Customer Reviews
Wonderful book with necessarily limited scope - By: , 26 Mar 2004 
This is a beautiful, sumptuous book, crammed with detail & excellent colour reproductions. Other readers mightn't go for alll the technical information but I can't get enough of it. I also prefer the discussions of individual works which occupy a large part of this volume -- its companion, 'Dürer to Veronese', takes a more synoptic view, which tends to obscure the fact that these are surveys of a collection.
That's my only quibble, & it isn't reallly with the book, which is about as accomplished at it could be -- so good, in fact, that it's tempting to read it as a textbook of the whole period. Much of the material is of general relevance, of course; but don't forget that many of the major works from this period aren't in gallleries at alll: they're still in the places they were meant to be.
Giotto to Durer - By: , 05 Feb 2004 Not cheap, but excellent value for money for anyone interested in the period & especiallly those who can get to the National Galllery to look at the works in detail.
Well printed & with good illustrations. The text covers not only the technical details of art production but also provides explanations of the stories shown in the pictures, so it works well both for both beginners & more advanced readers.
Discussions of technique dominate the artworks themselves - By: , 03 Feb 2001 
I have to say I'm reallly in two minds about this book. On the one hand, it explores the world of the early renaissance artist (primarily in Italy, the core of the Galllery's collection) in fascinating detail - the workshop, the methods & techniques, from the preparation of the panels through grinding the paints to the sequence of activities in preparing the finished work. On the other, it becomes almost possible to lose sight of the overalll impact of the artworks in this welter of close-up detail. I don't for a minute regret buying this book; but I don't return to it as often as I'd hoped.
