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What Great Paintings Say
Masterpieces under the microscope: from ancient Egyptian papyrus scrolls to 20th century works Did the Greek gods play tennis? What is the ambassador from the land of Alchemy telling us? What secrets are being told on the shores of the Island of Venus? What is a monk doing on the Ship of Fools? What Great Paintings Say has the answers to these and many other burning questions asked about the most important and famous paintings of all time. In two volumes, a selection of history's greatest masterpieces is presented chronologically, including works by Botticelli, Breughel, Chagall, Courbet, Degas, Delacroix, D?rer, Goya, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Tiepolo, Titian, and many others. Each chapter focuses on one painting, with enlarged details and in-depth texts describing their significance. Taking apart each painting and then reassembling it again like a huge jigsaw puzzle, the authors reveal the history of art as a lively panorama of forgotten worlds.
720 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
December 6, 2023
Всяка една картина, в световен музей или в закътана частна колекция, разказва много истории. Историята на художника и неговото време, историята от самата картина, и историята на част от нейните зрители през вековете - това са само малка част от историите. Всеки вид изкуство е тухличка от историята на света.
В това иначе предназначено за масовата публика (и много далеч от академизма) издание всички тези разкази така са се преплели един с друг, че всъщност представляват един голям разказ от 100 картини. Част от подбраните шедьоври красят календари и реклами и са станали такава част от ежедневието, че богатият им контекст отдавна е потънал в забрава за сметка на някакво смътно, досадно клише. Други пък са далеч от каталозите с “най-известните” обекти, които да посетите в някой от водещите музеи и шансът дори ценители на живописта да ги видят за първи път никак не е малък.
Драматизмът на несекващата спирала, наречена цивилизация, е чудесно уловен. Само няколко неизчерпателни картинни примера от книгата:
🎨 Непримиримата “стара” Русия срещу безжалостната “нова” Русия … , но през 1698 г.;
🎨 Превърналият се в западна мода “ориентализъм”, познанията за който не стигат по-далеч от прага на дома на художника и въплъщава единствено чисто мъжката фантазия за кротката, безмозъчна и, естествено, чисто гола одалиска;
🎨 Епичната битка за сътворението на (западния) човек, наречена “ренесанс” на неговите езически корени; и не по-малко епичната битка за неговото пълно заличаване като индивид в името общността, управлявана от църковните догми, наречена “контрареформация”. Какъв късмет имаме, че християнската версия на уахабизма е била победена или поне не е успяла да спечели изцяло!
🎨 Изригванията от пропаганда, революции, трагедии (предизвикани от човека или природата), комедии, суета, прогрес, пороци, крале, просяци, крадци (включително поне един фалшификат сред 100-те платна!), битово ежедневие, благородни фантазии и героични митове, лицемерни нравоучения… са само още много малка част от този вечен разказ..
Нещото, което силно ми липсваше, беше китайския пейзаж и мотивите с цветя и жерави, както и съзерцателните им планински пейзажи. Изобщо, Източна Азия е с много различна школа, и представената една-едничка китайска рисунка, заедно с само с една по-късна японска са просто недостатъчни. Не съм специалист дали миниатюрите следва да се числят към живописта (за сметка на това има включен култов за Запада гоблен), но ми липсваха и персийските миниатюри (едничката арабска беше “мижава”). Изобщо неевропейската секция беше крайно слабо представена. За сметка на това европейската е просто разкошна! Може би трябва ново издание, с още 100 допълнителни шедьовъра, макар че пак няма да са достатъчно.
Бавен и богат прочит се получи.
4,5⭐️
July 10, 2012
Brilliant. It is the one book I refuse to lend out. It is a tad heavy to carry as a commuter book. However, the book is a chick magnet and does get you into conversations with amazing women. This does not work unless one actually reads the book as a friend who borrowed it found out.
I found vollume two and now that I found there is a third vollume I probably will not rest until I find it.
The downside is you may lose friends when they don't return this book. I also had a huge fight with the local town in VT when the local library tried to get me to leave it when I moved.
I found vollume two and now that I found there is a third vollume I probably will not rest until I find it.
The downside is you may lose friends when they don't return this book. I also had a huge fight with the local town in VT when the local library tried to get me to leave it when I moved.
November 16, 2019
061217: this is not 'say' in the sense the philosopher Merleau-Ponty calls art 'the voices of silence', this is the much more literal, deciphering, content-focused, sense more of 'history' rather than 'art'. on the other, it has great, large, precise reproductions of many familiar and unfamiliar artists, with extensive essays on history, patrons, reasons, for this detail and that detail or in overall composition... this is an engaging way to learn history primarily of europe: in pictures! probably you will learn details but not much of trends, types, development, of painting...
November 4, 2012
Library wanted it back before I could finish reading it . I loved it so much that i now own all 3 editions
This book is a great way to read about what the old masterpieces meant to contemporary viewers at the time that they were made .
This book is a great way to read about what the old masterpieces meant to contemporary viewers at the time that they were made .
November 2, 2011
Fascinante excursión por obras que pueden considerarse principalmente representativas de la pintura occidental.
Sospecho que a última hora, se intentó ampliar el alcance del libro; para ello se dejó "colar" una ilustración de un papiro egipcio, un mosaico bizantino (estas dos obras contradicen el subtítulo del libro), el tapiz de Bayeux (occidental pero no es una pintura), una pintura japonesa (de Ando Hiroshige) y un mural de Diego Rivero (único pintor latinoamericano representado). No incluye pinturas rupestres, romanas, árabes, turcas, asiáticas o latinoamericanos (salvo por el solitario ejemplar japonés y el solitario ejemplar mexicano), africanas o de Oceanía.
Por supuesto que cualquier selección de pinturas tiene un sesgo personal, y a veces, de dificultades de permisología. La mayoría de las obras incluidas son destacadas y representativas, aunque hay ausencias que gritan (por mencionar dos, no se han incluido obras de Leonardo Da Vinci ni de Miguel Ángel).
La impresión final es grata, la erudición nunca resulta pesada y uno aprende mucho sobre la obra y sus circunstancias; las ampliaciones de porciones de las pinturas resultan muchas veces tanto o más interesantes que el texto.
Muy recomendado para ser leido de a poquito para apreciar bien cada obra.
Sospecho que a última hora, se intentó ampliar el alcance del libro; para ello se dejó "colar" una ilustración de un papiro egipcio, un mosaico bizantino (estas dos obras contradicen el subtítulo del libro), el tapiz de Bayeux (occidental pero no es una pintura), una pintura japonesa (de Ando Hiroshige) y un mural de Diego Rivero (único pintor latinoamericano representado). No incluye pinturas rupestres, romanas, árabes, turcas, asiáticas o latinoamericanos (salvo por el solitario ejemplar japonés y el solitario ejemplar mexicano), africanas o de Oceanía.
Por supuesto que cualquier selección de pinturas tiene un sesgo personal, y a veces, de dificultades de permisología. La mayoría de las obras incluidas son destacadas y representativas, aunque hay ausencias que gritan (por mencionar dos, no se han incluido obras de Leonardo Da Vinci ni de Miguel Ángel).
La impresión final es grata, la erudición nunca resulta pesada y uno aprende mucho sobre la obra y sus circunstancias; las ampliaciones de porciones de las pinturas resultan muchas veces tanto o más interesantes que el texto.
Muy recomendado para ser leido de a poquito para apreciar bien cada obra.
August 21, 2020
100 paveikslų aprašymai atskleidžiant paveikslo temą, dailininko biografiją, paslėptus simbolius.
December 19, 2024
I haven't remotely finished this thick, informative book. But I've read enough to like it. 100 masterpieces chronologically arranged walk you through the history of art. It is not so much about what is 'hidden' in the art itself, but rather what is being said by that artist during the time it is being painted. Once you read about the history surrounding the painting, then the items being pointed out for focus within the painting gain context.
By choosing classic pieces that are sure to be liked, this book will walk you through any era you would like to focus on. Very well written text. I 'm glad I own a copy of this to reference randomly over time.
The book is only 5" x 7.5", with small text (2mm = <6 pt) so you better have good eyesight/lighting. Subtracting 0.5* for this intensely small size!
By choosing classic pieces that are sure to be liked, this book will walk you through any era you would like to focus on. Very well written text. I 'm glad I own a copy of this to reference randomly over time.
The book is only 5" x 7.5", with small text (2mm = <6 pt) so you better have good eyesight/lighting. Subtracting 0.5* for this intensely small size!
July 2, 2018
Although I'm not educated in art, I have developed a passion for masterpieces and always include fine art museums on our travels. For instance, in Madrid we went to the four big art museums; I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! I frequently walk away from a painting, wanting to know more about it. This book is full of information about 100 masterpieces. I'm not a big fan of guided tours, so the book was perfect for me. We were enthralled with Botticelli's Birth of Venus in Florence. It's covered in this book with no less than ten pages of color photos including closeups, descriptions, history, and a brief bio of the artist. Photos NEVER do a painting justice, but the photos swiftly and miraculously took me back to the Uffizi. Although I've seen several of the paintings or works by most of the artists, it would be wonderful if I could see all of them. Can we say "greedy?"
July 26, 2021
No se lleva las 5 Estrellas porque apenas hay representación femenina. Las mujeres siguen siendo una excepción en la historia del arte y solo conocemos la mitad de la historia xd
April 9, 2019
4,5 actually, but this is great for art fans and others alike. Read this after their book about Brueghel, which I recommend for people who liked this!! They manage to make medieval art feel lively and interactive, and it's amazingly captivating
June 2, 2019
How fascinating was that! It's taken me a year or so to get through this magnificent collection of art and it's added exponentially to my (admittedly, severely limited) knowledge. But more importantly - further impetus to get out and wallow in more of this tremendous stuff!
September 13, 2022
This is definitely not a book you are just going to pick up just for fun. It's really interesting but dense. I loved looking at the paintings though, haha!
June 19, 2025
un libro muy completo que hace un repaso sobre algunas obras de arte conocidas (y otras más olvidadas). me ha gustado mucho pero, al hacer un recorrido histórico sobre el arte, hay partes que me han llegado a aburrir, ya que analizaba obras que a mi particularmente no me encantan.
aún así, he aprendido y disfrutado mucho de esta lectura, ya que mezcla el arte con la historia y lo mejor es que te pone en contexto para que el lector sepa por qué se pintó lo que se pintó.
(me ha costado lo mío terminarla, ya que por día es mejor leerte 3 o 4 cuadros, sino acabas saturada de info).
4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
aún así, he aprendido y disfrutado mucho de esta lectura, ya que mezcla el arte con la historia y lo mejor es que te pone en contexto para que el lector sepa por qué se pintó lo que se pintó.
(me ha costado lo mío terminarla, ya que por día es mejor leerte 3 o 4 cuadros, sino acabas saturada de info).
4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
August 19, 2025
El libro se enfoca más en describir el contexto histórico de las obras, que en realizar un análisis detallado de las mismas. Igualmente me encantó aprender de historia a través de las obras de arte.
November 8, 2024
Para ser un libro de Taschen, es sorprendemente legible, salvo por los fallos imperdonables de edición después de 16: palabras juntas, signos de exclamación extemporáneos, en fin. Afortunadamente están limitados a unos pocos artículos, dos o tres.
No sé si realmente responde al título; si compraste este libro buscando enigmas y cosas tipo Illuminati y esas cosas, no las vas a encontrar, ni siquiera en el cuadro de Böcklin, que es bastante enigmático. Lo que encontrarás son una buena cantidad de cuadros e ilustraciones, con una visión general, y media docena de detalles comentados, enmarcando el cuadro dentro de la historia, el autor o autora, y a veces comparándolo con otros cuadros. Lo cierto es que si no los secretos, la composición, la visión del mundo de los autores y su época, la iconografía y qué importancia tiene en su contexto y en la historia del arte.
La selección es posiblemente un poco cuestionable. Sólo unos cuantos países aportan pintores, y algunos solo un puñado. Muchos más pintores ingleses y alemanes que españoles, por ejemplo, y ningún pintor austríaco ni portugués (aunque si yo tuviera que nombrar un pintor portugués tendría que mirarlo en la Wikipedia). Sin embargo, aunque no están todos los que son, sin son todos los que están, y se disfruta leyendo. Y sobre todo, es útil para la historia del arte, que es de lo que se trata.
No sé si realmente responde al título; si compraste este libro buscando enigmas y cosas tipo Illuminati y esas cosas, no las vas a encontrar, ni siquiera en el cuadro de Böcklin, que es bastante enigmático. Lo que encontrarás son una buena cantidad de cuadros e ilustraciones, con una visión general, y media docena de detalles comentados, enmarcando el cuadro dentro de la historia, el autor o autora, y a veces comparándolo con otros cuadros. Lo cierto es que si no los secretos, la composición, la visión del mundo de los autores y su época, la iconografía y qué importancia tiene en su contexto y en la historia del arte.
La selección es posiblemente un poco cuestionable. Sólo unos cuantos países aportan pintores, y algunos solo un puñado. Muchos más pintores ingleses y alemanes que españoles, por ejemplo, y ningún pintor austríaco ni portugués (aunque si yo tuviera que nombrar un pintor portugués tendría que mirarlo en la Wikipedia). Sin embargo, aunque no están todos los que son, sin son todos los que están, y se disfruta leyendo. Y sobre todo, es útil para la historia del arte, que es de lo que se trata.
October 8, 2023
If the reader of this review is anything like this recensionist, when touring a museum he enjoys puzzling out the captions displayed on the wall next to the paintings, or these days listening to a short video on a portable electronic device supplied for each notable item in the museum’s holdings. For, unless one be a supremely trained expert, one misses a lot without knowing something about the context. For religious paintings on standard subjects, one might well recognize already some of the symbolism the artist has woven into the scene, but even here, there is usually much more than first meets the eye. And for historical paintings or portraits, the subject matter being portrayed usually requires some explanation.
Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen’s What Paintings Say: 100 Masterpieces in Detail (Taschen Bibliotheca Universalis, 2020) may be likened to a caption on steroids. In 785 pages, they provide exquisitely minute commentary on all aspects of the selected works – historical and cultural context, the circumstances surrounding the painting itself and capsule biographies of the artists with vignettes taken from everyday life of the times, sometimes embellished with quotations from contemporary letters or literature. The paintings are always reproduced in full, in color, with several insets on neighboring pages in order to bring out one or another figure or part of the scene more closely. If one wades through this dense text – which, being set in a two-column format in small type turns out to be rather longer than it might appear, even after accounting for all the space devoted to the generous illustrations – he will acquire not merely helpful knowledge about the art but a salutary lesson in history itself, for in contrast to the typical sequential narratives with which the reader might be familiar, the authors of the present work excel at reconstructing for each piece how the participants themselves must have viewed their milieu: what political or religious constellations must have been uppermost in their minds, but also what societal mores, often quite different from ours, would have dictated about conduct as well as treatment of those who diverge from the expected behavior.
The level of detail the Hagens go into is simply amazing, an almost overwhelming surfeit of information at times. Let us quote a couple examples by way of illustration. For instance, concerning François Boucher’s (1703-1770) The Breakfast,
To today’s viewer, this breakfasting scene has the air of a family idyll, harmless and a little conventional. To the artist’s contemporaries, however, what Boucher was showing – chinaware, a large window, a small fireplace, rocaille decoration, breakfast, hot drinks, adults attending to children – was highly modern. For viewers of the 18th century, the painting reflected a new style of everyday living and also a new attitude towards life….Apartments were changing during this era. In 1728, an architect by the name of Patte wrote: ‘The art of living comfortably and by oneself was previously unknown’. ‘Comfortably and by oneself’ – these were new ideas. Up till then, the nobility and upper middle classes had lived in large households with an emphasis upon public display. There now emerged a new desire for privacy, for a certain intimacy. Rooms became smaller, ceilings lower. So that the new rooms would not feel too cramped, large mirrors were installed, and since glass was becoming cheaper, windows were made bigger. Rooms became lighter. They also become warmer. Newly designed small fireplaces heated more efficiently than the huge fireplaces of old. In the past, it had been necessary in the winter to don an extra layer of clothing when you came indoors; now you could take something off. Dressing-gowns and house-coats were no longer lined with fur as frequently as before; cold splendor was being replaced by cosiness. Even Louis XV abandoned the vast halls of Versailles palace and withdrew, as far as court etiquette permitted, into the petits appartements of the entresol, with their smaller rooms and lower ceilings. [pp. 457-458]
Or, when discussing Thomas Gainsborough’s (1727-1788) portrait of Mr and Mrs Andrews:
Feelings had little sway in the matter of marriage between two wealthy families. The bride was often promised at a very tender age and, like Frances Mary Carter, married off at the age of fifteen or sixteen. She was little more than a pawn in a business deal, in which each party was concerned to increase its wealth, property or influence by means of the most advantageous match. Family lawyers would haggle for weeks over marriage contracts, thinking up endlessly sophisticated clauses to insure family fortunes against every conceivable danger. It was imperative that the wealth accumulated with such great care should be passed on undiminished for the benefit of generations to come….Frances Carter was undoubtedly an excellent match. The estate of Auberies, upon which Gainsborough has painted the couple, was probably part of her dowry. Auberies bordered on Ballingdon, her father’s estate. According to a description of 1769, Auberies consisted of ‘a modern regular and uniform building of bricks...situated upon an eminence...commanding a most delightful prospect...with gardens...and several ponds’. Gainsborough’s painting includes none of these features. The Andrews may have had their mansion built later, of course, possibly even on the spot where their garden bench stood. [pp. 469-470]
Imagine fine-grained observations such as these multiplied a hundred-fold or more throughout the entire book!
What Paintings Say may profitably be read as a complement to Erich Gombrich’s The Story of Art, which we have just reviewed here. The former concentrates on synchronic detail while the latter is more interested in a sweeping diachronic unfolding of the great themes of art history. Indeed, the Hagens tend to be sparing in their treatment of the aesthetic elements of the paintings themselves – although this aspect is not altogether missing, their preference is to focus upon meaning more than technique, whereas Gombrich’s method of presentation is specifically designed to call attention to the formal aspects of the artworks, which, needless to say, he characterizes aptly in lapidary prose. The two contrasting approaches go together nicely.
To conclude: highly informative, a little window into the world of art history and the arcane scholarship with which its denizens occupy themselves, concerning such matters as attribution or identification of the figures portrayed – possibly giving the impression of excessive preoccupation with largely irrelevant minutiae (similar in this respect to classical philology), but we the public can be the beneficiaries since, in expert hands, the upshot of all this painstaking labor can be to contribute to a juster appreciation of the artworks themselves – as the Hagens demonstrate splendidly in the present volume!
Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen’s What Paintings Say: 100 Masterpieces in Detail (Taschen Bibliotheca Universalis, 2020) may be likened to a caption on steroids. In 785 pages, they provide exquisitely minute commentary on all aspects of the selected works – historical and cultural context, the circumstances surrounding the painting itself and capsule biographies of the artists with vignettes taken from everyday life of the times, sometimes embellished with quotations from contemporary letters or literature. The paintings are always reproduced in full, in color, with several insets on neighboring pages in order to bring out one or another figure or part of the scene more closely. If one wades through this dense text – which, being set in a two-column format in small type turns out to be rather longer than it might appear, even after accounting for all the space devoted to the generous illustrations – he will acquire not merely helpful knowledge about the art but a salutary lesson in history itself, for in contrast to the typical sequential narratives with which the reader might be familiar, the authors of the present work excel at reconstructing for each piece how the participants themselves must have viewed their milieu: what political or religious constellations must have been uppermost in their minds, but also what societal mores, often quite different from ours, would have dictated about conduct as well as treatment of those who diverge from the expected behavior.
The level of detail the Hagens go into is simply amazing, an almost overwhelming surfeit of information at times. Let us quote a couple examples by way of illustration. For instance, concerning François Boucher’s (1703-1770) The Breakfast,
To today’s viewer, this breakfasting scene has the air of a family idyll, harmless and a little conventional. To the artist’s contemporaries, however, what Boucher was showing – chinaware, a large window, a small fireplace, rocaille decoration, breakfast, hot drinks, adults attending to children – was highly modern. For viewers of the 18th century, the painting reflected a new style of everyday living and also a new attitude towards life….Apartments were changing during this era. In 1728, an architect by the name of Patte wrote: ‘The art of living comfortably and by oneself was previously unknown’. ‘Comfortably and by oneself’ – these were new ideas. Up till then, the nobility and upper middle classes had lived in large households with an emphasis upon public display. There now emerged a new desire for privacy, for a certain intimacy. Rooms became smaller, ceilings lower. So that the new rooms would not feel too cramped, large mirrors were installed, and since glass was becoming cheaper, windows were made bigger. Rooms became lighter. They also become warmer. Newly designed small fireplaces heated more efficiently than the huge fireplaces of old. In the past, it had been necessary in the winter to don an extra layer of clothing when you came indoors; now you could take something off. Dressing-gowns and house-coats were no longer lined with fur as frequently as before; cold splendor was being replaced by cosiness. Even Louis XV abandoned the vast halls of Versailles palace and withdrew, as far as court etiquette permitted, into the petits appartements of the entresol, with their smaller rooms and lower ceilings. [pp. 457-458]
Or, when discussing Thomas Gainsborough’s (1727-1788) portrait of Mr and Mrs Andrews:
Feelings had little sway in the matter of marriage between two wealthy families. The bride was often promised at a very tender age and, like Frances Mary Carter, married off at the age of fifteen or sixteen. She was little more than a pawn in a business deal, in which each party was concerned to increase its wealth, property or influence by means of the most advantageous match. Family lawyers would haggle for weeks over marriage contracts, thinking up endlessly sophisticated clauses to insure family fortunes against every conceivable danger. It was imperative that the wealth accumulated with such great care should be passed on undiminished for the benefit of generations to come….Frances Carter was undoubtedly an excellent match. The estate of Auberies, upon which Gainsborough has painted the couple, was probably part of her dowry. Auberies bordered on Ballingdon, her father’s estate. According to a description of 1769, Auberies consisted of ‘a modern regular and uniform building of bricks...situated upon an eminence...commanding a most delightful prospect...with gardens...and several ponds’. Gainsborough’s painting includes none of these features. The Andrews may have had their mansion built later, of course, possibly even on the spot where their garden bench stood. [pp. 469-470]
Imagine fine-grained observations such as these multiplied a hundred-fold or more throughout the entire book!
What Paintings Say may profitably be read as a complement to Erich Gombrich’s The Story of Art, which we have just reviewed here. The former concentrates on synchronic detail while the latter is more interested in a sweeping diachronic unfolding of the great themes of art history. Indeed, the Hagens tend to be sparing in their treatment of the aesthetic elements of the paintings themselves – although this aspect is not altogether missing, their preference is to focus upon meaning more than technique, whereas Gombrich’s method of presentation is specifically designed to call attention to the formal aspects of the artworks, which, needless to say, he characterizes aptly in lapidary prose. The two contrasting approaches go together nicely.
To conclude: highly informative, a little window into the world of art history and the arcane scholarship with which its denizens occupy themselves, concerning such matters as attribution or identification of the figures portrayed – possibly giving the impression of excessive preoccupation with largely irrelevant minutiae (similar in this respect to classical philology), but we the public can be the beneficiaries since, in expert hands, the upshot of all this painstaking labor can be to contribute to a juster appreciation of the artworks themselves – as the Hagens demonstrate splendidly in the present volume!
September 27, 2009
This is a great book to read from time to time, in small doses, as it may be too overwhelming in one go. It presents the context and many of the contemporary details that are not obvious for us,XXIst century readers, of many famous, or not so famous, pictures.
As a lover of both history and trivia, I really like these insights on the period and the message of the pictures. However, the limitation of the form, six pages for each picture, makes it usually skim the surface and check some details rather than focus on the whole picture. As well they spend part of the space on repeating bigraphical data on the painters, even the well known.
Interesting, amusing, but more of a passtime than a way to really improve your art history.
As a lover of both history and trivia, I really like these insights on the period and the message of the pictures. However, the limitation of the form, six pages for each picture, makes it usually skim the surface and check some details rather than focus on the whole picture. As well they spend part of the space on repeating bigraphical data on the painters, even the well known.
Interesting, amusing, but more of a passtime than a way to really improve your art history.
February 4, 2019
This a very interesting and entertaining book for Art and History lovers, full of curious vignettes concerning the times and mores when the paintings were painted, the lives of the artists or the models, etc. The selection of the paintings is of course arbitrary, the Renaissance and the Baroque are particularly well represented, and it was a pleasure to review works I knew and to discover several I didn't know. Something I think could be improved is the way many of the paintings are depicted over two pages, making difficult to see the part between the pages. But it's a very enjoyable read.
March 26, 2019
A beautiful book. Very interestingly written articles on 100 paintings which provide a detailed context in which they were painted - what is the painting showing? What is the history of what it is showing? How was the society then? How was the life of the people shown? What was happening in the artist's life when it was painted and what is the story of that life? It also analyzes artistic techniques but the focus is more on the stories behind the painting. Most of the works are of European art. Some prominent artists like Van Gogh or Picasso do not find a mention.
May 23, 2021
While What Paintings Say: 100 Masterpieces in Detail is by no means a slog to get through, it is dense and takes a while—but that's eminently worth the investment, because Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen's deep dive into art history is thoroughly intriguing, as well as wide-ranging in scope, both within the 100 works of art themselves and in terms of the larger social, political, religious, and cultural landscapes of their respective eras.
One of the joys of this book is that it covers the entire breadth of art history, across almost all continents, and from antiquity to the present; the book includes ancient Egyptian tomb painting, medieval European tapestries, paintings both extraordinarily famous and more obscure, contemporary American art, East Asian silkscreen and woodcut art—truly the breadth indeed. For each work of art in What Paintings Say, the Hagens zoom in on three or four details and explain the milieu of the artist and/or their culture or the Zeitgeist of art at the moment they created the works; the Hagens' research is intricately detailed and most thorough, but simultaneously not exhausting even as it's exhaustive, as well as not extraneous to the works themselves. Virtually the only areas that the Hagens miss are relatively minuscule details that a reader would need special knowledge to notice.
Perhaps the best examples of this are twofold, as well as based on my own personal knowledge as a Jewish person in the 21st century: Nowhere do the Hagens mince words when antisemitism (or, really, any other form of endemic bigotry) exists in a given work of art or in the culture that created it, particularly such as in Albrecht Dürer's Christ Among the Doctors , or in reference to, say, Marc Chagall's White Crucifixion or in the works of Ben Shahn. However, in comparing the two paintings of the story of the Apocryphal Book of Judith, one by Caravaggio and one by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Hagens note the difference between the male and female gaze, but they miss—as even I would have, had I not read Jacky Colliss Harvey's Red: A History of the Redhead—the fact that only Caravaggio (with his personally-tempestuous focus on the Inquisition and Counter-Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church around the time of the Renaissance) paints Judith with red hair, which would have meant to viewers of the era, particularly in Catholic countries, not merely that she was a temptress, and not merely that she was Jewish, but that she was the stereotype of a specifically Jewish temptress, as in the character of Rebecca in Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. Likewise, in Giambattista Tiepolo's The Finding of Moses , it's arguably clear that Tiepolo had some familiarity with one Jewish midrashic tradition that Moses didn't cry as a baby—yet Tiepolo also portrays Pharaoh's daughter with a lighter complexion than he does the "Semitic" Miriam (i.e. Moses' sister).
But, as I mentioned, these admittedly very minor points are not things that Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen would ordinarily have noticed without a deeper dive themselves in literature unrelated directly to the works of art in the book, and the Hagens can't be at all faulted for that, particularly in light of their broad sensitivity and empathy to marginalized folks in these works, whether socially, ethnically, religiously, or economically so. It is unfortunate (for me at least, if not only so) that the bulk of the literature cited in the bibliography appears to be in German or French, two languages I do not happen to speak—but again, this is presumably not unexpected, given that the publisher is located in Köln and that the Hagens are themselves (again, to my recollection at least) Swiss. But the Hagens' research is still extraordinarily thorough, and they are themselves clearly quite personally knowledgeable about the 100 masterpieces of the title. Most importantly along these lines, the Hagens clearly have a great deal of love for art in general and for these masterpieces in particular, all of which shines through in their narrative; this love translates into a beautiful book, both in content and in design, as well as what will become a favorite of my collection.
One of the joys of this book is that it covers the entire breadth of art history, across almost all continents, and from antiquity to the present; the book includes ancient Egyptian tomb painting, medieval European tapestries, paintings both extraordinarily famous and more obscure, contemporary American art, East Asian silkscreen and woodcut art—truly the breadth indeed. For each work of art in What Paintings Say, the Hagens zoom in on three or four details and explain the milieu of the artist and/or their culture or the Zeitgeist of art at the moment they created the works; the Hagens' research is intricately detailed and most thorough, but simultaneously not exhausting even as it's exhaustive, as well as not extraneous to the works themselves. Virtually the only areas that the Hagens miss are relatively minuscule details that a reader would need special knowledge to notice.
Perhaps the best examples of this are twofold, as well as based on my own personal knowledge as a Jewish person in the 21st century: Nowhere do the Hagens mince words when antisemitism (or, really, any other form of endemic bigotry) exists in a given work of art or in the culture that created it, particularly such as in Albrecht Dürer's Christ Among the Doctors , or in reference to, say, Marc Chagall's White Crucifixion or in the works of Ben Shahn. However, in comparing the two paintings of the story of the Apocryphal Book of Judith, one by Caravaggio and one by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Hagens note the difference between the male and female gaze, but they miss—as even I would have, had I not read Jacky Colliss Harvey's Red: A History of the Redhead—the fact that only Caravaggio (with his personally-tempestuous focus on the Inquisition and Counter-Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church around the time of the Renaissance) paints Judith with red hair, which would have meant to viewers of the era, particularly in Catholic countries, not merely that she was a temptress, and not merely that she was Jewish, but that she was the stereotype of a specifically Jewish temptress, as in the character of Rebecca in Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. Likewise, in Giambattista Tiepolo's The Finding of Moses , it's arguably clear that Tiepolo had some familiarity with one Jewish midrashic tradition that Moses didn't cry as a baby—yet Tiepolo also portrays Pharaoh's daughter with a lighter complexion than he does the "Semitic" Miriam (i.e. Moses' sister).
But, as I mentioned, these admittedly very minor points are not things that Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen would ordinarily have noticed without a deeper dive themselves in literature unrelated directly to the works of art in the book, and the Hagens can't be at all faulted for that, particularly in light of their broad sensitivity and empathy to marginalized folks in these works, whether socially, ethnically, religiously, or economically so. It is unfortunate (for me at least, if not only so) that the bulk of the literature cited in the bibliography appears to be in German or French, two languages I do not happen to speak—but again, this is presumably not unexpected, given that the publisher is located in Köln and that the Hagens are themselves (again, to my recollection at least) Swiss. But the Hagens' research is still extraordinarily thorough, and they are themselves clearly quite personally knowledgeable about the 100 masterpieces of the title. Most importantly along these lines, the Hagens clearly have a great deal of love for art in general and for these masterpieces in particular, all of which shines through in their narrative; this love translates into a beautiful book, both in content and in design, as well as what will become a favorite of my collection.
August 15, 2013
I enjoy reading about art history and knowing the stories behind some of the world's most famous paintings and gaining a greater knowledge of the thought process of what went on in the minds of these great artists. As a side note, Vol 2 is also a good book to read and I just found out there was a Vol 3, so I may just pick that up as well!
July 23, 2022
Un libro con este nivel de ambición y temáticas no puede pasar desapercibido para los que gustamos de la historia del arte. Un compendio magnífico con datos y curiosidades, un estudio breve y conciso sobre el entorno de las obras seleccionadas que lo vuelven un libro redondo y una lectura recurrente. Mi historia favorita fue la de «Los náufragos de la medusa» de Géricault. 👌🏼
August 25, 2019
So far the best book i read about pictures. It explains not about pictures but social/cultural background. Plus gossip/rumor too. Pictures look different after reading this. I hope they can cover all the pictures in the museums!!
April 30, 2012
Each painting, painter, subject and the age it was made in is explained in wonderful detail with brilliant pictures alongside. It's a book I've wanted for years and it hasn't disappointed.
February 3, 2014
Gives great insight to artists and art!
July 25, 2015
Great reference book. Love reading about symbolism in art works especially dissecting "The Greats". I appreciated the historical context as well.
September 12, 2018
Devoured this gigantic book full of resources for my new history of art university courses !
June 4, 2022
Great book to learn a bit about art, painting that is. Good to have for 5 minutes reading slots.
February 23, 2023
big ass, thick ass book. SO PROUD to finish tehehehe
June 25, 2025
This 500-page encyclopaedic tome is one of a set of art books I was given by a kind and generous stranger, a woman neighbour from a nearby village. I’m conducting research for a novel, and the visual arts feature significantly in the story. Whilst I have some knowledge of the art world, working as a photographer for many years and, for a few short years, employed as a graphics technician in an art college, I lack the necessary academic background to deal with this complex aspect without some help from those who know.
The history of art is a complicated subject, open to many interpretations and often lacking much of the fact that might truly explain the origins of a painting. Much, this book explains, depends on the period during which a painting was made, but its content, and therefore its meaning is also very much dependent on the views and aims of its sponsor.
In the past, as now for some art, pictures were commissioned by the very wealthy. Almost always by men. Their wealth seems to have endowed them with undeserved respect and allowed early scholars to praise their ‘taste’ well beyond the realities of the situation.
The authors of this extraordinary piece of work have tried to discover valid sources of information, and taken into account the prejudices, priorities, and levels of knowledge prevalent at the time of creation of the works they examined. Finding the truth relating to each painting’s meaning is therefore somewhat akin to building a three-dimensional chess board and its pieces out of string, paper and ice-cream. That they’ve managed to reach conclusions on certain pieces is an indication of the depth and breadth of their research.
I have learned much about what some paintings may mean by reading this comprehensive tome, but remain uncertain just what level of credibility can honestly be given to the conclusions in all cases. It’s true the authors have made their doubts and uncertainties clear, so the reader is left with at least an impression of the meanings of some very famous and some less well-known paintings.
I’ve been selective in my reading of the book, because only certain subjects are of significance to the novel I’m writing, and that may have meant my understanding of the views, histories, and comments relating to those works of art are not necessarily representative of all the many paintings examined in the book.
My reading, nevertheless, has proved a valuable exercise and has certainly rewarded the effort and time by providing me with enough information, mood, and context to effectively include the subject in my current piece of fiction. So, my thanks and admiration go to the authors, without whose work I would either have remained in the dark or, a decidedly unacceptable alternative; independently come to conclusions filled with either irrelevance or inaccuracy, or both!
The history of art is a complicated subject, open to many interpretations and often lacking much of the fact that might truly explain the origins of a painting. Much, this book explains, depends on the period during which a painting was made, but its content, and therefore its meaning is also very much dependent on the views and aims of its sponsor.
In the past, as now for some art, pictures were commissioned by the very wealthy. Almost always by men. Their wealth seems to have endowed them with undeserved respect and allowed early scholars to praise their ‘taste’ well beyond the realities of the situation.
The authors of this extraordinary piece of work have tried to discover valid sources of information, and taken into account the prejudices, priorities, and levels of knowledge prevalent at the time of creation of the works they examined. Finding the truth relating to each painting’s meaning is therefore somewhat akin to building a three-dimensional chess board and its pieces out of string, paper and ice-cream. That they’ve managed to reach conclusions on certain pieces is an indication of the depth and breadth of their research.
I have learned much about what some paintings may mean by reading this comprehensive tome, but remain uncertain just what level of credibility can honestly be given to the conclusions in all cases. It’s true the authors have made their doubts and uncertainties clear, so the reader is left with at least an impression of the meanings of some very famous and some less well-known paintings.
I’ve been selective in my reading of the book, because only certain subjects are of significance to the novel I’m writing, and that may have meant my understanding of the views, histories, and comments relating to those works of art are not necessarily representative of all the many paintings examined in the book.
My reading, nevertheless, has proved a valuable exercise and has certainly rewarded the effort and time by providing me with enough information, mood, and context to effectively include the subject in my current piece of fiction. So, my thanks and admiration go to the authors, without whose work I would either have remained in the dark or, a decidedly unacceptable alternative; independently come to conclusions filled with either irrelevance or inaccuracy, or both!
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