Irving Lavin and John Plummer, Ed., Studies in Late Medieval and Renaissance Paintings in Honor of Millard Meiss

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Irving Lavin and John Plummer, Ed., Studies in Late Medieval and Renaissance Paintings in Honor of Millard Meiss Document generated on 09/29/2021 2:44 a.m. RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne Canadian Art Review Irving Lavin and John Plummer, ed., Studies in Late Medieval and Renaissance Paintings in Honor of Millard Meiss. New York, New York University Press, 1977. Volume 1: text, 163 + xx pp.; Volume 2: plates, 164 pp., $75 Wendy Stedman Sheard and John T. Paoletti, ed., Collaboration in Italian Renaissance Art. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1978. 268 + xxi pp., illus. $20 Debra Pincus Volume 8, Number 2, 1981 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1075010ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1075010ar See table of contents Publisher(s) UAAC-AAUC (University Art Association of Canada | Association d'art des universités du Canada) ISSN 0315-9906 (print) 1918-4778 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this review Pincus, D. (1981). Review of [Irving Lavin and John Plummer, ed., Studies in Late Medieval and Renaissance Paintings in Honor of Millard Meiss. New York, New York University Press, 1977. Volume 1: text, 163 + xx pp.; Volume 2: plates, 164 pp., $75 / Wendy Stedman Sheard and John T. Paoletti, ed., Collaboration in Italian Renaissance Art. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1978. 268 + xxi pp., illus. $20]. RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review, 8(2), 167–170. https://doi.org/10.7202/1075010ar Tous droits réservés © UAAC-AAUC (University Art Association of Canada | This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit Association d'art des universités du Canada), 1987 (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ retardataire tendencies of a Giotto or creased understanding of that era a Cimabue. It was, as Haskell notes, which saw, for instance, the debate ‘a desperatc attempt, made in the over the purchase of the Elgin mar- interests of modem art, to preserve bles for the British Muséum, the traditional and absolutc standards organization of England’s National of “beauty” from barbarian con­ Gallery, and the rapid growth of tamination’ (p. 102). the Louvre as a treasure house of Besides the influence of leading European culture. In a sense, Redis­ art dealers, critics and historians, coveries has more to do with how we another important factor in the think about the history of art and it shaping of tastes was the art exhibi­ should cause more historians to tion. One of the largest and most think barder about the central facts influential of these was held in of art history, namely the art itself. Manchester in 1857. Called the Art Treasures Exhibition, Old Masters RAYMOND I.. WILSON from every period and school were California State College at Stanislaus shown. But because so many of the established collectors had refused Sir George Gilbert Scott, Albert to lcnd their works to this ‘provin­ Memorial, London, 1863-72. From cial’ exhibition, many heretofore irving i.avin and John plummer, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Architec­ ‘minor’ masters were shown like ed. Studies in Late Médiéval and Ren­ ture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centu­ Hams Memling and Andrea aissance Painlings in Honor of Millard ries, Baltimore, Penguin Books, Mantegna. Most popular of ail. it Meiss. New York, New York Uni­ 1963, p. 90. was gencrally agreed, was Annibale versity Press, 1 977. Volume 1 : text, Caracci’s Three Maries. 463 + xx pp. ; Volume 2: plates, Implicit in this study, which inci- 164 pp., $75. dentally throws much new light on WENDY S1T.DMAN SHEARD atld JOHN Masters among English collectors, a period which saw the growth of r. paoi.e i 11, ed. Collaboration in Ital­ especially for Titian and for an art industry parallel with the ian Renaissance Art. New Haven and Giovanni Bellini. Enthusiasm for industrial révolution, is the conclu­ London, Yale University Press, the Italian masters was further sion that artistic values are relative 1978. 268 + xxi pp., illus. $20. fired by the high-class plunder to an âge or point of view. This con­ which had begun flowing into Paris clusion holds that artistic values are The essays under review here hon- from Italy. Following in the wakc of the product of a web of social, éco­ our two art historians, Millard Napoleon’s armies, agents for the nomie and cultural factors. More- Meiss and Charles Seymour, Jr., great central muséum in Paris care- over, the implication is clear that who hâve made highly signifiant fully made their sélections and our own artistic and art-historical contributions to the development packed them off. The resuit was a values are similarly cletermined and of art history in the United States - ‘rediscovery’ of early Italian art subject to similar changes. and thus, by extension, in Canada - among Frenchmen. The opposite point of view - that and who represent two of the most Pursuing the phenomenon of there are artistic values or measures important establishment training changing tastes from another of quality as timeless and as endur- grounds for scholars in the disci­ angle, Haskell points out that in ing as art itself- is not so often or so pline: Princeton and Yale. These England following the Revolution- ably represented in our limes. two universities were among the ary Wars there was a revival of Kenneth Glark, nevertheless, has first. in North America to make art interest in the Italian painters of for years acted the loyal opposition. history a respected component of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen­ In his recent book, What is a Master- the undergraduate curriculum, and turies, especially for Giotto and piecef, he argues for the existence in the 1930s - as foreign scholars Cimabue. Yet in the space of a few and utility of such canons of quality began coming to America - were years a 180° turnabout look place as originality, the ability to synthe- developing graduate departments with Giotto, Cimabue, and their fol- size the spirit of a time, and the equipped with superb libraries and lowers now berated as ‘primitives,’ insight that allows one to make excellent associated art collections. ignorant of even the fundamentals one’s own personal expériences It is only very recently, in fact, that of draw'ing. universal. Il must be conceded, the character given to art history in This change in attitude was due, though, that Lord Glark’s vision is North America by that small group Haskell believes, in part to the loftier and more abstract than that of predominantly Eastern schools, increasing numbers of forgeries of of the average collector or muséum with Princeton and Yale in the fore- Old Masters. Because of this, col­ curator whose motives are more front, has begun to be seriously lectors were being warned away usually conditioned by prevailing questioned. Taken as a whole, the from adding the painters of this âge trends and fashions. essays may be said to function as a to their holdings. Also contributing In fact, Rediscoveries in Art might tribute to Establishment art history to this change in attitude was the hâve been subtitled : The Taste of as practiced in the New World. feeling that modem art, specifically Collectors and Curators in England The w'ork of both scholars the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and France with Respect to the Old focused on the Italian Renaissance needed to be protected and insu- Masters. Conceived of in this way, in its early phases, an area that has lated from the degrading and the topic contributes to our in- traditionally attracted many of the RACAR / VIII / 2 16? best minds working in the field. by a patron not even sufficiently scheme of spiritual interprétation. I Meiss was the more visible of the established in Florentine society to cannot be as positive about the two. He began his teaching career hâve a surname. However any for- results of Mirella Levi D’Ancona’s in the early 1930s, and up until his ther mining of this particular vein is multi-level reading of Mantegna’s death in 1975 worked with great stopped short by the fact that the Vienna St. Sébastian panel, which is skill to bring European méthodol­ cycle itself has not survived. a sobering example of where highly ogies to American students and to Hendrik W. Van Os, in ‘Vecchietta imaginative iconographical analysis represent the American viewpoint and the Persona of the Renaissance can lead - in this case to an inter­ abroad : ‘the roving ambassador of Artist,' gœs in a different direction, prétation of Sébastian as, simulta- American good will in the realm of back to the personality of the artist, neously, ‘Janus, Apollo, Diana, and scholarship and beyond,’ as he was and argues that in certain instances Christ,’ with built-in référencés to characterized in one memorial - his case in point is the Sienese art­ Albertian theory and Paduart phi- essay. Seymour, who died in 1977, ist Vecchietta - style and iconogra­ losophy adding to the provocative combined the careers of muséum phy may be the resuit of personal mix. curator and teacher-scholar. Edu- pressures experienced by the Ren­ Meiss was also a pioneer in mak- cated in large part at Yale - his aissance artist breaking into the ing American art history aware of father was president of the univer­ upper levels of society. the assistance that could be pro- sity - he was the first curator of Meiss’ iconographical studies - vided by technical analysis, in par­ sculpture at the National Gallery in brilliant as they often are - do not ticular of frescœs, and by close Washington and returned to Yale attempt the intégration of his post- physical analysis of both frescœs in the late 1940s to assist in the Black Death investigations.
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