Dimensions
164 x 242 x 33mm
In 15 full-length pieces, most of them originally written for the New York Review, James Fenton discusses a wide range of painting and scupture, from the mummy portraits of ancient Egypt and the few surviving works of the 15th century sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio to Seurat's masterpiece of bathers in the Seine and the diverse works of the modern American artist Robert Rauschenberg. Fenton is not afraid to trust his own eyes, arguing, for example, that the Egyptian portraits could not possibly have been made after the deaths of the subjects, and he explores the curious question of whether Seurat's young men might have been bathing in a sewage-filled river. And he writes on the fascinating relationships between artists, patrons and dealers. Always intensely interested in the lives of the artists and their subjects, Fenton marries this humane and liberal curiosity with a vigorous knowledge of the techniques and conditions of art production. The result is a rich and highly original series of writings on art.
