Giotto to Durer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery.

Splendid in every way, Giotto to Durer beautifully produced, richly informative, with many color and black and white reproductions uniformly excellent in quality. Historical, technical, biographical, stylistic and much other information is conveyed with rare grace, intelligence and skill. This is a work that no reference or personal library concerned with European art of the fourteenth, fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries can do without, essential reading for any student of painting between 1300 and 1520. It can be put on a "must buy" as well as "must read" list because it is so reasonably priced.

The Gallery's publication is a fitting project to accompany the opening of its handsome new Sainsbury Wing designed by Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi where many of the paintings reproduced in Giotto to Durer are on display. I know of no other treatment of this rich, complex subject combining Northern and Italian painting, presented so comprehensively. As Neil MacGregor, the National Gallery's director, says in his introduction, the opening of the new wing has pictures of the same dating hanging together, this installation telling "a more truly European story of painting, the story told in this book." Stripped of nationalistic ghettoization, Giotto to Durer reminds one of the most lavishly illustrated turn-of-the-century survey, the many-volumed French art history by Andre Michel. With the initial international Art Historical Congress, it appeared just before the First World War. Both sought for a lucid presentation of the overview. This commendable intent, that of integration, is visually confusing because, to put it plainly, North is often North and South South. Though the twain do meet, this takes place in somewhat mysterious ways.

Nevertheless, the National Gallery's presenting a Pan-European panorama is all to the good, absolute clarity and uniformity an impossible academic goal. Italians often admired and owned Northern paintings, and encouraged their artists to take on Northern techniques and training. Conversely, Northern painters and artisans often traveled to Italy, if seldom assimilating the outlook until the sixteenth century.

What may contribute most to this publication's lively text is the refreshing interaction of conservators, scientists and curators - an animated discourse where no one takes a back seat. Ashok Roy and Raymond White of the Gallery's Scientific Department and Martin Wyld and David Bomford of the Conservation Department have all studded Giotto to Durer with discoveries made in their fields.

With our penchant for technical overkill, we have so scientificized conservation that workers in its subdivided vineyards can barely understand one another, let alone communicate their findings intelligibly to the layperson. The National Gallery's scientific staff, thanks largely to Joyce Plesters' pioneering genius for communication, has made a tradition of clarifying discoveries for generalists' comprehension.

A most rewarding organizational armature for Giotto to Durer begins with a brief historic introduction to "Western Europe 1260-1510". The first half of the publication is devoted to "The Uses of Painting" (22-122), divided into two sections, "Christian Worship and Imagery" and "Civic, Dynastic and Domestic Art."

Part two (122-211) discusses "The Making of Paintings, the Workshops, Techniques, Conclusion, Painting and the Sister Arts." Part three (211-387) is devoted to "Paintings in The National Gallery - Plates with Comments." An eight-page bibliography is organized according to subject, such as "Oil Painting in the Netherlands", "Oil Painting in Italy", with valuable critical commentary.

Any respectable review, no matter how enthusiastic, must include a few quibbles. Why did the author of the Giovanni Bellini Madonna of the Meadow write that none of the flora and fauna in this painting "possesses intrinsic beauty or interest; it is the composition and the light which make them so attractive" (356)? That observation is, alas, totally false.

Why was the drawing for Raphael's Vision of a Knight (fig. 63) - also in the National Gallery and reproduced on 170 - not referred to in the painting's entry? With hundreds of illustrations in between, most readers won't have long enough memories to remember, let alone find it. Comparing Raphael's composition with one by Benvenuto di Giovanni (fig. 636), as the text does, is an original and valuable note. The landscape might have been related to those by artists such as Memling in whom the young Raphael was interested.

For the Maitre de Moulins (358), it might have been wise to refer to emaux translucides by the same artist found in the Wallace Collection.

An exquisite votive plaque inscribed with Raphael's name, placed at the base of the cross, is given a fine detail (fig. 61a) along with the illuminating note that this lettering was "scratched through paint to reveal silver leaf" (366), one of the book's many welcome technical observations.

The book's enormous number of illustrations have a somewhat eccentric reference system. Sections one and two are numbered continuously. Illustrations are referred to as "Figures"- 287 in all, although many of these are full page. In part three, devoted exclusively to the National Gallery, there are 69 full pane color plates, each of these has its own separately numbered comparative material, including reconstructions, polyptychs shown closed, paintings seen from the back, related works by the same artists, as well as small color details. All these images are given the same number as the main entry with additional identifying letters. This odd system was doubtless dictated by the need to have such a complex work come out in time for the Sainsbury Wing's opening.

Those assimilating the comprehensive information found in Giotto to Durer may deservedly consider themselves well on the way to being truly knowledgeable in the area of European painting from the early fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries. This book is an invaluable aid for course on a college and graduate level in both Italian and Northern European art.

Final praise for the high quality of paper and printing of this book comes from the fact that my copy was soaked in a torrential down-pour. After inserting papertowel between all the pages, and putting a weight on too, Giotto to Durer emerged almost as good as new, despite total immersion!

To all those interested in art from Giotto to Durer, buy this book and read it. You are sure to learn a lot, no matter how much you think you already know.