Piero della Francesca /

Among the most significant achievements of the great Italian art historian, critic, and connoisseur Longhi (1890-1970) is his pioneering study of early Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca. The book was published in 1927 and refurbished by the author in 1950 and 1962, but Longhi's often daunting Italian has until now resisted satisfactory translation. Tabbat, who also contributed to the translation of Longhi's Three Studies, has not only made this provocative and mesmerizing work available to an English-language readership but also most intelligently updated the author's scholarship and illuminated his methodology. Nevertheless, the almost exclusively formalistic approach employed by Longhi in his scrutiny of Piero's work and the evocative and sometimes elusive style of his exposition will almost certainly confound readers not already familiar with this art. The rejection of a historical context, a lack of interest in content, and overstated insistence on the centrality of Piero to the history of European painting will also doubtless trouble a contemporary readership. Although this volume is manifestly not required for nonspecialized collections, any serious art history collection worth its salt should make it a mandatory acquisition.-Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.