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A great Folio Book

Review

‘I did just what Jane in her review suggested and bought The Folio Society’s book of 100 Greatest Paintings and am delighted I made this smart decision. Like Jane, I question many of the choices made by the Society, but that said, I was introduced to some paintings that were new to me and almost always the accompanying text helped me to understand better the artist’s intentions with his or her work.

I took over a month to study carefully each picture and then read the explanatory notes in the text and I am happy I took this approach. Some works like Giotto’s “Lamentation” in the Arena Chapel in Padua, which I am looking at right now, had an enormous impact on the history and development of Western Art, and rightly so. The drama that unfolds before our eyes is breathtaking as we see Jesus Christ held by his mother of sorrows surrounded by angels on high agonizing over the death of the savior; and the friends of Jesus, like St. John with his arms thrown wide, overcome with grief. Such paintings deserve our closest attention; to look quickly and move on is a mistake, at least in my opinion. And so it is with many other selections in this wonderful book.

The accompanying text directs our attention to points of interest in each painting easily missed by those of us who are not professional art critics. For example, in Mondrian’s “Composition with Red…,” I would not have thought to examine carefully the framing of this great painting; but, in fact, the frame was constructed by Mondrian and is an integral part of the work. I could see that as I looked more closely at the painting. That is only one of hundreds of other examples I could cite, but the reader of this review, I think, now understands that it is not just the paintings, but what is said about them that makes this book special.

I had fun arguing in my mind about some of the Folio’s inclusions and would have replaced several with my own selections. For example, I would have replaced Leonardo’s “Lady with an Ermine” with his truly great and influential “Last Supper.” The Folio Society includes self-portraits by Rembrandt and Durer; I would also have included Van Gogh’s “Vincent in Flames” self-portrait found in the Louvre. Raphael’s “Madonna of the Chair” in the Pitti Palace is the most beautiful painting I have ever seen and would be included in my 100 Greatest list. And so it goes. I think readers of this review who buy this book will have a similar experience and want to argue with The Folio Society about their selections, but again, as said, that is part of the fun and intellectual challenge of studying this book.’