Studies in Medieval Painting PDF
Preview Studies in Medieval Painting
$2£ BERNARD BERENSON Studies in Medieval Painting BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL PAINTING STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL PAINTING BY Bernard Berenson A DA CAPO PAPERBACK 1 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Berenson, Bernard, 1865-1959. Studies in medieval painting. (A Da Capo Press paperback) Reprint of the ed. published by Yale University Press, New Haven. Includes indexes. 1. Painting, Medieval. 2. Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval. I. Title. [ND140.B4 1975] 091 74-22036 ISBN 0-306-80010-1 First Paperback Printing 1975 ISBN: 0-306-80010-1 This Da Capo Press Paperbackeditionof Studiesin MedievalPainting isanunabridged republicationof the firstedition publishedin New Haven, Connecticut, in 1930. It is reprinted byspecial arrangement with Yale University Press. Copyright 1930byYale University Press;copyright renewed ©1957 by Bernard Berenson. Publishedby Da Capo Press, Inc. A Subsidiaryof Plenum Publishing Corporation 227 West 17th Street, NewYork, NewYork 1001 All Rights Reserved Manufactured in the United StatesofAmerica TO THE MEMORY OF CLAUDE PHILLIPS EMILE BERTAUX • GIOVANNI DE NICOLA PREFACE THE essays composing this volume, with the exception of the one on a Cavallinesque Nativity, have been written in the last ten years, and have been published in Art in Amer- ica, in the Gazette des Beaux Arts, in the Staedeljahrbuch in De- dalo, and in the Bollettino del Ministero della Pubblica Istru- zione. Some of them now appear in English for the first time. The one on the Speculum has had the honor of accompanying an essay on the text by Dr. M. R. James, privately printed for the owner, Mr. T. H. Riches. To this discerning collector I am indebted for the photographs of both the manuscripts discussed in that article. Time enough has passed since these essays were written to give me the detachment to see errors and to come upon alternative solutions to the problems raised. When the mistakes were not due to mere lapses of attention, when they were made while doing the best I could at the moment, I have left them. The business of art may be to conceal how the effect has been achieved. I do not happen to be acquainted with such perfection, although it may exist. But research should show so clearly the steps leading to a conclusion, that any competent student may follow and see for himself whether these do, or do not, necessarily end where the author expected them to go. Research proceeds by trial and error, and must guard against any assumption of infallibility. The art his- torian should be no more of a prophet or priest, patriot or politician, x Studies in Medieval Painting than anybody elsewho tries to find out justwhat happened in the past, how it happened, and, if possible, why. Two or three of the papers here reprinted have been supple- mented with brief discussions. There is nothing, however, to change in the conclusion that the Kahn and Hamilton Madonnas are medie- val Greek masterpieces dating probably from just before the Latin And conquest of Constantinople. I ask permission to say here that in the ten years since this idea was put forth, I have examined not a few remains of East Christian art, whether in the form of mosaic or fresco, panel or illuminated manuscript, whether wood carving or ivory, steatite, stone, or marble. The paper on the Speculum was meant to be an essay in Method, although, in fact, it may prove to be more interesting as a groping effort to get at the reason why provincial and peripheral art at allperiods bearssuch strong resemblance to Metropolitan art when established forms are breaking down. It was an interest in this prob- lem which urged me more than I was aware at the time to write the essay, and it vaguely foreshadows inquiries which I hope to pursue later in a book on the decline and recovery of form in the arts of visual representation. B. B. Settignano, January 20, 1930.
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