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Disarmed ePub download

by Gregory Curtis

Author: Gregory Curtis
ISBN: 0750938714
ISBN13: 978-0750938716
ePub: 1547 kb | FB2: 1166 kb
Language: English
Publisher: Sutton Pub Ltd; 1st edition (December 31, 2004)
Pages: 272
Rating: 4.7/5
Votes: 353
Format: mobi azw lrf mbr

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Condition: Used: Good.

Curtis is a writer of generous wit, who packs his book with delicious portraits of the scholars, writers, artists and politicians who . Disarmed will be a startling book for readers expecting a dutiful art history lesson about a statue

Curtis is a writer of generous wit, who packs his book with delicious portraits of the scholars, writers, artists and politicians who contributed to the mythologizing of the Venus de Milo. San Jose Mercury News. Disarmed will be a startling book for readers expecting a dutiful art history lesson about a statue. It is instead a fiery and eccentric story, in whose pages all sorts of unforgettable characters fight for possession not just of the Venus de Milo herself, but of the tranquil, eternal, maddeningly elusive ideal of human perfection she represents.

Disarmed: the Story of the Venus De Milo. That was because classical Greece did not seem distant to a European in the 1820s. That was because classical Greece did not seem distant to a European in the 1820s much a part of the times. And the person who first thrust the remote Greek past into the consciousness of eighteenth-century Europe was born the son of an impoverished cobbler in Stendal, a remote and backward village in Bavaria. Good taste, which is becoming more prevalent throughout the world, had its origins under the skies of Greece.

Curtis seems to be a fan of Salomon Reinarch, dedicating more pages to his life and accomplishments than any other of the dignitaries that made their opinions known about the Venus. The final chapter does into what is suspected to be Venus' origins - the sculptor's name inscribed in the long-lost (deliberately?) base has been found mentioned in a couple other locations.

Gregory Curtis is the author of Disarmed: The Story of the Venus de Milo. Disarmed will be a startling book for readers expecting a dutiful art history lesson about a statue

Gregory Curtis is the author of Disarmed: The Story of the Venus de Milo.

Published in the United States by.

Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, In. New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of.

From the flurry of excitement surrounding her discovery, to the raging disputes over her authenticity, to the politics and personalities that have given rise to her mystique, Gregory Curtis has given us a riveting look at the embattled legacy of a beloved icon and a remarkable tribute to one of the world’s great works of art.

His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Fortune, Time, and Rolling Stone, among other places. A graduate of Rice University and San Francisco State College, he currently lives in Austin with his wife and four children.

The Story of Venus de Milo. He first takes us to the Greek island of Melos, where, on a trek, he saw signs marking the general area where the Venus was found in 1820 by a farmer who was digging at a site located by a curious French sailor, Olivier Voutier.

The Venus de Milo is a great work of art and a popular icon, and from the moment of her discovery in 1820, an object of controversy. Gregory Curtis sketches a tale of rich historical intrigue to bring this magnificent statue to life.

Umor

I first read the Curtis book on the cave painters, and enjoyed it, so I bought this one. He's written a fairly comprehensive report of this piece of art from the time it was first discovered in the 1800's almost to the present, and it's an interesting journey. Curtis has a painless manner of infusing history with anecdotes such that it reads more like a novel than a dry report on actual events. He's also very good at setting up the influences of the period and explaining why this piece of art was so important to France, particularly, and the world, in general. He discussed the fact that there was an unofficial competition between different European nations to have the greatest bits of ancient Greece in their own museums, and that victors in wars were known to loot these types of art specifically (e.g. the Apollo Belvedere traveled between France & the Vatican twice). The characters involved are colorful (and self-aggrandizing) and the different approaches to the restoration and placement of the Venus certainly make the history of this art a lot more contentious than is usually understood. As a student of art history, I was shocked to learn that curators (or their 19th century equivalent) would actually destroy things that didn't meet their ideas of what was and was not classical (the purposeful loss - or destruction - of some of these pieces is truly a sin, IMO). It's a good book, covers an interesting period, and features a great work of art. What's not to like?

Silly Dog

This is a fascinating and well written history of the discovery and subsequent exhibition of the Venus de Milo. Not only the archeology, but the politics (both within France and outside) and the cultural impact and changing provenance (Was it a from the "Classic" or "Hellenistic" period? and why this was important). If you have been to the Louvre and seen her, this backstory will enlighten you. If you are planning a trip to Paris and want to see her, read this book first. The author also wrote "The Cave Painters"—a wonderful book about the cave-artists at Lascaux, Altamira, Chauvet and more.If you are planning a trip to see the cave paintings of France and/or Spain, this is the book for you. (I actually came across this book first—at the new Chauvet-Pont D'Arc UNESCO World Heritage Site in France—and found it so enjoyable that I bought the Venus de Milo book and found it equally enjoyable and informative.) I look forward to more books by Mr. Curtis.

Clodebd

If you have been one of the thousands of visitors that pass before the Venus de Milo in the Louvre everyday, you may have asked yourself, what makes this one statue special? After all, there are thousands of statues in hundreds of famous as well as provincial museums that to the untutored eye seem no different. I bought this book to answer this question. It turns out that what is conclusively known about the statue can be expressed in two well-thought out sentences. I won't give it away here, but what then is in this book?

In a nutshell, lots of politics. The book describes the circumstances of the statue's discovery. As soon as it was discovered, the Venus became embroiled in controversy. Following the defeat of Napoleon the French were anxious to have a great prize to boost their national pride. The English had the Elgin marbles from the Parthenon. The Italians had the Apollo Belvedere (looted from Italy by Napoleon and at the time recently returned). Any old statue would not do for the French. To be a world-class masterpiece, it had to date from the classical period of Ancient Greece, i.e. from the 4th or 5th century BC, preferably attributable to a Praxiteles, Lysippus or Phidias. The statue that we have is nothing of the sort. The book describes the tortuous machinations by which successive Louvre officials strove to boost the fame of the Venus. Obviously, they were successful, but in the process, the true provenance of the statue has been obfuscated. For the same reason, serious research into it has been discouraged. As Curtis states, the last important study was under taken by Salomon Reinach at the end of the 19th century. This is amazing for an artifact so famous. Compare this with the history of the Louvre's other great treasure, the Mona Lisa! In reading the book I was surprised to find no mention of modern scientific techniques which at the minimum would determine the source of the marble. The powers that be would prefer not to look too closely.

That said, Curtis does make a cogent argument for the true origin of the Venus, which most readers will find satisfactory. Its appeal has stood the test of time and the scrutiny of thousands, so it hardly matters that it was carved by an obscure provincial sculptor. The conspiracy surrounding the statue notwithstanding, this is a serious book that will be interesting to art historians. It is nothing like the literature surrounding the Shroud of Turin. Readers willing to plough through the background information will be rewarded with an understanding of where the Venus de Milo came from and exactly why she is so famous. That, after all, is why I bought the book.

Simple

I read a glowing review of this book and so, because I'm always interested in well-written nonfiction, I decided to give it a try -- and am I ever glad I did. I've since passed the book on to friends who have likewise enjoyed it.

In very readable, smooth-flowing prose, the author reconstructs the story of how the Venus de Milo ended up in the Louvre. The story begins in the early 1800s, with a French officer stationed in Greece, and continues pretty much into the present day, tracing the disputes over the finding and expropriating (by the French) of the statue, its shipment to Paris, its placement in the museum, its storage, and all the controversies surrounding each of these steps. And more.

I did experience a minor frustration with this book, but not enough to lessen my five-star rating. The frustration was that the author spends some time throughout the book theorizing about the position of the statue's missing arms: what was Venus doing with her arms? After all this speculation, I REALLY wanted a drawing of the arms in the "most likely" position. But none was provided.

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