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Title: Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters by David Hockney ISBN: 0-670-03026-0 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 25 October, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $60.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.36 (44 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Wow!
Comment: Great book. Reads like the denouement of spell-binding mystery novel with the visual and textual evidence mounting piece by piece until the conclusion seems inevitable. As a working artist, Hockney teases out clues that may have eluded art historians. The book itself is a piece of artwork with excellent reproductions, skillful layout and beautiful typography.
There is one sore spot. Historical and scientific types will quickly notice that Hockney reached his conclusions BEFORE his two year search for evidence and that weaknesses in the argument and evidence are not fully considered. The examples appear selective and are possibly not representative. Looking at the sample artwork, you can see his point but would not be suprised to hear valid alternative explanations. Though not proof positive, the work is persuasive, enlightening and more than a little revolutionary.
Rating: 5
Summary: New Perspective
Comment: When the Lawrence Weschler article about David Hockney's sleuthing about artists and optics came out in the New Yorker a couple of years ago, I read it with a racing heart: as an artist, I too have always wondered how those guys did what they did with such apparent effortlesness. In this wonderful treasure of a book, Hockney lays out his argument visually, and the case he makes is compelling. But in a sense, it doesn't really matter whether his theory is right--the book is sure to generate a lot of discussion about image making and technology and visual intelligence. And whether you're an artist, art historian, or interested viewer, that's bound to be a good thing.
Rating: 4
Summary: great book!
Comment: Wow, this book is a real eye-opener! I have a BFA in Art History and have recently been studying the works of Van Eyck. Hockney's studies dovetail nicely with my own and he has given me some answers to a few of the questions I had about Van Eyck and his followers - why those different vanishing points? why the odd focal depths? why the straight-on views assembled in a montage? Optics! The part about Caravaggio's progression to lenses is particularly fascinating.
This is quite a lovely book. It has large full color reproductions of many beautiful paintings and is laid out with an artistic design sense. While I don't agree with all of Hockney's conclusions, I think his main concept is dead-on - some of the Masters did use optic lenses, convex mirrors and camera obscuras for their paintings. Hockney does a great detective job and has laid his research out in a visually stunning book.
P.S. for all those reviewers below who didn't read the book - why are you wasting your time writing a review? Maybe you should be consistant and write reviews for the other thousands of books you haven't read.
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Title: Vermeer's Camera: Uncovering the Truth Behind the Masterpieces by Philip Steadman ISBN: 0192803026 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: How to Paint Like the Old Masters by Joseph Sheppard ISBN: 082302671X Publisher: Watson-Guptill Pubns Pub. Date: September, 1983 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters by Sir Charles Lock Eastlake ISBN: 0486417263 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 30 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Problem Solving for Oil Painters by Gregg Kreutz ISBN: 0823040976 Publisher: Watson-Guptill Pubns Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: From Van Eyck to Bruegel Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Maryan W. Ainsworth, Keith Christiansen ISBN: 0300086091 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 1998 List Price(USD): $65.00 |
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