Thirty years after it was written, an unpublished and farsighted history of art in Europe is published, told with sensitivity not usual at the time it was composed, by Decio Gioseffi, an art historian specialized in perspective. From the caves of Altamira to the mature Renaissance, classes of problems are collected and amplified in the text, allowing the author – starting with the relationship to the legacy of the Ancient, which is always alive and cherished – to deal with the entire chain of Western Art. The passages dedicated to situating artistic production in society and history are crucial. Gioseffi’s work unfolds into beautiful pages addressing also in fashion, literature, engineering and technology, military strategy, and the history of languages.
From the back cover
