A Text-Book of the History of Painting Kindle Edition

This book was first published in 1894, but this edition was first published in 1909, it is now in the public domain. The author was professor of the History of Art in Rutgers College at the time he wrote this. This Kindle version has no pictures in it, there is a free e-book version available with many pictures in it on the internet (but that one needs a lot of memoryspace: 5.1 MB, without pictures just 377 kB). This edition has 277 pages/4401 locations. This book was aimed at students in highschools and colleges, it is easy to read, no prior knowledge is neccesary. This book has an active table of contents at the beginning of this book, at location 23. At the beginning of every chapter there is a list of recommended books.I do not recommend this book, it is too obsolete and there is too many information in it that is no longer believed to be correct. The two biggest problems I have with this book are:1) The incorrect information.Some of the information is just obsolete, some of it is not correct. Much more is known nowadays about art than 100 years ago. Techniques like X-ray (showing the sketches below the painting) and dendrology (science of trees, helps dating paintings on wooden panels) have given us information that was not available at the time this book was written.Just one example:At page 200/location 2585 this book says:(quote)PRINCIPAL WORKS:--Hubert van Eyck, Adoration of the Lamb (with Jan van Eyck) St. Bavon Ghent (wings at Brussels and Berlin supposed to be by Jan, the rest by Hubert);(unquote)This information is not correct (anymore):-About the altarpiece 'The Adoration of the Lamb' by Jan & Hubert van Eyck, this book says that parts of this work are in Berlin, this is no longer correct: as part of the Treaty of Versailles (1919) the parts of this painting that were in Germany were given back to Ghent in 1920. The parts that were in the 'Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België' in Brussels at the time of writing were also returned to Ghent in 1920.In 1934 two panels were stolen, only one of these has been recovered, the panel 'The Rightious Judges' is still missing.-Scholars are still debating which bits are painted by Jan and which bits by Hubert. Some even believe Hubert painted very little (or maybe even nothing!) of this painting.2) National characterThe second problem I have with this book is that the author believes in national characters, this book was written in a period in time when those believes were widespread, but they are no longer accepted. As a sample I copy a bit from Chapter 17 about Dutch painting (page 203/location 2624) below:(quote)THE DUTCH PEOPLE AND THEIR ART: Though Holland produced a somewhatdifferent quality of art from Flanders and Belgium, yet in manyrespects the people at the north were not very different from those atthe south of the Netherlands. They were perhaps less versatile, lessvolatile, less like the French and more like the Germans. Fond ofhomely joys and the quiet peace of town and domestic life, the Dutchwere matter-of-fact in all things, sturdy, honest, coarse at times,sufficient unto themselves, and caring little for what other peopledid. Just so with their painters. They were realistic at times togrotesqueness. Little troubled with fine poetic frenzies they paintedtheir own lives in street, town-hall, tavern, and kitchen, consciousthat it was good because true to themselves.(unquote)TABLE OF CONTENTS.LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSGENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHYINTRODUCTIONCHAPTER I.EGYPTIAN PAINTINGCHAPTER II.CHALDÆO-ASSYRIAN, PERSIAN, PHOENICIAN, CYPRIOTE, AND ASIA MINOR PAINTINGCHAPTER III.GREEK, ETRUSCAN, AND ROMAN PAINTINGCHAPTER IV.ITALIAN PAINTING--EARLY CHRISTIAN AND MEDIÆVAL PERIOD, 200-1250CHAPTER V.ITALIAN PAINTING--GOTHIC PERIOD, 1250-1400CHAPTER VI.ITALIAN PAINTING--EARLY RENAISSANCE, 1400-1500CHAPTER VII.ITALIAN PAINTING--EARLY RENAISSANCE, 1400-1500, _Continued_CHAPTER VIII.ITALIAN PAINTING--HIGH RENAISSANCE, 1500-1600CHAPTER IX.ITALIAN PAINTING--HIGH RENAISSANCE, 1500-1600, _Continued_CHAPTER X.ITALIAN PAINTING--HIGH RENAISSANCE, 1500-1600, _Continued_CHAPTER XI.ITALIAN PAINTING--THE DECADENCE AND MODERN WORK, 1600-1894CHAPTER XII.FRENCH PAINTING--SIXTEENTH, SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIESCHAPTER XIII.FRENCH PAINTING--NINETEENTH CENTURYCHAPTER XIV.FRENCH PAINTING--NINETEENTH CENTURY, _Continued_CHAPTER XV.SPANISH PAINTINGCHAPTER XVI.FLEMISH PAINTINGCHAPTER XVII.DUTCH PAINTINGCHAPTER XVIII.GERMAN PAINTINGCHAPTER XIX.BRITISH PAINTINGCHAPTER XX.AMERICAN PAINTINGPOSTSCRIPTINDEX(I am a Dutch student of Cultural Sciences, including Art History.)

the major failing of this book is its utter lack of illustration.the author is writing more of an editorial view of the artists he covers and shares his opinions freely. It is fascinating to read a history that predates Van Gogh & Picasso, and seems to skim over-quickly the Leonardo & Rembrandt impacts on the world, in favour of dozens of lesser know figures.As I.said, it is a review based out of a time with much less access to Information and consideration for opposing views on art.I consider and recommend it as an academic read, but not a historical or remotely conclusive account of art.

This is an old-fashioned history based more on the author’s opinion than any historical facts. It is useful as primer which is his stated purpose. He divides western art history into 20 chapters; Each covering a country and time. He then runs through the very briefest of overview and list of each painter of note with his views on the painter’s worth. Each chapter also contains a list of books that cover the topic in more detail and a list of works to view.The endless list can be tiresome to read. I found that I skimmed most of those parts and just read the overviews.

too awesome for my kindle to handle. kindle shuts down and glitches out constantly. I was very interested in this title but I had to abandon the kindle because it couldn't keep anything open.

Thank you for making this low cost book available for lovers of classical art.

There are no pictures. It is impossible to describe a printing without seeing the painting. The index of painters with hot keys is off, pushing the hot key does not bring you to the page on the painter.

No images! Not sure why bother converting a book for kindle if images aren't going to be carried over. Especially on a book specifically about artists and painting. Without images the book is very dry and long, but still informative for it's time.

Good because for free.