Customer Reviews

The Social History of Art, Volume 2 : Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque

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A very nice introduction to the volume points out the intellectual confusions and tensions throughout. A crude marxism and psychologism overlies a fairly traditional stylistic chronology. One realizes how important are later studies that emphasize patronage and actual political power as opposed to disembodied "forces" and "spirits."

Hauser is always provocative and sometimes amusing. There are surprisingly few examples or paintings analyzed in any detail and sometimes he goes off in such detail on literature that one wonders where the focus of the book truly lies.

This book is worthwhile reading to understand the roots of modern art history - for Hauser is responding to 19th century writers and sees Impressionism as the great watershed in his discipline. He is thus aware of the importance of his own historical nexus, yet is caught up in a kind of analytical conformity that all too often seems like a grey flannel suit imposed upon the art in question.