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Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Modern Library (1953), Hardcover, 200 pages
Description
Art. History. Nonfiction. HTML: The era now referred to as the Renaissance represented an unparalleled blossoming of art and culture. Take a tour of the period through the imagination of Walter Pater, one of England's most renowned art historians and critics. In this volume, Pater turns his attention to a series of Renaissance masterpieces in visual art and literature. An informative and engaging read for fans of early modern art and culture..
User reviews
LibraryThing member baswood
Walter Pater had a passion for the Italian Renaissance, it spoke to him as something like a reassertion of paganism into the world of Christianity. He was able to see the Hellenistic world wherever he looked and he looked deep into Renaissance art to find it. [The Renaissance: Studies in Art and
Like many other famous Victorian art critics Pater saw the Renaissance as an uplifting of the spirit from the dark ages of the medieval period. However he was careful to look backwards to the twelfth century and before to find the seeds for growth and his first chapter is on the early influence of France, this is followed by an essay on Pica Della Mirandola in whom Pater discovers in his writing its subject as the dignity of man:
"It helped man onward to that reassertion of himself, that rehabilitation of human nature, the body, the senses, the heart, the intelligence, which the Renaissance fulfils"
It is in his essay on Sandro Botticelli that Pater launches into his ideas on the influence of Pagan images in Renaissance art, but he also does a wonderful job in describing the unique qualities of the paintings. There follows an excellent little essay on Luca Della Robbia before one of the highlights of the book is the essay on the poetry of Michelangelo. The essay title is a bit misleading because Pater talks about the 'sweetness and strength' in Michelangelo's work and it ranges over his painting and his sculpture. The following essay on Leonardo Da Vinci is equally impressive and here Pater talks about his curiosity and his desire for beauty and he tells us what he sees in the celebrated Mona Lisa. His essay on The School of Giorgione has the startling idea at it's heart that music is the most sublime form of all the arts because it unites subject and form and it is the paintings (there are only a handful in existence) of Giorgione that suggest this to him. In his essay on Joachim Du Bellay, Pater has come nearly full circle as he is back with France and the poetry of the Pleiad which takes him into the mid sixteenth century and towards the end of the Renaissance. Pater is not yet finished as two astonishing essays are still to follow the first is on the Germanart critic and archeologist: Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Pater says:
Winklemann -"As it is confessedly the beauty of man which is to be conceived under one general idea, so I have noticed that those who are observant of beauty only in women, and are moved little or not at all by the beauty of men, seldom have an impartial, vital, inborn instinct for beauty in art. To such persons the beauty of Greek art will ever seem wanting, because its supreme beauty is rather male than female. But the beauty of art demands a higher sensibility than the beauty of nature, because the beauty of art, like tears shed at a play, gives no pain, is without life, and must be awakened and repaired by culture. Now, as the spirit of culture is much more ardent in youth than in manhood, the instinct of which I am speaking must be exercised and directed to what is beautiful, before that age is reached, at which one would be afraid to confess that one had no taste for it."
His eulogy on Winckelmann leads Pater to discuss in detail the awakening to the divine forms of antiquity that signifies to him the Renaissance. He puts many of his thoughts together in his conclusion where he celebrates the quest for beauty in the artistry of the Renaissance:
"Only be sure it is passion—that it does yield you this fruit of a quickened, multiplied consciousness. Of such wisdom, the poetic passion, the desire of beauty, the love of art for its own sake, has most. For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those moments' sake."
These essays provide us with a Victorian art critic's view of the Renaissance by selecting key figures on which he can hang his theories and ideas. It is a celebration of the artistic genius that is paramount in these essays and they are written with a passion for the subject. They will serve as an introduction to the Renaissance, but they will be more appreciated by readers that already have some knowledge of the period. Pater is a critic that encourages his readers, by his writing, by his ideas and theories to look again at some of the great works of art, to see for himself just what he might have missed and so his essays are there to be read by all lovers of the period. A four star read.
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Poetry is a collection of essays, originally collected together in 1873 under the title of [Studies in the History of the Renaissance] but the later edition published in 1888 has in addition his essay on the school of Giorgione, where he delves deeply into a definition for a work of art.Like many other famous Victorian art critics Pater saw the Renaissance as an uplifting of the spirit from the dark ages of the medieval period. However he was careful to look backwards to the twelfth century and before to find the seeds for growth and his first chapter is on the early influence of France, this is followed by an essay on Pica Della Mirandola in whom Pater discovers in his writing its subject as the dignity of man:
"It helped man onward to that reassertion of himself, that rehabilitation of human nature, the body, the senses, the heart, the intelligence, which the Renaissance fulfils"
It is in his essay on Sandro Botticelli that Pater launches into his ideas on the influence of Pagan images in Renaissance art, but he also does a wonderful job in describing the unique qualities of the paintings. There follows an excellent little essay on Luca Della Robbia before one of the highlights of the book is the essay on the poetry of Michelangelo. The essay title is a bit misleading because Pater talks about the 'sweetness and strength' in Michelangelo's work and it ranges over his painting and his sculpture. The following essay on Leonardo Da Vinci is equally impressive and here Pater talks about his curiosity and his desire for beauty and he tells us what he sees in the celebrated Mona Lisa. His essay on The School of Giorgione has the startling idea at it's heart that music is the most sublime form of all the arts because it unites subject and form and it is the paintings (there are only a handful in existence) of Giorgione that suggest this to him. In his essay on Joachim Du Bellay, Pater has come nearly full circle as he is back with France and the poetry of the Pleiad which takes him into the mid sixteenth century and towards the end of the Renaissance. Pater is not yet finished as two astonishing essays are still to follow the first is on the Germanart critic and archeologist: Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Pater says:
Winklemann -"As it is confessedly the beauty of man which is to be conceived under one general idea, so I have noticed that those who are observant of beauty only in women, and are moved little or not at all by the beauty of men, seldom have an impartial, vital, inborn instinct for beauty in art. To such persons the beauty of Greek art will ever seem wanting, because its supreme beauty is rather male than female. But the beauty of art demands a higher sensibility than the beauty of nature, because the beauty of art, like tears shed at a play, gives no pain, is without life, and must be awakened and repaired by culture. Now, as the spirit of culture is much more ardent in youth than in manhood, the instinct of which I am speaking must be exercised and directed to what is beautiful, before that age is reached, at which one would be afraid to confess that one had no taste for it."
His eulogy on Winckelmann leads Pater to discuss in detail the awakening to the divine forms of antiquity that signifies to him the Renaissance. He puts many of his thoughts together in his conclusion where he celebrates the quest for beauty in the artistry of the Renaissance:
"Only be sure it is passion—that it does yield you this fruit of a quickened, multiplied consciousness. Of such wisdom, the poetic passion, the desire of beauty, the love of art for its own sake, has most. For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those moments' sake."
These essays provide us with a Victorian art critic's view of the Renaissance by selecting key figures on which he can hang his theories and ideas. It is a celebration of the artistic genius that is paramount in these essays and they are written with a passion for the subject. They will serve as an introduction to the Renaissance, but they will be more appreciated by readers that already have some knowledge of the period. Pater is a critic that encourages his readers, by his writing, by his ideas and theories to look again at some of the great works of art, to see for himself just what he might have missed and so his essays are there to be read by all lovers of the period. A four star read.
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LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
Perhaps I don't know enough about art history to really appreciate Pater's writing - this was hard work though, despite how short it was.
LibraryThing member P_S_Patrick
Pater's Renaissance is an important contribution to the history of art for several reasons, though it is perhaps not to be classified as art history itself. In ten essays, Pater takes us through the Renaissance from what he sees as its foreshadowings in France, to the characters of Florence and the
So why is this not always seen as strictly being a work of art history? Firstly the style of Pater's prose is more that of an aesthete than of a scholar; indeed he arguably set off the Aesthetic movement in Oxford in the mid Victorian period to much consternation from his peers in college. This is not a criticism - it is what makes this book memorable, quotable, and very enjoyable to read. Secondly, and this acknowledged in the books subtitle "studies in art and poetry", this is a work more about poetry, and musing on art in a poetical frame of mind, than it is about historical facts.
So why is this work important? Firstly, if we are interested in its subject matter, the Renaissance, there is much we can learn about its spirit as a phenomenon, and what separates it in a serious sense from the Gothic and the Classical. Secondly, Pater's aesthetic attitude comes through in this work, which is helpful for those wanting to understand his influence on the generations of aesthetes that were inspired by this work, from Oscar Wilde through to the Bloomsbury group. This influence was perhaps in part responsible for a move away from dry Victorian sensibilities towards more readable, sensuous prose, while retaining many of the interests that were formerly the preserve of the scholar.
As an introduction to the Renaissance this might not be the best work due to its gaps and errors in attribution of paintings that have now long since been corrected. However as a thoroughly readable work with its own unique spirit of beauty this is unlike anything else, and worth reading for this reason alone.
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Italian Renaissane including Botticelli, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, and Giorgione, before he ends where he started in France.So why is this not always seen as strictly being a work of art history? Firstly the style of Pater's prose is more that of an aesthete than of a scholar; indeed he arguably set off the Aesthetic movement in Oxford in the mid Victorian period to much consternation from his peers in college. This is not a criticism - it is what makes this book memorable, quotable, and very enjoyable to read. Secondly, and this acknowledged in the books subtitle "studies in art and poetry", this is a work more about poetry, and musing on art in a poetical frame of mind, than it is about historical facts.
So why is this work important? Firstly, if we are interested in its subject matter, the Renaissance, there is much we can learn about its spirit as a phenomenon, and what separates it in a serious sense from the Gothic and the Classical. Secondly, Pater's aesthetic attitude comes through in this work, which is helpful for those wanting to understand his influence on the generations of aesthetes that were inspired by this work, from Oscar Wilde through to the Bloomsbury group. This influence was perhaps in part responsible for a move away from dry Victorian sensibilities towards more readable, sensuous prose, while retaining many of the interests that were formerly the preserve of the scholar.
As an introduction to the Renaissance this might not be the best work due to its gaps and errors in attribution of paintings that have now long since been corrected. However as a thoroughly readable work with its own unique spirit of beauty this is unlike anything else, and worth reading for this reason alone.
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Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1873
ISBN
none
Other editions
The Renaissance by Walter Pater (Paperback)