Art books

[Anonymous No.18127624]

My best friend is moving to south Italy and I want to give a parting gift.
He's a bookish art gallery, come look at the architecture, type of guy.

What art book can i give him?

[Anonymous No.18127639]

>>18127624
dunno how well read is he? if he doesnt know shit give him vasari

[Anonymous No.18127645]

>>18127624
Can you be more specific about what he likes please

[Anonymous No.18127659]

>>18127639
>>18127645

Right!
He's read Vasari, I know that, and he's was showing me illustration's from Ruskin's Stones of Venice. He likes architecture and has studied Byzantine stuff.

I know something old and authoritative would likely lease him. He's emboldened by difficult books.

[Anonymous No.18127690]

>>18127659

So I had a look at photo of his shelves and i can see he's got books about

The Uffizi
Caravaggio
Pagan mysteries in the Renaissance
Michelangelo (tough i remember him complaining that it was terrible)
The development of artistic Humanism

[Anonymous No.18127990]

Bump! because I'm luddite and I'm interested in bettering myself

[Anonymous No.18128000]

>>18127624
Modern Art and the Death of a Culture

[Anonymous No.18128010]

>>18127659
>He's emboldened by difficult books.
Okay I have an idea. Can he read in Italian?

[Anonymous No.18128101]

>>18128010
I know he's studying it. Dont know how far.

[Anonymous No.18128109]

>>18128101
>>18128010

Lets say yes

[Anonymous No.18128132]

>>18127624
Kodachrome by Luigi Ghirri

[Anonymous No.18128148]

anything by Umberto Eco.
My personal favourites are On ugliness and On Beauty. Not only are they substantively correct, but they are visually gorgeous, too. Would definetely do nicely for a gift.
And what's more- it's an Italian author!:)

[Anonymous No.18128191]

>>18128101
>>18128109
If he can read in Italian, this might be an appreciated gift. It's a very well written history of Italian art from Cimabue to Morandi, basically a modern Vasari's Lives. Longhi has been considered one of the best and most difficult Italian writers of the last century. The edition (Meridiani Mondadori) is also quite worth the money.

What's your friend's mothertongue?

[Anonymous No.18128224]

Check out the “Fave Books” story from this Instagram account, might provide you with some inspiration

https://instagram.com/art_historymemes

[Anonymous No.18128280]

>>18128191

>Cimabue to Morandi,
difficult in what sense ? the grammar, the ideas, is it just extremely compressed as i know Italian can be.
I know he's been reading some Italian but but he's also complained about some it being essentially a different language.

>Meridiani Mondadori
While i have you here im looking at things from the publishing house and what the hell is
I Meridiani 1969-1999. La lettura da Ariosto a Zanzotto.
A local place has it for 9$. im just curious


But thanks! it's definitely a solid option to look into . And the books just look lovely

[Anonymous No.18128285]

>>18128280
is I Meridiani just a magazine and these are just selections from it ?

[Anonymous No.18128320]

>>18128285
>magazine
sorry meant publisher.

[Anonymous No.18128913]

>>18128280
>difficult in what sense ?
He is difficult in the same way as Joyce, Mallarmé or Carlo Emilio Gadda are difficult. Although an art critic and historian, he wrote with a flowery language, adorned with outdated words and with a flowing, sweetly punctuated syntax that resembles poetry. It is really beautiful. The ideas are not quite difficult, he simply expresses his opinions on painters (opinions that are very reliable) and describes the art scenes that flourished in the various Italian cities through the centuries. He is, quite accurately, a modern Vasari.

If I keep thinking about patrician books on art, another option would be Della Pittura Italiana by Giovanni Morelli. It was originally written in German, so if your friend is German or something you could buy the original edition. Otherwise there is an excellent translation published by Adelphi, with 110 illustrations. Morelli is famous for having invented a method of authorship attribution based on the "identifying marks" of each artist; for example he was able to determine the author of an anonymous painting just by looking at the nose or, say, the pinky toe of a figure. Apart from this, Della Pittura Italiana is also an elegantly written book, touching various subjects and art periods.

Of course both Longhi and Morelli require a good-level knowledge of Italian. As I said I was just considering really "patrician" books on art, since I got the feeling that your friend is very tasteful and sophisticated. There might be other choices however.

[Anonymous No.18128920]

18128285
>>18128320
>is I Meridiani just a magazine and these are just selections from it ?
No, the Meridiani are a collection of high-quality hardbacks of classics from the world literature. They're similar to the French series La Pléiade. When an author is in the collection, nine times out of ten it means they're truly excellent.

>I Meridiani 1969-1999. La lettura da Ariosto a Zanzotto.
Yeah, that's an old anthology, I don't think it's worth your money.
The vast majority of the Meridiani are complete editions of famous works.

[Anonymous No.18128967]

>>18128285
>>18128320
>is I Meridiani just a magazine and these are just selections from it ?
No, the Meridiani are a collection of high-quality hardbacks of classics from the world literature. They're similar to the French series La Pléiade.
When an author is in the collection, nine times out of ten it means they're excellent. Very few contemporary authors get in there.

>I Meridiani 1969-1999. La lettura da Ariosto a Zanzotto.
Yeah, that's an old anthology, I don't think it's worth your money.
The vast majority of the Meridiani are complete editions of famous works.

[Anonymous No.18129005]

>>18128285
>>18128320
>is I Meridiani just a magazine and these are just selections from it ?
No, the Meridiani are a collection of high-quality hardbacks of classics from the world literature. They're similar to the French series La Pléiade.
When an author is in the collection, nine times out of ten it means they're excellent. Few contemporary authors get in it.

>I Meridiani 1969-1999. La lettura da Ariosto a Zanzotto.
Yeah, that's an old anthology, I don't think it's worth your money.
The vast majority of the Meridiani are complete editions of famous works.

[Anonymous No.18129162]

>>18127624
Hugo Ball's Byzantine Christianity might be interesting. It's been translated into Italian (Cristianesimo bizantino); it's about theology rather than art but was written by the famous dadaist.

[Anonymous No.18129163]

>>18128913

Thanks. I've seen you posing here before and you are always insightful, a real credit to your countrymen.

I think im gonna get one of your editions, the Meridiani is on offer here so i wont have to ship it overseas, and just tell him work at at it until he can read it. He 's a stubborn motherfucker so with that lovely volume sitting there taunting him i think he'll give a real effort,

My friend was telling me how he can handle reading the newspaper or a popular novel but that the difficult Italian writers seemed more difficult then the difficult English or French writers he's also reading.

[Anonymous No.18129179]

>>18127624
just suck his dick and save some money faggot

[Anonymous No.18129205]

>>18129179
Maybe.
He androgynous enough that it would only be like 30% gay. He's even got the girlish hair.

[Anonymous No.18129282]

>>18129205
Then why not? whats your excuse faggot.

[Anonymous No.18129304]

>>18129163
>but that the difficult Italian writers seemed more difficult then the difficult English or French writers he's also reading.
Yes, some of them can be really disconcerting and baffling, because Italian is a poetic language and a portion of the message always goes unsaid. The larger this "shadow zone" is, the better (and harder) it becomes.
It is compressed, as you put it.

Thank you too, anon, you're welcome.

[Anonymous No.18129339]

>>18129282
Honestly he a like a monk. No girl/boy friends, no drinking no drugs loads of study – i think he knows 5 languages – and 4 hour long conversations. I loved going to his place and just talking fiction and poetry. I'll miss him like nothing else but ever since Covid happened i know we can have the same relationship over skype so hopefully things will last.

People like him tend to be subsumed into academia and turn social justicey and kinda crazy but since he doesn't have to he just does his own thing.

He well off and wont ever have to work for a living so if he ever writes some underappreciated masterpiece i'll be sure to post it here.

[Anonymous No.18129343]

>>18127624
Jansen's History of Art.

[Anonymous No.18129370]

Give him something that’s a part of you that relates to it. Trying to give a gift that fits too much into what the person would have bought sometimes results in duplicates.

I have a friend who know I shitpost on /lit/ and now I have two copies of Ulysses.

[Anonymous No.18129391]

>>18129339
He's just waiting for you to kiss him anon.

[Anonymous No.18129406]

>>18127624

The collected works of Vittorio Sgarbi.

[Anonymous No.18129424]

You know he the real deal since i showed him lit and he never gave a shit. He only ever came here when i linked him something.

[Anonymous No.18130107]

>>18129424
He probably doesn't feel lonely, that's it. People come here to have interactions, not because they need help or something. Good for him if he's such a cold soul.

[Anonymous No.18130930]

Interested aswell
bump!

[Anonymous No.18131015]

>>18130930