Centuries ahead of its time, Giovanni Battista Bracelli's "Bizzarie di Varie Figure" (1624) depicts figures made from a range of objects, mostly abstract — cubes, rings, squares — but also such things as rackets, screws, and braided hair.
The problem with Martin Gayford's new book, Venice: City of Pictures (2023), is that its neither one thing nor another. It picks up many themes/issues from #arthistory but shies away from really developing these in detail, But,, equally there is too much #art & not enough more general discussion of #Venice the city for a recent visitor. Gayford seems unable to make up his mind what book he wanted to write & this falls between the stools
Adelina Modesti's handsomely presented biography of Bolognese artist Elisabetta Sirani (2023), continues the reappraisal of #arthistory from a feminist angle. Focussing on the works of #art & the social environment of C17th #Bologna (which offered considerable support to #female#artists), Modesti's interesting (if occasionally a little dry) book will be of great interest to anyone seeking read an art history populated by women! @bookstodon
There's a well known saying in #arthistory that every portrait is a self-portrait (also attributed to Oscar Wilde). In Ia Genberg's The Details (2023) the narrator offers four portraits (three of former lovers, one of a parent0 which in the end reveal as much about her as those she is writing about. Its a well-crafted novella that presents a slowly emerging picture of a woman with less self-knowledge than she likely believes..
Coming soon: a comprehensive documentary film about the life and accomplishments of RAPHAEL in a fresh, original format. This is the first film in an ongoing series of Renaissance films.
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Hilary Fraser's study Women Writing Art History in the Nineteenth Century: Looking like a Woman (2014), is a great bit of #feminist recovery. Fraser explores how #women in C19th wrote about #art & what it tells us about female creativity 150 years ago. While at times getting slightly bogged down in the detail, overall this is a compelling work of #arthistory that (re)establishes forgotten female voices talking about art & artists
James Elkins, What Painting Is (2000) is a strangely compelling discussion of the practice(s) of #painters using the extended metaphor of alchemy. Elkins manages to convince you that this is an interesting way of understanding what painters do when #painting by illustration of painterly practices & alchemic ones. Focussing on the surface of paintings, Elkins offers a idiosyncratic approach to understanding painting as process #arthistory @bookstodon
Suzanne Valadon is not well serviced by
Catherine Hewitt's breezy biography, Renoir’s Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon (2017). It captures much of the whirl of her life & the succession of crises through which she passed, but the account of the #paintings themselves is relatively weak & without a good (other) book of reproductions to hand you'd be lost. Still if your interested in Valadon not a bad place to start
As a (relative) latecomer to formalised #arthistory, and as a critical #politicaleconomist, I found his book Art Worlds to be one of the most plausible & convincing analyses of the social milieu in which art is produced.;
the book dovetailed really well with my own political economic position (hence why I liked it) & helped me configure where my interests intersected.
If you've not read it, I really recommend it; great stuff
Like all good #arthistory, Sheila Hale's massive (over 700 pages of text) Titian: His Life (2012) keeps on sending you back to #Titian's works. As a social history based biography, Hale explores the social & political context the surrounds Titian as well as his life, contacts & work. But, its a compelling read (for all its length) & is only let down by the paucity of reproductions. It you're interested in Titian, this is a 'must read'! @bookstodon
OPEN ACCESS | L’humanisation des hybrides mi‑hommes, mi‑bêtes en question(s). À propos de quelques monstres d’origine antique et de leur postérité au Moyen Âge
Jacqueline Leclercq-Marx