Medieval craftsmen: painters, and: Medieval craftsmen: glass painters (review)

Reviews 113 stimulating book. It ends with a balanced and lively appraisal of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, not usually discussed in tandem with other Middle English metrical romances. For this, and for its new look at a large body of medieval narratives, all students of English romance should extend to it a warm welcome. Judith Weiss Robinson College University of Cambridge Binski, Paul, Medieval craftsmen: painters, London, British Museum Press, 1991; paper; pp. 72; 71 plates; R.R.P. AUS$22.95; B r o w n , Sarah and David O'Connor, Medieval craftsmen: glass painters, London, British Museum Press, 1991; paper; pp. 72; 84 plates; R.R.P. AUSS22.95 [both distributed in Australia by Thames & Hudson]. These books testify to a major shift in art historical thinking in recent decades. Traditional emphasis upon a work of art as the product of an individual genius, subjected to the detached aesthetic contemplation of the informed connoisseur, has for many years come under increasing attack. Instead, much recent art history seeks to resituate the work within its original social context. Art is recognized as the product of social relationships distinct to a particular period and place, created to serve culturally-specific purposes and functions. With then emphasis on the processes of making, the particular social conventions and artistic practices involved in the production of a given work, these studies demonstrate the gains made by such 'social history' in recent years and a commitment to make such findings available to a wide audience. The books are intended for the general rather than the specialist reader. Each is a thin volume of large-format page size, amply illustrated with colour reproductions. The text is designed to provide a readable guide, unencumbered by scholarly apparatus of footnotes or extensive bibliography. This is both the strength and the weakness of the series as a whole. In each case, the text is intelligent, informative, and generally engaging, but the pitch remains even, undisturbed by contentious issues of interpretation and dispute. At times, the accumulation of neutrally presented factual information becomes overwhelming, without the benefit of detailed interpretation and analysis. 114 Reviews Those wishing to follow up references in the text are frustrated by the absence of footnotes and more than a minimal bibliography. For example, in the book on glass painters, the pioneering work of Michael Baxandall is mentioned without reference in either notes or bibliography to the details of the publication: undoubtedly his famous study on Renaissance art, Painting and experience infifteenth-centuryItaly (Oxford, 1972). Similarly, the authors several times invoke 'recent research' on specific topics with no further indication of author ortitle,leaving one unable to follow up such references in the originals. The wealth of illustrations, drawn from a wide range of media and locale, is one of the undisputed draws of the series, luring the eye with many beautiful and often little known examples. Yet if one wishes to pursue these further afield, it is a difficult and time-consuming task to discover the location. One must turn to the fine print in the list of photo credits, arranged according to the institution supplying the photograph rather than following the numbers of the text. These are relatively minor cavUls by one perhaps wishing for more than what the series itself sets out to do. As general introductions to the findings of recent 'social history', these works are useful and stimulating guides. Paul Binski's study of painters is less satisfying than the companion volume on glass-painters. Nevertheless, it remains a pertinent introduction to the subject A short introduction surveys intelligently the range of extant sources upon which one can draw in studying the working conditions of medieval and Renaissance artists: from paintings themselves to administrative documents, contracts, and wills, and the few surviving examples of painters' handbooks. The book is arranged in three sections, devoted in turn to the painter, the product and the process. The middle section is appreciably the weakest, lacking a clearly defined structure and lapsing into rather disjointed fragments of information with no readily apparent overall coherency. The section on the painter properly begins by stressing that the customary distinction between monastic painters in the...