Customer Reviews

Treasures of a Lost Art: Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series)

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This book is clearly intended for specialists in its field. That is not a negative judgment, but something that the general reader ought to know. It is not a typical art book. There is no commentary on the paintings. The text focuses on the provenance of the works illustrated. Few concessions are made to the general reader. One painting is shown as it appears to the unaided eye and in infrared reflectography. Not a word is said about the latter. The non-specialist, like me, might wonder about the significance of the infrared reflectography. A peculiarity of this book is its inadequate Latin. Some illustrations are accompanied by a transcription of a Latin text not shown in the illustration. There are mistakes in the Latin. The likelihood is not that the liturgical books were written incorrectly but that the transcriber's knowledge is deficient. In some cases a Latin text is given with an English translation. There are numerous errors in the translations. Otherwise, the book is successful.

This volume contains superb Italian illuminations from the Robert Lehman collection,long housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art but now dispersed. Pia Palladino's understanding of the works is first rate and her comments emormously helpful. I learned a great deal about some of the finest Italian illuminators. Their paintings are a treat for the eye; the vivacity and richness of these colorful works should delight the novice as well as the specialist.

I always wanted to have some examples of the almost lost art of calligraphy and this book has many!