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Books 77 Bernard Berenson. The Making of a Connoisseur. Ernest Samuels. Harvard Univ. Press, London, 1979. 477 pp., illus.£9.50. Reviewed by Gerhard Charles Rump* History of art, as a scholarly discipline with all institutional regalia, is little older than a century. Present-day art historians are only gradually becoming aware of the history of their own discipline, but there is a growing number of publications either partly or even wholly devoted to this aspect, the most notable attempt being the recently published book by Heinrich Dilly entitled Kunstgeschichte als Institution (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1979). Samuels, Emeritus Professor of English at Northwestern University, has now joined the ranks of those exploring the history of the history of art by presenting this sound and sane monograph. His primary concern is, of course, the biography of Bernard Berenson or BB who as a character is so tightly interwoven with the history of art that Samuels' book is, inevitably, a major contribution to the history of the history of art. Berenson was a formidable connoisseur, a breed of scholars that has become almost extinct, and it is the book's professed aim to outline how Berenson became such an eminent connoisseur and powerful, influential figure in the art world. Berenson had the willpower, the means and the possibilities to spend many months travelling through Europe to visit museums and even rather special and remote private collections when he was still in his formative years-'he thought of himself as plastic an object as the hero of a romance in the brain of a novelist' (p. 97). As an accomplished scholar and connoisseur, Berenson became the most influential authority on Italian art in Britain and in the U.S.A.-there was practically no way around him for an Italian painting that was bound for a public or private collection in the U.S.A. Residing in his villa in Florence, he, like a spider in his web, pulled very many strings and controlled a lot of activities, very often with incessant energy and emotional engagement. It is not so that his authority alwayswent undisputed-e-on the contrary, he had many enemies. He could not even avoid repeated contact with his foes, as he was, for many years, a very active member of the Consultative Committee of the Burlington Magazine, then a rather new journal, but bound to succeed in becoming an almost incredibly authoritative periodical in the art world and keeping this position until very recently. Samuels very aptly titled the chapter dealing with Berenson's dealings with the Journal The Wars a/the Burlington (pp. 390-401). I found this one of the most interesting chapters of the book, and I constantly shook my head in wonder as the author very cooly revealed the loathsome jealousies and machinations behind the scene of such a distinguished Journal. The book offers such an incredible amount of detailed information that any attempt at rendering its contents in a review is bound to fail miserably. But it must be stressed that, however strongly focussing on Berenson himself, Samuels presents the subject of his study always within the necessary framework of his relations to and dealings with other characters , some as powerful and important as himself: William James, Bertrand Russell, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Roger Fry, Isabella Stewart Gardner and, naturally, his wife Mary Smith Costelloe-Berenson, herself a noted specialist in the same field as her husband. Samuels draws on a wealth of primary sources, thousands of letters and diary entries by either BB himself or his wife and, additionally, many printed sources as well. Surely an impeccable monograph, well written, fascinating to read and, most important, offering a number of very valuable insights into the making of a man, a scholarly discipline and an important period of the Western art world. Meet Moses: Fifty-Four Drawings. Mortimer Borne. Abaris Books, New York, 1978. 112 pp., illus. $18.50. Reviewed by R. S. Biran"'''' *Ubierstrasse 135, D-53oo Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Fed. Rep. Ger. **107South Broadway, Nyack, NY 10960, U.S.A. LEO 14:1 _ F The success of Borne's Visual Bible Ninety-Two Drawings [Books, Leonardo 10, 346 (1977)] has prompted him...

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