Leonardo's Nephew: Essays on Art and Artists
by James Fenton
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"James Fenton, one of England's most gifted poets, has in recent years been looking closely at works of art and writing incisively and inventively about them and their creators. Leonardo's Nephew collects fifteen pieces, most originally published in The New York Review of Books, in which he discusses a wide range of painting and sculpture, from the mummy portraits of ancient Egypt and the few surviving works of the fifteenth-century sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio to Seurat's bathers in the show more Seine, the boxes of Joseph Cornell, and the works of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns."--Jacket. show lessTags
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nessreader Both essays of erudite pondering about byways of cultural history
Member Reviews
I discovered James Fenton through his poetry--way back in high school, in fact, when I first fell in love with his collection Out of Danger--but in the years since, I've made an effort to read his nonfiction, as well. In this collection, his thoughtful prose and compelling style once again made me glad that I put in the effort to search out his other work. In widely varying essays on both art and specific artists, this book takes us through and around a huge swath of territory, blending biography with history and with art criticism to bring artists and their worlds (and interests) to life. Journey through history in this book was, admittedly, far more enjoyable than the art history course I took, and I'd recommend it to anyone show more interested. It game me plenty of material to think about in my own work as a writer, as well.
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Author Information
27+ Works 1,128 Members
James Fenton has been a foreign correspondent & a theater critic & has written about the history of gardens. His book of poems, "Out of Danger", was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. He won the 2015 PEN/Pinter Prize for poetry. The award, established by English PEN in memory of Nobel-Laureate playwright Harold Pinter, is presented annually for show more outstanding literary merit by a British writer or writer resident in Britain. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Leonardo's Nephew: Essays on Art and Artists
- Original publication date
- 1998
- Original language
- English
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Statistics
- Members
- 87
- Popularity
- 359,765
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.67)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 4
