The Piero Della Francesca Trail, with The Best Picture - Hardcover

John Pope-Hennessy; Aldous Huxley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1892145138 ISBN 13: 9781892145130

Publisher: Little Bookroom, 2002

Synopsis

More personal and sophisticated than a standard guidebook, this essential guide to the Piero masterpieces provides a rare glimpse of the workings of the heart and mind of a world-famous art historian as he looks at and thinks about the paintings andfrescoes. One by one, he describes the stories they portray, their meticulous composition, and the crucial and surprising role of fate in the commission for the church of San Francesco. Originally published in 1993, the book quickly achieved a cult following; this new edition includes, for the first time, Aldous Huxley's "The Best Picture," the famous essay that first inspired Pope-Hennessy to seek out the luminous and enigmatic works that now constitute the pilgrimage known as The Piero della Francesca Trail. The thousands of tourists who travel to Tuscany each year to follow the trail will welcome the republication of this beautifully designed volume.

About this title

About the Author:

SIR JOHN POPE-HENNESSY, one of the great art historians of the twentieth century and perhaps its greatest authority on Italian Renaissance art, was born in 1913. He served as Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and Consultative Chairman of the Department of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His many publications are now standard works of reference and include An Introduction to Italian Sculpture, Italian Gothic Sculpture, Italian Renaissance Sculpture, Italian High Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture and Cellini as well as many monographs and his masterwork, Donatello. Sir John died in 1995.

From Library Journal:

Art historian Pope-Hennessy was one of the world's foremost authorities on Italian Renaissance art. In 1993, two years before his death, he released this slim volume, which opens with the following sentiment: "There comes a point in life when the artists one has known cease to be objects of research and become friends." He offers here the life of della Francesca, along with a guide to his work buttressed with 52 color illustrations. As a bonus, this also includes Aldous Huxley's 1938 essay The Best Picture, which inspired Pope-Hennessy to study the artist. Gorgeous.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little Bookroom
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1892145138
• ISBN 13: 9781892145130
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 90