The art of arts: rediscovering painting

Abstract

"There was a time, five hundred years ago, when science was regarded as an art, and art as a science. And in the contest between the senses, the ear, through which we had previously received all knowledge and the world of God, was conquered by the eye, which would henceforth be king. A new breed of painters aimed to reconcile the world of the senses with that of the mind, and their goal was to conceal themselves in the details and vanish away, like God. A new way of perceiving was born." "Anita Albus describes the birth and evolution of trompe-l'oeil painting in oils in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, focusing her attention on works by northern European artists - both major and minor. As a scholar, she stands in the tradition of Panofsky; as a painter, she is able to see things others have not yet perceived; as a storyteller, she skillfully describes abstract notions in a vivid and exciting way. Like the multilayered technique of the Old Masters, her method assumes an ability to distinguish between the different levels, as well as a talent for synthesizing them."--Jacket.

Contents

Earth, apple, and fly -- The leaping guest -- View from Paradise -- A cosmographer's conjectures -- The infinite chamber -- Sins of indulgence -- The devil in the tube -- Letter concerning transparency -- Diffusing glasses, collecting lenses, and a chameleon in puff pastry -- Van Eyck's lucky hand -- Transfiguration of the rod -- From the rainbow to the earth -- The sacred in desolation -- The dragon-slayer in the sea of leaves -- The inhabited cloth and the garment of the earth -- Pilgrim eye or reflection of creation -- Tobacco piece with false berries -- The fuse forever passing away -- Batavian Harlenquinade, or the Florimaniac's delight -- Toad's view of a snuffler -- Return of the butterfly -- Of lost colors.