Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Plates bright and vivid. Dustcover has some wear and tear but actual book and pages are great. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> A. P. Opp?’s book has long been recognised as one of the pioneer scholarly works of art history. Sixty years of subse- quent research and criticism have added to our knowledge of Raphael but they have not fundamentally affected the corpus of finished paintings which Opp? confronted with his habitual scepticism yearning for beauty and astringent good sense. Opp? came to art history from the classics and this early philological training gave nerve and sinew as well as grasp to all his scholarship. This beautifully written and composed book enriched for this new edition with new first class repro- ductions of Raphael’s oeuvre in both colour and mono- chrome discusses the whole range of Raphael’s achievement. At a time when an enormous number of illustrated books have been devoted to lesser figures in art history it is refreshing and exciting to look again at one of the greatest masters of all time through the eyes of one of Britain’s most distinguished scholars. Professor Charles Mitchell Bernheimer Professor of History of Art at Bryn Mawr University USA has re-edited the book and contributed a new biographical introduction which sets the book firmly on its pedestal as a critical work and reveals the meticulous scholarship which Opp? gave his work. He has contributed a succinct apparatus to guide the reader to the more recent literature and criticism and also to the location of the pictures where these have changed. A novel feature is the inclusion of many of the drawings which illustrate the workshop procedures of Raphael. There is nowadays a resurgence of interest in Raphael and the book must appeal to both those members of the non- specialist public who are interested in Renaissance Art and to the large number of students and scholars working in the field of Renaissance studies. A. P. Opp? who died a few years ago was a great collector of drawings and connoisseur and scholar of European paint- ing and drawing. He worked for many years at the Ministry of Education where he was responsible for the reorganisation of the Victoria and Albert Museum London. (OS)