1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die, a Book Review
It would be easy for one person to make a list of their top ten favorite paintings. But how can one person collaborate with dozens of others to create an exhaustive and weighty book entitled, 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die? Stephen Farthing is the art historian we must credit with this enormous task.Paintings Sorted By Era
The paintings gathered in this 2006 art book are sorted by historical era beginning with Egyptian paintings in the pre-1400s and going all the way up to the 2000s. Readers are provided with bullet points of historic context in each era, so for example the pre-1400s includes Early Renaissance Italian and Flemish Art, Linear Perspective in Art, Humanism, Exploration of the New World and Naturalism. There are many unknown artists from this time period, but there are also famous painter names from art history such as the Italians Giotto and Cimabue.Other sections include the 1500s and the accompanying ideas of High Renaissance Art, Islamic Ateliers and Mughal Miniatures, Calligraphy, Mannerism and First Widespread Use of Canvas. These bulleted timelines help to provide some basic art history of both the East and the West. Famous names from this time period include Albrecht Durer, Leonardo da Vinci, Hieronymus Bosch, Raphael and Michelangelo.
Some Expected Favorites and Unexpected Surprises
There are some expected great works of art in this art book: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling (of course), The Sleeping Gypsy by Henri Rousseau, The Scream by Edvard Munch, A Sunday on La Grand Jatte by Georges Seurat. Then there are other surprises and obscure paintings that do seem Must-See worthy such as: The Morning Hour (1858) by Moritz Ludwig von Schwind at the Schack Galerie in Munich Germany and Song in the Distance (1914) by Ferdinand Hodler at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in Hamburg Germany.Each painting that is featured in this 960-page art book gets 250 words or so to place it in context and to make a case for the importance of this painting for being included in a book with such an imperative title. The problem with this format is that vertically composed paintings get short shrift in terms of their reproduction size. Also, some paintings have been squished in at two per page which makes their reproduction size almost postage stamp sized. For reasons unknown, the interpretive words of the paintings have been given primary importance over the images themselves, which is a little disconcerting for visual junkies and aesthetes. While context for artworks is important, it is also important to make reproduction sizes meaningful. It can be difficult to ascertain the quality or importance of a great work of art from a tiny reproduction.
Great Art Reproductions
Congratulations must be given to all of the artists and art historians who were consulted by Stephen Farthing in putting together this book. Just getting the reproduction rights of all of the paintings from all of the private collectors and museums must have been quite daunting. Also, one must give tribute to whoever was responsible for the color correction of all of these works of art. Color is critical in art reproduction and the folks at Universe Publishing, a division of Rizzoli International Publications have gotten it right. (Get the book here.)More Books, Similarly Titled
Don’t let the title of this book be too daunting as it is certainly meant to be tongue in cheek. Also, there are many paintings in this book that presumably one cannot see before death because they are held in private collections. One must be lucky to catch such a painting if it is out on loan. Other books in this series include: 1001 Albums You must Hear Before You Die, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die, and 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Bite the Big One. (Last title is made up. ;-)So get busy…there is lots to do it seems before we die.
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