Does anyone out there know of any books or videos or whatever that analyze master paintings for composition or color etc ?
It would be similar to what Robert Beverly hale does in his books - I found this very useful and was wondering if anyone knew of anything similar - but for master paintings instead??
Thanks in advance
gavin
Gavin,
You might try this for Color:
Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction (Paperback)
by John Gage
I can’t think of anything in particular off the top of my head for Composition…I’ll root about a bit and see if I can find anything. 
In the meantime, I would check Google for Art History syllabi perhaps and see what books they recommend to their students.
Cheers,
~Rebecca
Thanks for the link to the book and I shall do some rooting on the art history stuff ---- Im sure there are some books out there somewhere that have what Im looking for — it always takes quite a lot of legwork to find obscure stuff – but generally is rewarding.
Afterwards I’ll hopefully be in a position to advise the forum on where to go for this sort of thing in the future.
Thanks again!
gav
Gavin,
I don’t know what UK bookstores are like, but here they have two flavors of bookstore ~ gynormous chain bookstores ie Borders and Barnes & Noble (both of which have websites) and the small mom and pop specialty bookstores catering to the discriminating art market. While the big chains are obviously more convenient, my most treasured books come from smaller shops that sell higher quality and more obscure books (for example, my book of Pontormo’s drawings, darn if it isn’t in German!) ~ I would recommend just setting a book date and trekking off to some of these smaller shops which will doubtless be higher in quality.
Good luck! Let us know what you find.
Cheers,
~Rebecca
Hey Rebecca - thanks for the tips.
Yeah - little book shops are the best, as are most small companys (especially food companys!!) - down with the corporate marketplace!
There is quite a big borders in Glasgow - and in other major scottish cities - and while the art section is not bad - i fear that the book that will answer my questions will be as you say specialist – that means a hunt in london — theres a lot more little exotic book shops around charing X - but its WELL expensive down there. Heh.
Your pontormo book sounds really interesting - do you have a picture of it? I havent really read or even looked at any pontormo at all - i need to have a look at some point in the future - I know that he was an assistant to da vinci at one point was he not?? Those crazy eyes aswell. hehe
Gavin,
Here are some pics of my beloved Pontormo book:
[left]My precious! 
The last person who touched this book who wasn’t me died a horrible death…
Cheers,
~Rebecca
[/left]
Oh wow - thats a beautiful book rebecca! So shiny and new… and its got drawings AND paintings - looks great!
I take it by the amazon link that its not that commonplace? It sounds like you guard it well - so no need to tell you to look after it!! heh.
Did you pick it up by chance or was it something you hunted for??
g
Gavin,
I’m always on the lookout for a good drawing book, and places like Borders / B & N etc. have loads of painting but few drawing books. I happened by a bookstore on my old walking route to the metro a few years back ~ I can’t remember the name of it ~ Bader and Bader? ~ but it was a small specialty shop and they had several good books of Drawings. I also look for Drawing books at museums, but even there, there aren’t usually very many.
I’m not sure that the link is right ~ but the author / editor is Salvatore Nigro. It seems to be part of a series of books, IL LIBRO MIO. I’ll let you know if I find a link anywhere ~ I looked for one on Amazon, and the link I posted was as close as I could find.
I can’t recall how much this book was, but it was somewhere around $80~$100. Me likes. Me likes a lot!
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
Hey
I totally agree about the books on drawing - there are not as many GOOD books on drawings around as there should be. I think sometimes people tend to forget how useful looking at drawings can be for learning purposes.
Generally the national gallery stuff is good — i’ve been meaning to buy this book since i saw the exhibition last year :Raphael
I should really get around to it - its a hefty book aswell - theres a lot of raphael drawings and sketches, aswell as some michelangelo and da vinci stuff.
I love raphaels drawings!
Gavin,
Thanks for that link! You are great at finding good resources…anytime you feel like pointing something up, please feel free!
I love Raphael’s drawings as well, but of course I’m partial to those of Michelangelo, Pontormo, and Rubens. I really love those Pontormo eyes, lol!
Cheers,
~Rebeccak
oh oh I got one…!!!
I found the reproductions of the drawings in this one to be rather nice. I bought this after having seen the real deal in Amsterdam, and the prints are pretty close to how they look in real life… haven’t bothered to read the text yet so I cant said if the writing is any good but it holds drawing from most of the Italian masters and large pictures too, no small thumbnails.
LMAO! Damn, and with the holidays past…:rolleyes:…this goes on my Birthday list for sure!
Thanks for the link, David! 
Oh reflectedfight, I actually had a suggestion for you but got sidetracked. Here is a program, a seasoned oil painter recommended to me.
http://www.mxac.com.au/oilpaint.htm
I scanned a photo in it, it totally analyzed the photo and suggested all the different oil paint colors used in each area of the grid. Give it a shot;
Originally posted by Queensoul: This means I have to look for this book!
The alternative sounds very painful.
What’s the alternative? :shrug: Surely…not…borrowing…the…book!! :eek: :eek:
If you want to call it thaaaaaaat :shrug:
Have you tried that oil painting assistant before?
Corvax - Thanks for that - that looks like a good book actually.
Rebecca - I got good at finding stuff just out of a pure need to find the information that i need to learn. As i said in a previous post - once I have finished with all this stuff - I will be dropping a massive post on books and resources - I hopefully can cut the time for peeps on this forum in weeding through the crap information that is out there. Generally speaking - most art instruction/theory books that are OLD - are generally MILES better than the modern instructional books - thats at least in my opinion. vilppus stuff is top notch because of most of what he teaches is based on classical ideas and methods - and the guy has studied them aswell – I’ve been looking for antique art book lists or something similar on forums - but its very time consuming and boring at times - but it does turn up some gems. I found a book on Mucha in Glasgow University Library that hadnt been checked out in over 5 years… Crazy. But i think the most important thing you can have is just the desire to find the knowledge and information - if thats there then a lot of your worrys are solved - then its just lots of legwork and trawling to find what you need!
Im not sure how things in the states work regarding the public and university librarys - but here I had to pay 40 quid to become a special reader at Glasgow University library - and even then I had to be a graduate of a UK University. Is it a similar set-up in the states??
I had the stupid idea that universitys existed to actually offer knowledge and information to people - but of course theres ALWAYS a fee isnt there??
(im not bitter about this at all…) haha.
Queensoul - thanks for the link. I have bookmarked it and will check it out later!
Gavin,
You seem to be quite an expert at research, and I eagerly await your massive book drop!
Frankly, the last time I entered the hallowed halls of a library was sometime, erm, way back in the day, and generally I just frequent the big booksellers these days. But it’s good to know that you are carrying the torch of knowledge, as I really agree, a lot of the older books are definitely better.
If I had all the money in the world, my place would likely look like a miniature version of Border’s.
Cheers,
~Rebecca
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