The Rare Art Traditions: The History of Art Collecting and Its Linked Phenomena

Joseph Alsop

Published by Princeton University Press 1983

The Rare Art Traditions

The History of Art Collecting and Its Linked Phenomena

Joseph Alsop

Volume 35 in the series The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts

In the series Bollingen Series (General)

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691252261

Overview
Contents

About this book

A cultural and social history of art collecting, art history, and the art market

In The Rare Art Traditions, Joseph Alsop offers a wide-ranging cultural and social history of art collecting, art history, and the art market. He argues that art collecting is the basic element in a remarkably complex and historically rare behavioral system, which includes the historical study of art, the market for buying and selling art, museums, forgery, and the astonishing prices commanded by some works of art. The Rare Art Traditions tells the story of three important traditions of art collecting: the classical tradition that began in Greece, the Chinese tradition, and the Western tradition. The result is a major original contribution to art history.

Author / Editor information

Joseph Alsop (1910–1989) was a prominent American journalist, syndicated Washington columnist, and art collector. His books include From the Silent Earth: A Report on the Greek Bronze Age.

Reviews

“Art historians have produced a rich literature on the history of art patronage and art collecting through the ages, but what we know about the art market and the history of art dealing is woefully inadequate. . . . It has remained for a private scholar who is not an art historian by training, Mr. Joseph Alsop, to accomplish what we should have done long ago.”—H. W. Janson, author of History of Art

"This is a genuine and quirky book: It provokes ideas; it raises objections."---James R. Mellow, New York Times Book Review

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
I. The Altered Apollo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Interchapter 1. The Rare Art Traditions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
II. Art For Use Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
III. Art Collecting Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
IV. The Litmus Tests Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	86
Interchapter 2. The Blueprint Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
V. The Siamese Twins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
VI. The Other By-Products of Art Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Interchapter 3. The Proof – And the Question Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
VII. "The Greek Miracle" Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
VIII. The Pattern Repeats Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	228
IX. The Pattern Vanishes – And Returns Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Interchapter 4. The Developed Historical Sense Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
X. Art Collecting Revives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	322
XI. The Role of Cosimo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	361
XII. The Lesson of Lorenzo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	397
Interchapter 5. On Progression in Art Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	443
XIII. The Climax in the West Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	451
XIV. The Seventeenth Century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	483
Envoi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	506
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	509
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	647
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	699

Language: English
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Pages
- Main content: 724
Illustrations
- Other: 96 b/w illus.

eBook

Published: October 12, 2023
ISBN: 9780691252261