Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Some tanning wear and marking due to age. Softcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> In the Preface to my volume Meditations on a Hobby Horse and other essays on the Theory of Art I expressed my gratitude to the publishers for their intention to let it be followed by a collection of my essays on the Italian Renaissance. It turned out that there were more of these than could conveniently be accommodated in one volume and I accepted the suggestion of the editor Mr. Michael Baxandall to divide them into two groups: one dealing with Renaissance symbolism (which is in preparation) the other with problems of style patronage and taste. It is this latter volume which is in front of the reader. I believe that a more unified theme can be seen to run through these various essays than this cursory description suggests. They all deal with what may be called the Renaissance climate of opinion about art and with the influence this climate has exerted on both the practice and the criticism of art. This approach runs rather counter to a current assumption that art is always far ahead of systematic thought with the critic distantly following the artist and trying as best he can to record and explain what has emerged by unconscious creation. This book attempts to test the opposite hypothesis from various angles. Not that it seeks to minimize let alone deny the artist’s creativity but it does try to show that this creativity can only unfold in a certain climate and that this has as much influence on the resulting works of art as a geographical climate has on the shape and character of vegetation. It will be noticed that this metaphor discourages a rigid determinism. The best climate in the world cannot produce a tree in the absence of a healthy seed or sapling. Moreover a climate that is good for trees which we like may also favour the spread of weeds or pests which we abhor. Any number of weather charts therefore will not allow us to predict the flora of a region let alone the form of individual plants. And yet-to abandon the metaphor-it seems legitimate to study the explicit and implicit critical standards accepted within a given tradition by artists and patrons alike and to ask what influence these norms may have on the forms produced by masters of varying gifts. (SP)