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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very interesting book, November 3, 2007
This review is from: From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400-1500 (Hardcover)
I suppose this should really be somewhere between four and five stars. I have always loved early Netherlandish painting, and this book shows how the Italians of the the early fifteenth century were a good generation behind the Northern painters in technique and achievement: artists like Massaccio, when compared to Robert Campin or Van der Weyden appear awkward and inept, the use of perspective artificial and stilted - it is no wonder that contemporary Italians so valued Northern art during the mid fifteenth century. It took Leonardo and Michelangelo to overtake painters like Van de Weyden from over fifty years earlier. However, there appears to be a gradual deterioration in quality as the century moved on, from the superb works of Campin, Van der Weyden and Jan Van Eyck to the rather mediocre productions of Memlinc, and the utterly awful Petrus Christus - interesting to see though, that the latter was greatly valued by one of the Medicis. By the end of the century, what is left over from the stunning realism and gravitas of the Ghent alterpiece is a sort of sacharine pastiche meriting Michaelangelo's acid comments (one also supposes that the great Northern alterpieces of the early quatrocento were not available in Italy). Overall, the book is beautifully produced, with comparisons of contemporaneous paintings by Northern and Italian artists (although I feel some of the assertions of influence may be a little far-fetched - after all, how many possible variations of pose are there in a three quarter view of a kneeling angel from the back?). Quality of reproduction is good, and the text gives interesting insight into the taste and viewpoints of the period. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the Renaissance.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Memling was the Godfather of Mona Lisa! and other stories, April 6, 2008
This review is from: From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400-1500 (Hardcover)
Firstly, this is a screaming bargain. 258 plates, many with lesser-known but important works, details and magnifications not easily seen elsewhere. Excellent quality printing and, though primarily aimed at academics, fairly easy to read with a minimum of artspeak.
Though an amateur reading a work of impressive scholarship, extensively referenced and annotated, I greatly enjoyed Dr. Nuttal's very well-told explanation of the sea change in Italian, especially Florentine, art caused by the exposure to, and cultivation of, the Flemish Primitives by the Italian merchant-bankers, especially the Medici and their agents in Brugge. There have been several major works about the Flanders/Italian art relationship, upon which this nicely focuses especially from a compositional and technique view. To completely detail the relationships of other city-states, the French duchies, the Hansa, the economic crises, the eventual effect on England would take many more volumes.
One can see much more in the era's incredible paintings and sculpture when one can see the connections between artists, between patrons, the Church and how they all influenced each other. For me this was a book I will refer to many times, and is greatly underpriced, recommended of course to art historians and students, but also to anyone who loves the era. Beware those who denigrate Memling... The Italians certainly didn't. And now you'll see why.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
exceptional high-grade art book on fascinating comparison of two vital art eras, June 2, 2008
This review is from: From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400-1500 (Hardcover)
This is a beautiful volume covering the period on Northern European (Northern Renassaince) Art and its unmistakable influence on and how it helped to form, the slightly later period of Italian Renaissance masterpieces. Reproductions (excellent) and comparisons of the legacy the Flemish works is carefully, interestingly and convincingly postulated here.
I think this book is a valuable, well-written, addition for anyone drawn to these respective, but related, incompable periods of artistic accomplishment both in painting and sculpture by author Nuttall. You won't regret owning this book.
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