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1955., Doubleday Call No: 709.03 S995f Edition: [1st ed.] Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Series Title: A Doubleday anchor original A45Summary Note: Talk about your works of staggering genius. Published about fifty years ago, this book has to be considered among the most important of the twentieth century, even though it is still among the least well known. The general theme of the work is that style changes in art and architecture can be correlated roughly but clearly to evolution in styles of literature. The period of the Renaissance (1400 to 1700) is divided into four stages covering renaissance proper, mannerism, baroque, and late baroque. The term renaissance is assigned a more limited range of meaning than is usual, and the word rococo is not used at all, while the excesses of the baroque (as distinct from late baroque) tenor are given extensive coverage. Although Chaucer is usually considered an example of the Gothic temper, the author shows why his major work, with its sense of drama and psychological interplay among the characters, could be considered to have solidly renaissance elements. John Milton and the painter Rubens are identified as baroque in the fullest possible sense despite their many differences. Since they are full of unresolved tensions, Shakespeare's Hamlet and much of John Donne's poetry show all the features one expects in mannerism, along with most of El Greco's paintings. With their psychological stability and Augustan tone, the dramas of Racine and the paintings of Poussin are late baroque. I am necessarily making all this seem a lot simpler than it really is. It is in fact not simple at all and this book is not an easy read. The author possesses a special sensitivity that allows him to see and sense characteristics and tendencies in art and literature that are lost on the rest of us; he also has an aesthetic lexicon that opens up for the reader many more dimensions of some works of art and literature than most readers had previously been aware of.
