The rare art traditions : the history of art collecting and its linked phenomena wherever these have appeared

762 Pages·1981·39.594 MB·English

by  Joseph Alsop

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RARE ART TR
IE
The History of Art Collecting and
Linked Phenomena
Its
JOSEPH ALSOP
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THE RARE
ART TRADITIONS
The HistoryofArt Collectingand
Its Linked Phenomena
JOSEPH ALSOP
"Art historians have produced a rich
literature on the history ofart patronage
and art collecting through the ages, but
what we know about the art market and
the historyofartdealingiswoefully inad-
equate....It has remained for a private
sci r who is not an art historian by
tr? Mr. Joseph Alsop, to accom-
pl what we should have done long
—
ag H. W. Janson
Department ofFine Arts
New York University
thefirstcomprehensive, serious
hi r art collecting ever compiled,
bu r is much more than that. Art col-
let is not merely an idiosyncratic so-
ci; Mbit, with both glorious and sordid
It is also the basic element in a
remaitcably complex behavioral system,
which comprises art history, an art mar-
ket serving art collectors, art faking, art
(continued on backflap)
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BOSTOISI
PUBLIC
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Digitized by the Internet Archive
2012
in
http://archive.org/details/rarearttraditionOOalso
THE RARE ART TRADITIONS

Also by Joseph Alsop
FROM THE SILENT EARTH
FDR, A Centenary Remembrance
with StewartAlsop
THE REPORTER'S TRADE
with Robert Kintner
AMERICAN WHITE PAPER
MEN AROUND THE PRESIDENT
with Turner Catledge
THE 168 DAYS
Robert Nanteuil: Le Cardinal Mazarin dans la Galerie Haute de Son Palais, Paris,
Bibliotheque Nationale
Joseph Alsop
THE RARE ART
TRADITIONS
THE HISTORY OF ART COLLECTING
AND ITS LINKED PHENOMENA
WHEREVER THESE HAVE APPEARED
BOLLINGEN SERIES XXXV 27
•
3RINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS, New York
Cambridge, Philadelphia, San Francisco, London
Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Sydney
5
Some of this material has appeared in different form in the Times Literary Supplement and the
New York Review ofBooks.
The Andrew W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts delivered at the National Gallery of Art in 1978
were entirely based on this essay. The Mellon Lectures are issued as part of the Bollingen Series,
published by Princeton University Press. Much earlier versions of the first chapters were also the
basis of the Yaseen Lectures, delivered at the University of the State of New York at Purchase in
1976.
therareARTtraditions. Copyright © 1982 by Joseph Wright Alsop. All rights reserved. Printed in
theUnitedStatesofAmerica.Nopartofthisbookmaybeusedorreproducedinanymannerwhatsoever
without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and
reviews. For information address Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York,
N.Y. 10022. Published simultaneously in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, Toronto.
firstedition
Designer: SidneyFeinberg
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Alsop, Joseph Wright, 1910—
The rare art traditions.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
— —
1. Art Collectors and collecting History. 2. Art
and society. I. Title.
N5200.A4 1981 707'. 81^7218
ISBN 0-06-010091-5 AACR2
82 83 84 85 86 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1