Painting in Renaissance Venice.

As the title of this beautifully designed and elegantly written book suggests, Peter Humfrey narrates the history of painting in Renaissance Venice from 1440 to 1590. Individual works of art are explained against the specific social, political and religious background of Venice. The usual questions of style and iconography are considered, and it is of value that they are raised in the light of the new research. This well-illustrated book discusses the major works by the principal Venetian painters such as Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. In addition to the works of artists well known to the general audience, the author discusses other works by lesser known painters, among them the Vivarini, Cima, Lotto, Pordenone, the Bassani, and Schiavone. The author, however, never loses the sense of proportion. An appendix offers short biographies of the artists who in one way or another worked in Venice, including non-Venetians, such as Durer, Salviati, Federigo Zuccari, Vasari, and El Greco. This book is a welcome enterprise which, together with the excellent bibliography, serves as an indispensable tool for getting acquainted with the subject (vii).

The division of the book into three chronological chapters - Early Renaissance (1440-1500), High Renaissance (1500-40) and Late Renaissance (1540-90) - is clear, even though, the author points out (34-35), no developments strictly fit the periodized framework. Each chapter has its own introduction and subdivision that guide the reader. Some subtitles are puzzling in their juxtaposition, as "From Gothic to Renaissance," for example, is followed by "The Response to Padua" in the first chapter.

Venetian painting has for a long time been admired for its specific stylistic qualities - "colour, light and expressive brushwork" (267) - and for its presumably secular subjects (118), expressive of the interaction between the worlds of people and nature. Equally remarkable is the contribution of Venice to later developments of European painting. Almost every artist - Rubens, Rembrandt, Poussin, Velazquez, Reynolds or Watteau - was affected by Venetian style and subjects. Since the contribution of Venetian art is so well known, the author's need to justify the specific value of this painting is not clear to the modern reader, particularly as its value is measured by the criteria of Tuscan criticism, as heralded by Vasari. Though objectively presenting the development of painting in Renaissance Venice, Humfrey is guided by non-Venetian principles, starting and closing his book with citations from Vasari's bitter criticism of the Venetian disegno and his skeptical approach to the Venetian colorito.

One of the merits of this book is that the author considers the works of art in the light of Cinquecento and Seicento criticism. Vasari's assessment of Venetian art is important only in so far as it helps the modern reader to understand the tenets voiced in Cinquecento Venice by such various figures as Pietro Aretino, Lodovico Dolce, and Paolo Pino as well as by Seicento critics, mainly Carlo Ridolfi and Marco Boschini. Disegno and colorito are complex Renaissance terms, meaning more than simply "drawing" and "coloring"; hence they should be cautiously applied. The Venetian painters and their patrons, familiar with the various trends in diverse regions of Italy, constantly maintained their characteristic style and even themes. The continuity of this unique tradition is the Venetian legacy, as the author convincingly demonstrates. Even if written with the tone of justification, Peter Humfrey's comprehensive survey deserves to be read by a wide audience.

LUBA FREEDMAN The Hebrew University of Jerusalem