100 Details from Pictures in the National Gallery

Rating:
Summary: Whatever catches your eye...
Review: The fearsomely learned art critic and former National Gallery curator Kenneth Clark juxtaposes details from paintings with one another, and compares and contrasts them. The original 1938 work was in black and white; this book is in color, and the paintings have been restored in the interim, too.

It's an educational if idiosyncratic package. Clark provides straightforward analysis in many cases, like contrasting a pair of contemporaneous masters, or drawing a connection between a technical aspect of painting from different eras. And he does have a sense of humor: one pair of paintings shows a little girl peering around a corner into a landscape from the following century.

This book is good for casual dipping, for instant erudition, and will spark interest in further study of the paintings--and further respect for Kenneth Clark.

Rating:
Summary: Whatever catches your eye...
Review: The fearsomely learned art critic and former National Gallery curator Kenneth Clark juxtaposes details from paintings with one another, and compares and contrasts them. The original 1938 work was in black and white; this book is in color, and the paintings have been restored in the interim, too.

It's an educational if idiosyncratic package. Clark provides straightforward analysis in many cases, like contrasting a pair of contemporaneous masters, or drawing a connection between a technical aspect of painting from different eras. And he does have a sense of humor: one pair of paintings shows a little girl peering around a corner into a landscape from the following century.

This book is good for casual dipping, for instant erudition, and will spark interest in further study of the paintings--and further respect for Kenneth Clark.