Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Prints and Drawings

Book Description

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569) was a remarkable draftsman and designer of prints as well as a great painter. His independent drawings and designs for engravings and etchings, which were carried out by the leading printmakers of his day, have fascinated scholars and the general public alike since they were created. They have recently been the subject of research that has given rise to a reevaluation of the parameters of Bruegel's oeuvre. The new scholarship has been brought to bear on the texts in the present volume. An international group of experts presents essays on the artist's life, his contributions as a draftsman and as a printmaker, his iconography and social and political context, and the posthumous survival of his art. The authors also illuminate Bruegel's genius in discussions of individual prints and drawings. Each of these works is illustrated and many comparative illustrations are also included.

Customer Reviews:

Un artiste pour toutes les saisons, surtout l'hiver.......2004-01-15

L'artiste est un grand maitre lorsque ses oeuvres sont impactants, d'un gout eternel. En fait, le Paysage d'hiver de Pieter Bruegel pere se trouve entre les oeuvres d'art les plus copies et imites du monde. La plupart des quarantaines de ses peintures survivantes datent de la derniere decade de sa vie. Il est le peintre incomparable de la comedie humaine, dans l'Ane a l'ecole; des paysages flamands au style italien, dans Paysage emboise avec une vue lointaine; des paysans, dans Kermis du St George; et des proverbes, dans Des grands poissons mangent des petits poissons. Il honore les manuscrits enlumines et les miniatures, dans la Tour de Babel. Ses dessins destines aux gravures sont des chefs-d'oeuvres de details, grains, nuances et textures.

A WORK TO BE SAVORED AND TREASURED.......2002-06-13

Arguably the greatest Netherlands painter and draftsman of the 16th century, Pieter Bruegel was a well traveled artist. Documentation shows that between 1515 and 1553 he made an enviable journey through France and then to Italy. While in Rome he worked with a miniaturist, and was inspired by the Alps that he saw during his return to Antwerp.

A quiet man he was, nonetheless, given to pranks of a slightly frightening nature, very often surprising his students. What comes as a surprise to many today is the recent scholarship which sheds light on not only his life but his work as a draftsman and printmaker, extending to the social and political ramifications of his creations.

This magnificent volume is the catalogue for an important exhibit of more than 140 Bruegel prints and drawings. Included are scholarly essays as well as comparative illustrations. It is a valuable contribution to the annals of art history. For laymen it is a work to be savored and treasured.

- Gail Cooke

Proof of art.......2001-12-28

Proof of art is in strong impact on later generations and timeless appeal: both describe this first major exhibition of PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER: PRINTS AND DRAWINGS. His art had been the source of many copies, of which the most often copied was "Winter landscape with skaters," and late 16th- and early 17th-century imitative works, such as dotted atmosphere and forms around grainy ground and trees by Master of the Mountain Landscapes and Jacob Savery, thick forest wildernesses by Gillis van Coninxloo, and winter skating by Hans Bol. We mainly know him through his art and that of sons Jan and Pieter the Younger: most of his 40+ surviving paintings are from his last seven years, such as "Fall of the rebel angels," "Sermon of St John the Baptist," and "Wedding dance"; and terror against heretics, Protestants, and subversives by the Duke of Alba in Brussels wore away his final two years, finding expression in "Blind leading the blind" and "Magpie on the gallows" bitterness and sorrow and in many, ominous "Summer" knives. We think of him immortalizing peasants with "Kermis at Hoboken" and "Kermis of St George," proverbs with "Big fish eat little fish," and winter scenes with "Ice skating before the gate of St George" and "Winter landscape with bird trap": he has been admired for applying an Apelles-type imagination to Hieronymus Bosch-type allegories, with the reptile lying down in "Luxuria" and upside-down frog in "Superbia," and to Eupompas-type nature. He was one of the first Northerners to take on post-Leonardo da Vinci Italian landscape style, coming up with distinctly Flemish scenes, stocky peasants and wide open naturalism, with Sistine Chapel sacrifice of Noah-type hugely solid countryfolk in "Beekeepers," Federico Barocci-type line-flowing tree trunks and white stippled foliage in "Wooded landscape with a distant view," and Cornelis Massys-type commonplace woodland scene and Titan-type balanced composition, broad-reaching lines and cotton-wool foliage in "Wooded landscape with mills." He kept manuscript illumination and miniature painting traditions going in "Tower of Babel" with Giulio Clovio-type teeming, tiny figures. He touched on religion, but by uncommon subject with the Christ-told "Parable of the good shepherd" and "Parable of the wise and foolish virgins" from the New Testament and with "Suicide of Saul" from the Old Testament; and by unusual presentation with the contemporary, stagelike "Death of the virgin." He dipped into comic genre without ending up second-rate with the carefully cross-hatched and solidly outlined "Ass at school." The lasting, widespread popularity of his art was partly due to his designs for prints, whose final look he controlled with Maarten van Heemskerck-type highly specific detail and with printmaker-friendly shading and textures: "Landscape with bears" was the first of 32 drawings directly modeled for prints; and "Rabbit hunt was the only print that he created, with distinctly outlined, light-filled foliage and imposing mountains broadly hatched and finely speckled and with its dark theme of soldiers distressing peasants the same as his "Massacre of the innocents" painting and "Milites requiescentes" print. So Nadine M Orenstein has edited a clearly organized, compellingly written, and wonderfully illustrated book which pools excellent examples of art, along with PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER books by Walter S Gibson, Rose-Marie Hagen et al, and Wolfgang Stechow and PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER AT THE KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM IN VIENNA by Pieter Bruegel.

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Ethereal sculpture...

Constantin Brancusi
Friedrich Teja Bach , Margit Rowell , and Ann Temkin
Manufacturer: Mit Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

In twentieth-century sculpture, one name towers above all others: Romanian-born Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957). This book accompanies a major retrospective exhibition of Brancusi's sculpture, drawings, and photographs, organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Profusely illustrated throughout, with photographs by the artist and images culled from a wide range of archival sources, it is the most definitive work yet published on this influential artist. The authors provide a detailed reassessment of Brancusi's work, incorporating and extending the profound revisions in scholarship that have been taking place since the last major retrospective in 1969-1970. The three major essays present new information on such diverse issues as the sculptor's sources of inspiration, his formal approach, and the works' original presentation. Friedrich Teja Bach rejects the notion of Brancusi's oeuvre as hermetic, timeless, and pure, and examines instead the heterogeneous combinations of form and material that make Brancusi's works compellingly paradoxical. Margit Rowell explores the sculptor's place in the artistic climate of Paris in the 1910s and 1920s and his rejection of dominant styles and subject matter in favor of non-Western sources, particularly Asian art. Ann Temkin traces the history of Brancusi's American patronage during his lifetime by such influential collectors as John Quinn, Katherine Dreier, James Johnson Sweeney, and Louise and Walter Arensberg. The plate section features full-color reproductions of over 100 sculptures, with accompanying texts and visual references. In addition, 55 photographs by Brancusi in full-page duotone are shown for the first time alongside a major selection of his sculptures. There are also color and black and white reproductions of over forty of his drawings -- the richest documentation to date of this aspect of Brancusi's work -- as well as prefatory essays on the photographs and drawings, a chronology, and bibliographic and exhibition listings. Distributed for the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Customer Reviews:

Ethereal sculpture..........2001-07-14

In the Sucevita Cloisters in Sucevita Romania a painted vault depicts a repeated rhomboid design in the shape of a pillar. Wooden funery columns in Loman Cemetery in Hunedoara, Transylvania, Romania also exhibit the rhomboidal design, albeit on a much more articulated, differentiated, and elaborate scale.

The Romanina artist, Constantin Brancusi brought the image of the rhomboid pillar to his wonderful sculpture the "Endless Column." For Brancusi, the rhomboid pillar was the embodiment of the "axis mundi", the world's axis, the tree of life, the pillar of the sky, the pivot of the universe. He once referred to these columns as stairways to heaven. Peoples all over the world have used the metaphysical pillar to link the earth and the sun, the source of all life.

The pillar image may not seem as fresh today as it did when arrived on the Paris art scene in the early 20th Century, but today, many art critics view the Romanian-born Parisian sculptor Brancusi as a major player in the Modern art movement. Along with Picasso, Brancusi introduced the notion of using traditional art forms in Western art--including 'totem' poles or sacred pillars, stone plinths, and other metaphysical carvings.

BRANCUSI was published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in conjunction with a major retrospective of his work. Brancusi apparently deplored analytic attempts to understand his art (he felt his works should simply be "enjoyed" i.e. the fill the viewer with joy). However, the book is filled with material designed to help the reader "understand" and to a great extent, I feel it accomplishes it's goal.

The layout includes photographs showing how Brancusi may have found inspiration for his many birds, heads, and other organic and metaphysical works, including his rhomboidal columns. For example, one series of photographs shows Brancusi's famous "Muse" series executed in marble, bronze, and other media, and includes possible sources of inspiration such as a photograph and self-portrait of Margit Pogany. The various "Muse" may have evolved from a semi-formal bust similar to those executed by more traditional artists to a fully evolved "essence" of "head" more akin to Modern art.

Book Description

This beautiful volume publishes the 59 most important master drawings, each reproduced in rich duotone and accompanied by a comprehensive essay.

Balthus Catalogue Raisonne of the Complete Works

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Balthus Catalogue Raisonne of the Complete Works
Virginie Monnie , and Jean Clair
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0810963949

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The fact that this 500-page catalogue raisonné was approved by Balthus himself, the most mutable of authorities on his own life and oeuvre, will make it suspect for some historians. And the fact that the texts for the 2,100 black-and-white reproductions are in French (a long, earnest essay by Jean Clair is translated into English) will limit its usefulness for nonacademic readers. But the book is beautiful, and something even better: a cautionary tale about an artist of enormous talent tarnished by unresolved neurosis. As the poet James Fenton wrote of Joseph Cornell, even the most devoted admirer must sometimes turn away, when "the pathology glints from the depths."

Balthus has often lamented that his paintings are mistakenly discussed in terms of their subject matter, but it is the imagery that rudely seizes the viewer's attention away from the paintings' serene, early Renaissance formality and lush 19th-century brushwork, so easy on the eye, and directs it toward the spread legs of all those pubescent girls, to the knife on the floor near the nude on the bed, or to the music teacher's teeth tearing the skirt of her trapped, flailing student.

Book Description

Describes in detail 151 paintings and 60 drawings of British, German, Italian and Spanish schools.

Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam: Artists Born Between 1580 and 1600 (Catalogue of the Dutch and Flemish Drawings in the Rijkspren)

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Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam: Artists Born Between 1580 and 1600 (Catalogue of the Dutch and Flemish Drawings in the Rijkspren)
Rijksmuseum (Netherlands) , Peter Schatborn , Marijn Schapelhouman , Ingrid Oud , and Taco Dibbits
Manufacturer: Merrell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1858940516

Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings

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Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings
Margaret Morgan Grasselli , Andrew Robinson , Rhoda Eitel-Porter , and Jennifer Tonkovich
Manufacturer: Lund Humphries Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications)
Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock (A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts)
The Unknown Monet: Pastels and Drawings (Clark Art Institute)

ASIN: 0853319588

Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings

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The Best Recent Introduction to Bosch
Get Your Glasses Out
Look elsewhere for Bosch...
Look elsewhere for Bosch...
Scholarly but poorly presented

Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings
Jos Koldeweij , and Paul Vandenbroeck
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Hieronymus Bosch (World of Art)
Hieronymus Bosch: Garden Of Earthly Delights
Bosch A&I (Art & Ideas)
The Essential: Hieronymus Bosch (Essentials)
Hieronymus Bosch

ASIN: 0810967359

Book Description

One of the most enigmatic painters who ever lived, Hieronymus Bosch (c.1453- 1516) is also one of the most enduringly popular. His fantastical scenes of grotesque creatures, devils, and monsters are open to many interpretations, keeping his art endlessly fascinating over the centuries.

This luxurious volume-published to coincide with a major exhibition in Bosch's native Netherlands-examines his art in the context of his times. With every Bosch painting and drawing superbly reproduced in full color, this beautiful book penetrates the mystery that has always surrounded the artist. His worldview, often seen as bizarre, is shown to correspond with that of his contemporaries, among them the scholar and humanist Erasmus. What makes Bosch unique, the authors show, are his unfettered imagination and immense talent.
250 illustrations, 190 in full color, 208 pages, 91/2 x 123/8"

Customer Reviews:

The Best Recent Introduction to Bosch.......2004-12-23

I have read most of the monographs on Bosch, and this represents the best recent effort to present Bosch's works on an introductory level. Koldeweij examines Bosch's obscure biography; Vermet discusses the problems of dating and attribution of Bosch's works; Vandenbroeck looks at some of the themes in Bosch's iconography. The only problem with the book is a lack of imagery details. The reproductions are beautiful, but there are not enough of them. The publishers should have made the book much larger with more images. The publishers should have used Charles de Tolnay's huge monograph for a model. As of yet, there is no definitive Bosch monograph that combines Tolnay's amount of image examples and Dirk Bax's exhaustive iconographic analyses. But if I had to pick a good introduction to Bosch and his works, this would be it.

Get Your Glasses Out.......2002-04-02

I've been thinking about buying this book and finally came across it in a bookstore so I was able to preview it before buying it on amazon.[com] I'm glad I did because like other reviews, the main disappointment with this book is that the paintings are reproduced small. They're reproduced almost as footnotes to the text but my main reason in buying an art book is for the visuals. And with Bosch, there are so many details but they were just too small to see here. The art should have been given a full page without text surrounding an image. This was a big let down, I was looking forward to buying this book, but now I'll pass on it. With the small reproductions it just isn't worth the price. The 1 star is for Bosch's art which is still great despite the poor book design.

Look elsewhere for Bosch..........2002-02-25

This book has three essay chapters. The first chapter deals with Bosch's home town..... anything about Bosch's home town. Details are thrown in because they are known, even when they do not add to our understanding of Bosch. The second chapter discusses a new method for dating the wood panels that Bosch and others painted on, and questions whether some paintings can really be attributed to Bosch. This could be an interesting discussion if there was more explanation of how the paintings had been judged and attributed to Bosch previously. Instead it is new data without much context. The final chapter deals with the imagery of Bosch. This has the potential to be the most enlightening, but falls well short. By the end the reader may know a little more about Bosch, but not enough to warrant wading through this book.
Now all could still be forgiven if the presentation of the artwork was good. Because Bosch is enjoyable without explanations. But the presentation in the book is not. The paintings and drawings appear scattered throughout with no rhyme or reason. The numbering of the pictures is frustrating to follow. You will be searching back and forth through the book looking for the pictures that correspond to the point being made in the text. When you do find the picture, you probably will be disappointed. Even the quintessential Bosch work " The Garden of Earthly Delights" is presented in quarter page size. In contrast Bosch imitators are given larger representation. I don't understand why. The poor lay-out even extends to page numbering. There is a reason for the convention of numbering pages on the outer margins away from the spine. This was brought home very strongly as I searched for the page numbers halfway along the pages near the spine. This may sound a trivial complaint, but this book seemed designed to test the patience of the reader. "Luckily" I got this book for half price, but that was still paying way too much. There are far better and cheaper books out there on Bosch. Go with them.

Look elsewhere for Bosch..........2002-02-25

This book has three essay chapters. The first chapter deals with Bosch's home town..... anything about Bosch's home town. Details are thrown in because they are known, even when they do not add to our understanding of Bosch. The second chapter discusses a new method for dating the wood panels that Bosch and others painted on, and questions whether some paintings can really be attributed to Bosch. This could be an interesting discussion if there was more explanation of how the paintings had been judged and attributed to Bosch previously. Instead it is new data without much context. The final chapter deals with the imagery of Bosch. This has the potential to be the most enlightening, but falls well short. By the end the reader may know a little more about Bosch, but not enough to warrant wading through this book.
Now all could still be forgiven if the presentation of the artwork was good. Because Bosch is enjoyable without explanations. But the presentation in the book is not. The paintings and drawings appear scattered throughout with no rhyme or reason. The numbering of the pictures is frustrating to follow. You will be searching back and forth through the book looking for the pictures that correspond to the point being made in the text.
When you do find the picture, you probably will be disappointed. Even the quintessential Bosch work " The Garden of Earthly Delights" is presented in quarter page size. In contrast Bosch imitators are given larger representation. I don't understand why.
The poor lay-out even extends to page numbering. There is a reason for numbering the pages on the outer margins, away from the spine. This was brought home very strongly as I searched for the page numbers halfway along the pages near the spine. This may sound a trivial complaint, but this book seemed designed to test the patience of the reader.
I got this book for half price, but that was still paying way too much. There are far better and cheaper books out there on Bosch. Go with them.

Scholarly but poorly presented.......2002-02-11

As a scholarly discussion of Bosch the book is excellent. However, as a presentation of his art it is absolutely atrocious. All complete pictures are shown in a miniature form nearly impossible to study, and details are disjointedly scattered throughout the book and unduly difficult to track down. This is not a book for those who want to experience and enjoy Bosch's art for its own sake.

Graphic Modernism: Selections from the Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago

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With informative commentary, history, and critique

Graphic Modernism: Selections from the Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago
Douglas Druick
Manufacturer: Hudson Hills Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0865592071

Book Description

This book highlights a major gift to The Art Institute of Chicago's Department of Prints and Drawings from the Gecht Family Collection.

Customer Reviews:

With informative commentary, history, and critique.......2004-02-08

A co-production of the Art Institute of Chicago and Hudson Hills Press, Graphic Modernism displays artworks drawn from the Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. Showcasing color illustrations of bold 19th Century, Twentieth-Century European, and Twentieth-Century American works that range from realism to more abstract constructions of shape and image. Graphic Modernism is enhanced with accompanying and extensively informative commentary, history, and critique by Suzanne Folds McCullagh (The Gecht Collection and the Chicago Tradition) and Mark Krisco (Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht: An Appreciation) to make Graphic Modernism a thoroughly impressive survey of modernism, displaying works by Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin, Pollock, and so many others. Graphic Modernism is a visual treasure that will superbly complement any personal, academic, or community library Art Appreciation and/or Art History collection.

Museum Mesdag: Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings

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Museum Mesdag: Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings
Fred Leeman , and Hanna Pennock
Manufacturer: B.V. Waanders Uitgeverji
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9040098689

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