La nascita delle mostre: I dipinti degli antichi maestri e l'origine delle esposizioni

by Francis Haskell, Federica d'Ammiraglio (Translator), Roberta D'Adda (Translator)

Come sono nate le mostre di pittura, e quale è stata la loro evoluzione? Il grande storico dell’arte Francis Haskell indaga su un fenomeno oggi dilagante, ripercorrendone le tappe più salienti. Dalle prime mostre a Roma e Firenze nel Seicento, alla Francia settecentesca, con le sue esposizioni d’arte contemporanea alternative agli accademici Salons, fino alle prime espressioni di nazionalismo (la grande mostra di Rembrandt ad Amsterdam nel 1898) o strumenti di politica estera (memorabile quella sull’arte italiana organizzata a Londra nel 1930).
I musei, inizialmente ostili a prestare i propri capolavori, si sono mostrati poi sempre più disponibili, arrivando magari all’eccesso: tuttavia, si chiede lo studioso con una sfumatura polemica, è giusto sottoporre le opere d’arte al rischio di tanti viaggi e tante esposizioni?

Genres: Art, History, Nonfiction, Art History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published November 10, 2000

About the author

Francis James Herbert Haskell was an English art historian, whose writings placed emphasis on the social history of art.

Reviews

[Emily Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been to old master exhibits both on vacation and when traveling exhibits come to the Seattle Art Museum. We go to see a grouping of what others have acknowledged are works worth seeing. I usually take it for granted that their choices are valid, that I will learn something, and that I should take the opportunity to see these pieces when I can--especially if I can do it without expensive and polluting travel.
This book is a fascinating look into the evolution of these Old Master exhibits. It raises questions about which works/artists are chosen, what kind of venue is appropriate, who and how many should have access to art, and the dangers of travel for the art works involved. I have always felt a little guilty visiting a traveling exhibit without checking out the rest of the museum's galleries. But Old Master exhibitions bring in money for local museums and create an event that spurs locals like me to visit. According to Francis Haskell, modern day museums are dependent on the traveling exhibits, which means they have to loan their own works too. But what is this doing to the art? And how important is travel anyway (for the art or for people) as virtual experiences improve?
This book gave me a lot of food for thought that I will take with me on my next museum trip.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book of essays about various exhibitions of Old Master paintings. Most non-specialists will want to give this one a pass. It does contain a few interesting "footnote to history" type things: e.g., that Neville Chamberlain's wife worked with Mussolini to organize an exhibition of Italian paintings in England in 1920, and that the central idea of Johan Huizinga's The Autumn of the Middle Ages came to him when he was viewing an exhibition of paintings by Flemish artists.