On Quality in Art

An acclaimed art historian explains how to identify excellence in art

This book takes up the timeless problem of how to make a valid judgment about artistic quality. In his search for criteria of excellence in art, Jakob Rosenberg examines both the achievements and failures of other critics. He has carefully selected representative figures from the Renaissance to modern times: Giorgio Vasari, Roger de Piles, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Théophile Thoré, and Roger Fry. Drawing vital lessons from these critics, Rosenberg charts an effective approach to the challenges of judging quality in works of art by analyzing a number of master drawings of the fifteenth to twentieth centuries and comparing them with examples of followers or minor contemporaries. The result is a set of practical criteria that have weathered the centuries and that are applicable across diverse periods and styles.

Marvelously illustrated and brimming with insights from a legendary art critic and historian, On Quality in Art sheds invaluable light on drawings by Dürer, Raphael, Leonardo, Rubens, Rembrandt, Watteau, Degas, van Gogh, ranging up to Matisse, Picasso, and Marin.