Greatest Works of Art of Western CivilizationOne early morning of an exceptionally beautiful day, wrote Thomas Hoving, "I got the idea of retracing every step of my life as an art expert...and writing down the works of art that had bowled me over visually and emotionally. The ones that after years I could describe down to the tiniest details, a if standing in front of them." The result is Greatest Works of Art of Western Civilization by Hoving, the man who revolutionized New York's magnificent Metropolitan Museum of Art and with it the museums of the world. This sumptuous book records Hoving's passionate, opinionated, and sometimes controversial selection of the 111 masterpieces of Western art that have changed his life. It fairly bursts with the affection and exhilaration he feels for his often unexpected choices. Encompassing paintings by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Renoir, Matisse, and Pollock; frescoes by Piero della Francesca; mosaics and altarpieces; jewelry, tapestries, and illuminated manuscripts; and sculpture by Cellini and Michelangelo, the book offers a fresh, stimulating take on Western man's artistic accomplishments through the unerring eye of an often provocative and always impassioned connoisseur. Each work is reproduced in glorious color and is accompanied by Hoving's incisive, succinct, and witty explanation of its hold on his heart and mind. |
