The Yale dictionary of art and artists [antikvár]

The purpose of this dictionary is twofold: to act as a reference book for travellers and gallery visitors, and alsó to provide at-home information to students of western art history and generál readers interested in the subject. To these ends, entries vary between the cursory and the encyclopedic: major artists and artists whose careers or talents have recently been reassessed, or who seem to the authors to merit reassessment, are given the fuller treatment. Examples include Dutch seventeenth-century history painters, whose work, highly praised by contemporaries, has recently come to be studied again after two centuries of neglect (see, e.g. Sandrart). The length of the entries certainly relates to our sense of the subjects' importance but it alsó may be influenced by the quantity of information about them and its relevance to an appreciation of their work. In the case of Picasso, for example, it seems imperative to refer to his wives and partners even in what has to be a sketchy, though relatively exhaustive, survey of his long career. In the case of another artist, this kind of detail would be of little value. Alsó, we have tried to go beyond historical information to indicate what characterizes an artist's work and attracts our interest to it - in other words what justifies his or her status and inclusion. Thus there are personal factors at work and no apology is made for these. Somé element of first-hand knowledge seemed essential, and this, in conjunction with the practical limits that had to be set for this publication, has meant that we have not covered everything readers would have a right to find treated in a larger volume, or a series. Entries include painters, sculptors, printmakers, etc., but not architects, except those who alsó practised as one or more of the above, and the specialized field of Byzantine art has not been included, although a number of western-influenced eastern-european artists are. The period covered runs from 1300 to the present day, but again there are exceptions. There are, for example, entries on antique sculptures that influenced later art. There is an infinity of artists that could, perhaps should, be included. There are many more topics and terms that might be discussed. Style and group names have multiplied alarmingly during the last hundred years, but only those 'isms' that have proved their staying power and remain in generál use are accounted for here. Stylistic, technical and other art-historical terms are included where standard dictionary entries were felt to be inadequate. The aim has been to provide a glossary to more specialized art-historical literature, such as exhibition catalogues or scholarly monographs, rather than to be exhaustive. The