Wonderful book with necessarily limited scope
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This is a beautiful, sumptuous book, crammed with detail and excellent colour reproductions. Other readers mightn't go for all the technical information but I can't get enough of it. I also prefer the discussions of individual works which occupy a large part of this volume -- its companion, 'Dürer to Veronese', takes a more synoptic view, which tends to obscure the fact that these are surveys of a collection. That's my only quibble, and it isn't really with the book, which is about as accomplished at it could be -- so good, in fact, that it's tempting to read it as a textbook of the whole period. Much of the material is of general relevance, of course; but don't forget that many of the major works from this period aren't in galleries at all: they're still in the places they were meant to be.
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Giotto to Durer
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Not cheap, but excellent value for money for anyone interested in the period and especially those who can get to the National Gallery to look at the works in detail. Well printed and with good illustrations. The text covers not only the technical details of art production but also provides explanations of the stories shown in the pictures, so it works well both for both beginners and more advanced readers.
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Discussions of technique dominate the artworks themselves
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I have to say I'm really in two minds about this book. On the one hand, it explores the world of the early renaissance artist (primarily in Italy, the core of the Gallery's collection) in fascinating detail - the workshop, the methods and techniques, from the preparation of the panels through grinding the paints to the sequence of activities in preparing the finished work. On the other, it becomes almost possible to lose sight of the overall impact of the artworks in this welter of close-up detail. I don't for a minute regret buying this book; but I don't return to it as often as I'd hoped.
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