Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Plates bright and vivid. Year 1931. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> It is impossible nowadays to draw a rigid line of demarcation either between the old masters and the artists of the various modern schools or between for instance the work of a Renaissance and a Byzantine or Oriental artist. The great catholicity and range of present-day appreciation demands a bird’s-eye view which shall relate all these elements. No book for collector and art-lover can leave out of account the speculative modern field even though it must be approached with caution and its future value cannot with the best will in the world be fixed in any but a tentative fashion. Fine craftsmanship and supreme ?sthetic merit may be regarded as the two poles of permanence in art but these poles have been known to shift their position considerably with changes of outlook. Sufficient has been said to show the magnitude of the problems to be resolved in an annual of the fine arts. The present volume is an attempt to meet some of the needs of those interested whether as collectors art historians and experts or simply as amateurs of the arts; and the Editor would be glad to receive information suggestions or criticisms which may contribute to make future issues of greater value. (SP)