[Item #6218] Art of Ancient Italy: Etruscans, Greeks and Romans. Herbert A. Cahn, Rita Perry.
Art of Ancient Italy: Etruscans, Greeks and Romans
Art of Ancient Italy: Etruscans, Greeks and Romans

Art of Ancient Italy: Etruscans, Greeks and Romans

New York, NY: Andre Emmerich Gallery Inc., 1970. First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. “For many generations before the arrival in the repertory of Etruscan archaic sculpture, the sphinx with its head of a woman and body of a small feline with curled wing had, permeated mainland and Peloponnesian Greek art from the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. By 600 B.C. there were already monumental marble sphinxes as warning and protecting demons atop the thin, rectangular shafts of Attic grave stelae. Sphinxes were dedicated on columns and shafts in the major temple precincts of Greece. A roving Etruscan sculptor had to journey southeast across the Adriatic at least no farther than Olympia to see one or more marble sphinxes beautifully wrought in the early archaic style.' (C. Vermeule, Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin, Boston, 329, 1964, 109)” [from Catalog, p. 25]. So reads a thickly nutritive portion of this unique catalog, "Art of Ancient Italy: Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans" put out in 1970 by the Andre Emmerich Gallery of New York, coincident with an April 4-29, 1970 exhibition of the same name. The Emmerich Gallery location was at 41 East 57th Street, “a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan.” Unique to the context of the Gallery Catalog exhibited here, starting in the 1890s with the development of Carnegie Hall, 57th Street became an artistic hub. With the advent of the 21st centry, the section between 5th and 8th Avenues (two blocks south of central park) became “Billionaires’ Row.” Yet, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this section of New York once also featured Artists’ Studio Apartments (like the Rembrand at 152 W. 57th St. and the Sherwood one street over). We relay all this history to highlight not only the changes in New York, but how this very catalog attests to those changes — art-historically and also sociologically. The idea that it was becoming a place for gallery spaces, where the well-to-do could buy “pictures” that testified to how “well-to-do” they were, also testifies to the landscape of a changing New York which continues its onward march relentlessly today. Speaking, now to the gallery catalog itself, however — featuring, as it does, the “Art of Ancient Italy” — we'll add that it's more than a pamphlet made to preen prospective buyers. It’s actually a pensively erudite, historical capsulation of several centuries of Italian art history with all the key factors of what are called “Objects” among collectors explicated: how an Etruscan face differs from a Roman one, for example. Delights such as these and more await in the “Art of Ancient Italy,” curious and revealing today as it ever was. From the collection of Barbara (1935-2023) & Irving (1933-2018) Nusbaum - world travelers, connoisseurs, eminent collectors of art & books, and the dearly beloved late parents of our esteemed founder, Arthur S. Nusbaum. In near fine condition with only moderate-to-enunciated shelf-wear, light bumping to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; moderate-to-enunciated rubbing & some smudging to front, back covers of same, otherwise generally clean. Near Fine. [Item #6218]

Price: $15.00