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“little or no laniiliarity with the AI ticld”. I think that claim may be overstated. For example, I suspect the chapter headings may be somewhat obscure to someone who knows nothing about AI. On the other hand. the text is lucid and contains little jargon when compared with other books in the field. The editors are to be commended for that accomplishment. The Hundbook is a n unparalleled resource for those who know something about AI. The set does have a major limitation from the perspective of Leonardo readers. There is almost no material on humanistic or philosophical issues. In fact, it backs away from these issues when they arise in the text. for example, in the chapter on “Models of Cognition”. I can understand the editors’ probable motivations in maintaining scientific “purity”, but I think this is a major shortcoming in a book that purports to cover the field. The humanistic implications of A1 need lively attention. Reviewed by Stephen Wilson, Art Department, San Francisco State University, 1600Holloway Ave.. San Francisco. C A 94132. U.S.A. Russian and Greek Ikons from the Charles Pankow Collection of Russian and Greek Ikons through the Nineteenth Century. Van Doren Galleries. William Kaufmann Inc.. California, 1981. 80 pp.. illus. Cloth. $25.00. ISBN: 0-86576-034-9. At a time when the export of icons from the USSR has become subject to strict state control, the appearance of this beautiful catalogue of an accessible Western collection of Greek and Russian icons is particularly welcome. The introductory sentence by Heiden Van Doren Betz is perhaps misleading: “The Pankov Collection of Russian and Greek icons is a collection of paintings. not religious objects.” Icons are both paintings and objects of veneration, the flat surfaces of which are intended to radiate-as Betz goes on to say-“the New-Platonic concept of ideal o r universal truth”. St Augustine’s “splendor veritas”. Until recently. the British Museum did not deign to collect Russian icons, not because they were religious objects but because they were considered products o f a subculture. a peasant artform. If we needed proof to the contrary, the excellent articles by John Stuart (author of Ikons. Faber & Faber. London, 1975) and Dick Temple. together with the exquisite colour and imaginativealternation of whole composition and detail in these Japanese-printed reproductions. would be sufficient. True, even this rich collection does not afford an overall view of the development of icon painting. The remarkable thirteenthcentury St George. which serves as frontispiece, belongs to the primitive tradition, as, in a different way, d o several of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century northern Russian and Novgorod icons. The Greek icons, severe and superb in their fashion. are mostly of Cypriot origin. The period least represented is the exquisite pre-Renaissance Byzantine and Russian fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, though the quality of this period is to be glimpsed in the majestic St Nicholas and the rhythmical biographical icon of Elijah the Prophet (both fifteenth century) and in the gentle delicacy of the exceptionally fine Nicholas of Mozhaisk. There is also a charming eighteenth-century St George, already Lei-Ring on thc baroque, and a nineteenth-century depiction of the same saint that is more like an illustration to a Russian fairy tale. Although perhaps not a book for the specialist, this publication should prove essential for collectors and is beautiful enough for any art lover. The articles provide an excellent introduction to the philosophical principles underlying the composition of icons and tothehistoryoftherediscoveryofthisrich art form in our own century. Reviewed by Kirill Sokolov, 213 Gilesgate. Durham. D H I IQN. 1J.K. Russian Avant-Garde Art: The George Costakis Collection. Angelica 2. Rudenstine, ed. Thames & Hudson, London. 1981. 527 pp., illus. Cloth. 6528.00. ISBN: 0-500-23345-4. RuAAiun Avunr-Gorcie Arr is the official companion and catalogue to the immenseand unique collection of paintings, drawings and documentation amassed by George Costakis in Moscow during the three decades following the end of the Second World War. In 1977 Costakis decided to emigrate from the Soviet Union, leaving part of his collection to the Tret’yakov Gallery and taking the remainder with him. The latter has recently toured Europe...

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