Millard Meiss, American Art History, and Conservation: From Connoisseurship to Iconology and Kulturgeschichte

Description

A member of the art history generation from the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s, Millard Meiss (1904–1975) developed a new and multi-faceted methodological approach. This book lays the foundation for a reassessment of this key figure in post-war American and international art history. The book analyses his work alongside that of contemporary art historians, considering both those who influenced him and those who were receptive to his research. Jennifer Cooke uses extensive archival material to give Meiss the critical consideration that his extensive and important art historical, restoration and conservation work deserves. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, historiography and heritage management and conservation. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Illustrations and Illustration Credits Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Cited Works by Millard Meiss Introduction Bibliography Chapter 1 Two Generations of American Connoisseurs Richard Offner’s Scientific Connoisseurship The Two Cartographers The Foundations for a Science of Connoisseurship A Short History of Meiss’s Attributions The First Thorny Problems of Ugolino Lorenzetti and Francesco Traini ‘Scusi, ma sempre Duccio’: The Case of the Frick Flagellation ‘The World Clearly Wants Giotto to Be the Author’: The Assisi Debate The Sharp Eye of a Connoisseur and the Acute Mind of a Scientist Bibliography Chapter 2 The Far Side of the Moon: Erwin Panofsky’s Iconology Panofsky Arrives in the United States Towards an American-style Iconology A Casual but Illuminating Conversation The ‘Synthronismus’ ‘Von Haus zu Haus’ The Extent of His Influence, the Weight of His Authority and the Solidity of His Reign Panofskyan Pathways Arnolfini’s Hat Iconology of Light ‘Oology May Qualify as a Branch of Iconology’ Meissian Slumber Bibliography Chapter 3 Kulturgeschichte or Social History of Art? Reviewing Antal The ‘Pest Book’ and Post-war Scholarship ‘One of the Most Original and Sound Works in the History of Art’ The Historian’s View: Yves Renouard, Hans Baron and Roberto S. Lopez The Habitus Does Not Make the Art Bishop: Berenson and Panofsky ‘A Book That Ought to Have Been Known in Italy Not Only by Scholars Alone’: The Complications of a Translation ‘The Holes in the Meissian Model Have Grown Larger with Each Passing Year’ The History of Culture after the Black Death Bibliography Chapter 4 The Technical Study of Art Harvard’s Art Laboratory ‘America as Guardian of the World’s Art Treasures’: The American Committee for the Restoration of Italian Monuments ACRIM’s Projects of Restoration The Involvement of Bernard Berenson Meiss’s Studies on Mural Paintings The Trigger-Happy Detachment of Frescoes The Giornate in Assisi with Leonetto Tintori A Book on the History of Art Techniques American Aid after the Flood ‘An Acute Case of CRIAmania’ Ugo Procacci, Tintori’s Brigata and Italian ‘Stubborn Rivalries’ From The Great Age of Fresco to Firenze Restaura Bibliography Chapter 5 Italian Meiss-Fortunes A Connoisseur’s Early Impressions of Italy An American Panofsky and a Candid Iconologist Meiss’s Associates Longhi and Salmi The Soprintendenti’s Circle A True Gentleman from the 19th Century The Champion of Iconology and History of Culture, or Our Man in Italy When Princeton Mostly Spoke Italian A Three-Faced Man Bibliography Index