Product Description

What makes a masterpiece? John Pope-Hennessy, the preeminent expert on Italian Renaissance art, examines the works of master Piero della Francesca, painting by painting and fresco by fresco. The author discusses the stories the works portray, their meticulous composition, the questions they raise, and their place within the artistic context of the time. This volume includes the famous Aldous Huxley essay “The Best Picture,” which inspired Pope-Hennessy to seek out the enigmatic works that now constitute the pilgrimage known as the Piero della Francesca Trail. 56 full-color photos are featured.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #449493 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-31
• Released on: 2002-01-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 90 pages

From Library Journal
Art historian Pope-Hennessy was one of the world's foremost authorities on Italian Renaissance art. In 1993, two years before his death, he released this slim volume, which opens with the following sentiment: "There comes a point in life when the artists one has known cease to be objects of research and become friends." He offers here the life of della Francesca, along with a guide to his work buttressed with 52 color illustrations. As a bonus, this also includes Aldous Huxley's 1938 essay The Best Picture, which inspired Pope-Hennessy to study the artist. Gorgeous.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
SIR JOHN POPE-HENNESSY, one of the great art historians of the twentieth century and perhaps its greatest authority on Italian Renaissance art, was born in 1913. He served as Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and Consultative Chairman of the Department of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His many publications are now standard works of reference and include An Introduction to Italian Sculpture, Italian Gothic Sculpture, Italian Renaissance Sculpture, Italian High Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture and Cellini as well as many monographs and his masterwork, Donatello. Sir John died in 1995.

Customer Reviews

This Trail is worth finding
This small volume (fewer than 60 pages of text) is well worth tracking down through the 'out-of- print' mechanisms. Originally a lecture, the book introduces Piero della Francesca as a "reclusive, silent, rather taciturn friend", but a friend nonetheless. Mr Henessey's rounded analysis and warm descriptions of both the painter and his paintings certainly allow the reader to establish a relationship with Piero. Depsite the author's slightly disparaging remark about "tourists in their rented Fiats" following the Piero della Francesca trail, I urge travellers (Fiat driven, armchair or others) to increase their knowledge, appreciation and sheer enjoyment of Piero by slipping this volume into their luggage or onto the bookshelf. The book is usefully illustrated.

This Trail is worth finding
This small volume (fewer than 60 pages of text) is well worth tracking down through the 'out-of- print' mechanisms. Originally a lecture, the book introduces Piero della Francesca as a "reclusive, silent, rather taciturn friend", but a friend nonetheless. Mr Henessey's rounded analysis and warm descriptions of both the painter and his paintings certainly allow the reader to establish a relationship with Piero. Depsite the author's slightly disparaging remark about "tourists in their rented Fiats" following the Piero della Francesca trail, I urge travellers (Fiat driven, armchair or others) to increase their knowledge, appreciation and sheer enjoyment of Piero by slipping this volume into their luggage or onto the bookshelf. The book is usefully illustrated.

Piero della Francesca book
A gem of a book - makes a great gift for an art history lover