Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art [antikvár]

PREFACE This volume contains eighty-five reproductions in color of paintings from the collections of the National Gallery of Art, together with comments designed to assist the reader in an appreciation of them. There are also separate notes on the dates and provenance of each picture. In making the selection from the eight hundred paintings that now comprise the collections, the editors planned neither a presentation of the eighty-five greatest pictures in the Gallery's rich stores, nor a gleaning of their favorite works. They had two main objects in view. They intend the pictures to be representative of the variety and scope of the great National collection, and, at the same time, to illustrate the history of Western painting in each significant development from the thirteenth century to Cézanne. It is on that basis, for the most part, that some painters are represented by more than one picture, and other painters of equal stature are missing altogether. In the case of certain omissions among the American paintings, the editors must plead the gaps in this section of the Gallery's collection, a condition which is being corrected as rapidly as important examples can be obtained. Opposite each picture the editors have placed a comment. These comments have been drawn from a variety of sources, novels, poetry, history, philosophy and formal writings on art. They are each about four hundred words in length, and have been chosen with an eye to their readability. These selections reveal many of the ideas that have been formulated in the effort to understand the meaning of painting; some are concerned with the subject of the particular work; others with the artist, his period or his philosophy; some are in verse, and a number are here published in English for the first time. Occasionally comments have been chosen because they seemed to summarize important aspects of the paintings, even though not referring directly to the picaires themselves. In the case of the quotation from T. S. Eliot, accompanying Raphael's Saint George and the Dragon, although this picture was not present to the poet's mind we believe that the excerpt nevertheless states in the words of poetry the mystical intention of the painting. We anticipate our critics in the realization that there are other selections that might have been made. There has been no purpose to present a general summary or even an outline of the factual history of Western art. Those facts are readily available in standard histories. The notes that are placed after the comments give, within the limits of the space available, facts about the pictures which are of special interest to the serious student. However, in most instances they should also convey to the general reader a fuller understanding of the place of the picture in the history of painting. The editors wish to acknowledge their special gratitude to Colonel Harry A. McBride, Administrator of the National Gallery of Art, for his indispensable contributions to the design and execution of this volume. H. C. J. W.