Customer Reviews

Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Ann Arbor" is way off the mark, and did not read the Tintoretto chapter carefully, as it celebrates the depth of the artist's religious imagery. This book is a classic! Gracefully written, deeply learned yet unassuming, and deserving the most attentive close reading you can spare. The introduction is the best, most concise treatment available anywhere of the outstanding contributions of Venetian Renaissance painting. Rosand is possibly the most distinguished scholar now writing about this marvelous topic. Note that the 3 "artist" chapters are not meant to produce a SURVEY of Venetian painting--each has a different THEME that is traced in the art of the master best suited to it. I've been teaching Venetian Renaissance art at the undergrad and grad level for over 20 years, and I can vouch for the excellence of this book.

This book would have recieved 5 stars if it wasn't for an apparent misunderstanding of Tintoretto on the part of Prof. Rosand. The first section of the book is oustanding, laying out beutifully such necessary background info/theory as the role of the artist in 16th century Venice and (even better) the aesthtics of the disengo vs. colorito / florence vs. venice controversy. Now for the bad: while it is generally a nice, concise overview of Tintoretto's artistic production, Rosand misses the point in terms of expressive content of his art, debunking the notion that Tintoretto communicates a real, personal passion and piety. He also claims that, contrary to popular scholarship, the Council of Trent had little effect on the outcome of his paintings and "any attempt to link associate specific doctrines may be misleading" (approx. quotation regarding the San Giorgio Maggiore "Last Supper). Despite these questionable views (which he contradicts in other sources, by the way) it is a valuable volume to anyone's personal library.

I haven't seen the book, but i have a feeling it will be grea