{"product_id":"2940015846850","title":"Bellini","description":"LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Plate\u003cbr\u003e     I. Virgin and Child                        Frontispiece\u003cbr\u003e          In the Academy at Venice\u003cbr\u003e                                                        Page\u003cbr\u003e    II. The Doge Loredano                                 14\u003cbr\u003e          In the National Gallery, London\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   III. Angel playing a Lute                              24\u003cbr\u003e          In the Academy at Venice\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    IV. Madonna with the Holy Child Asleep                34\u003cbr\u003e          In the Academy at Venice\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     V. Pieta                                             40\u003cbr\u003e          In the Brera Gallery at Milan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    VI. Allegory: The Barque of Love                      50\u003cbr\u003e          In the Academy at Venice\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   VII. Madonna and Child                                 60\u003cbr\u003e          In the Academy at Venice\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  VIII. Madonna and Child                                 70\u003cbr\u003e          In the Brera Gallery at Milan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Illustration]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eINTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the standpoint of the biographer, it is to be regretted that more\u003cbr\u003eof the great Italian artists of the fifteenth century were not\u003cbr\u003eassociated with the Church. In the days of the most interesting activity\u003cbr\u003eof painters and sculptors, the capacity to write was rarely met beyond\u003cbr\u003ethe monasteries and few people took the trouble to record any impression\u003cbr\u003eof notable men in the early years of their career. We are apt to forget\u003cbr\u003ethat, for one artist whose name is preserved to us to-day, there are a\u003cbr\u003escore of men whose work has perished, whose very names are forgotten. In\u003cbr\u003emiddle life, or in old age, when commissions from Popes or Emperors had\u003cbr\u003eattracted the attention of the world at large to the best men of the\u003cbr\u003etime, there might be some chronicler found to make passing but\u003cbr\u003einvaluable reference to those of his contemporaries whose names were\u003cbr\u003ecommon in men's mouths, but such notes were made in very haphazard\u003cbr\u003efashion, they were not necessarily accurate, and might be founded upon\u003cbr\u003epersonal observation or rumour, or even upon the prejudice that was\u003cbr\u003einevitable when Italy was a congerie of opposing states. Latter-day\u003cbr\u003ehistorians grope painfully and conscientiously after the scanty records\u003cbr\u003eof great painters, searching the voluminous writings of men who have\u003cbr\u003elittle to say, and very little authority for saying anything about the\u003cbr\u003egreat personalities of the art world of their time. It is not\u003cbr\u003esurprising, under these circumstances, that despite much search the\u003cbr\u003erecord of many lives that must have been fascinating cannot be found. We\u003cbr\u003elearn more of the man from his work than we can hope to learn from any\u003cbr\u003ewritten record and, as the taste for studying pictures grows, so all the\u003cbr\u003einternal evidence of a man's thought and ways of life accumulates and\u003cbr\u003ethe message that underlies canvas and stands revealed in colour and line\u003cbr\u003eto the trained eye, is translated for the benefit of a curious\u003cbr\u003egeneration. We learn to know what manner of man the painter was from\u003cbr\u003ethe models he chose, the portraits he painted, the qualities and nature\u003cbr\u003eof his landscape, the expression of his joy in light and air, his\u003cbr\u003efeeling for flowers and birds. By a process of synthetical reasoning we\u003cbr\u003ecome to see, though it be as in a glass, darkly, the picture that every\u003cbr\u003eman paints, from the years of his activity to the last year of his\u003cbr\u003esojourn among mortals--that is the portrait of himself. Doubtless we are\u003cbr\u003eoften misled, because as each critic, artist or layman, finds in the\u003cbr\u003epicture a reflection of what he takes there, it remains difficult to\u003cbr\u003earrive at definite conclusions upon which all men can agree about any\u003cbr\u003epainter. Happily the effort pleases our own generation, and as there are\u003cbr\u003emany great men who flourished in the fifteenth century and have left\u003cbr\u003etheir pictures to be their sole monument, there is no lack of work.\u003cbr\u003eNaturally in this curious and inquisitive age there are some who would\u003cbr\u003erather discover a well authenticated story about an artist's life than\u003cbr\u003ean unexpected masterpiece from his hand, but then the appeal of letters\u003cbr\u003eis always more widespread than that of paint. It is always pleasant to\u003cbr\u003eendeavour to supply a want, but it is only fair to remember that in\u003cbr\u003ewriting about people whose life story was not preserved by their\u003cbr\u003econtemporaries, the path is strewn with pitfalls.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47173917966576,"sku":"2940015846850","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015846850","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}