in its history, distilled in conversations with an acclaimed critic
Beginning with a fragment of yellow jasper—all that is left of the face of an Egyptian woman who lived 3,500 years ago—this book confronts the elusive questions: how, and why, do we look at art?
Philippe de Montebello and Martin Gayford talked in art galleries or churches or their own homes, and this book is structured around their journeys. But whether they were in the Louvre or the Prado, the Mauritshuis of the Palazzo Pitti, they reveal the pleasures of truly looking.
De Montebello shares the sense of excitement recorded by Goethe in his autobiography—"akin to the emotion experienced on entering a House of God"—but also reflects on why these secular temples might nevertheless be the "worst possible places to look at art." But in the end both men convey, with subtlety and brilliance, the delights and significance of their subject matter and some of the intense creations of human beings throughout our long history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The premise two art experts look at some of the world's most magnificent works in tandem is a good one, offering readers guided tours of the Louvre, the Prado, the Palazzo Pitti, and other prestigious institutions. The experts in question, Philippe de Montebello, who spent 31 years as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Martin Gayford (Man With a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud), a highly regarded British art critic, certainly fit the bill. The book adds an ingenious twist to the classic approach to art criticism, which is, for the most part, effective. Montebello and Gayford offer depth and context to key works by Bosch, Goya, Vermeer, followed by erudite discussions. The authors' admissions that they didn't appreciate certain styles or eras at first; explanations regarding the effects of a museum's physical layout on a visitor's experience and interpretation, and the declaration that we're now spending more time looking at photos and reproductions of artworks than the real thing are sure to provoke a response. Assuming readers can get past the authors' egos (which loom large) and their penchant for peppering their text with purple prose, there are considerable insights into the featured art. 75 color and b&w illus.