Meiss .:. The Great Age of Fresco

Meiss, Millard,
The Great Age of Fresco. Discoveries, Recoveries and Survivals. New York: Braziller, 1970. 251 Seiten mit Abbildungen und Register. Leinen mit Schutzumschlag. 4to. 2207 g

---

Bestell-Nr.157476 | ISBN: 0-8076-0558-1

---

Meiss | Kunstgeschichte | Malerei | Wandmalerei | Fresk

---

The Great Age of Fresco celebrates some of the world's most splendid monumental paintings. Throughout medieval and Re-naissance Italy frescoes shone from the walls, ceilings, and facades of countless buildings. Of this unmatched wealth we have only a small part today, yet it can now be enjoyed by more people at closer range than ever before. Great frescoes—threatened most recently by floods and air pollution—are being stripped from their walls in a campaign to save them. The Great Age of Fresco takes its title from the exhibition of detached paintings and drawings that de-lighted and surprised thousands of viewers in the United States and Europe. This volume reproduces in full color more than one hundred frescoes or details, some for the first time. The noted art his-torian Millard Meiss writes with enthusiasm and knowledge about the most interesting works from the exhibition, as well as about seventy additional frescoes in Italy-. In dis-cussing the history, style, and technique of each fresco Dr. Meiss presents much en-tirely new information. By means of this difficult technique of painting on wet plaster, the most famous painters in Italy told with humor and com-passion stories of the saints, of pagan gods, and of great events in man's religious his-tory. We watch from behind their shoulders. On these pages we see frescoes long hidden behind walls and only recently discovered. We see the rich bright colors of newly cleaned paintings and of those that are hard to see on high dimly lit walls. And we see frescoes that are fading and in danger of disappearing altogether. Before us are Giotto's human beings—emblems of religious and moral values. One artist tests his colors on the wall, an-other sketches a daring figure that he later paints over—at a patron's insistence?—with a conventional image. Here are details of daily life, there propaganda for church or state. Over the centuries the fresco painter emerges from an anonymous craftsman to a celebrity who can paint his self-portrait on a wall. Finally, we are enchanted by the magical light and perspective of Tiepolo, the last brilliant artist of the ceiling. The Great Age of Fresco bears eloquent witness to the rescue and recovery of a mag-nificent, irreplaceable part of man's artistic heritage.

118 full-color plates, 8 halftone figures, with map, glossary, and extensive bibliography

---

MILLARD Meiss is Professor of the History of Art at the Institute for Advanced Study. Princeton, New Jersey. Before assuming this position in 1958, he was a professor at Colum-bia and Harvard, as well as Keeper of Paint-ings in the Fogg Art Museum. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Florence. Dr. Meiss has published numerous books and articles on medieval and Renais-sance painting. Among other offices, he has served as editor-in-chief of The Art Bulletin, chairman of the American Committee for the Restoration of Italian Monuments, chairman of the advisory committee of CRIA, president of the International Society for the History of Art, and is an honorary trustee of the Metro-politan Museum of Art. The recipient of many awards and prizes, he has been decorated twice by the Italian government. Recently he has served as acting director of the Harvard Uni-versity Center for Renaissance Studies at I Tatti, Florence.
George Braziller, Inc. One Park Avenue New York,N N.Y. 10016
PRINTED IN ITALY

---