Bernard Berenson Popular Books

Bernard Berenson Biography & Facts

Bernard Berenson (June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959) was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. His book The Drawings of the Florentine Painters was an international success. His wife Mary is thought to have had a large hand in some of the writings. Berenson was a major figure in the attribution of Old Masters, at a time when these were attracting new interest by American collectors, and his judgments were widely respected in the art world. Personal life Berenson was born Bernhard Valvrojenski in Butrimonys, Vilnius Governorate (now in Alytus district of Lithuania) to a Litvak family – father Albert Valvrojenski, mother Judith Mickleshanski, and younger siblings including Senda Berenson Abbott. His father, Albert, grew up following an educational track of classical Jewish learning and contemplated becoming a rabbi. However, he became a practitioner of Haskalah, a European movement which advocated more integration of Jews into secular society. After his home and lumber business were destroyed by fire, he lived with his more traditionalist in-laws who pressured him to enroll Bernard with a Hebrew and Aramaic tutor. Instead, they immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1875, whereupon the family name was changed to "Berenson." Bernard converted to Christianity in 1885, becoming an Episcopalian. Later, while living in Italy, he converted to Catholicism. After graduating from Boston Latin School, he attended the Boston University College of Liberal Arts as a freshman during 1883–84, but, unable to obtain instruction in Sanskrit from that institution, transferred to Harvard University for his sophomore year. He graduated from Harvard and married Mary Smith, who became a notable art historian in her own right. Mary was the sister of Logan Pearsall Smith and of Alys Pearsall Smith, the first wife of Bertrand Russell. Mary had previously been married to barrister Frank Costelloe. Bernard Berenson was also involved in a long relationship with Belle da Costa Greene. Samuels (1987) mentions Mary's "reluctant acceptance (at times)" of this relationship. Among his friends were American writer Ray Bradbury, who wrote about their friendship in The Wall Street Journal and in his book of essays, Yestermorrow; Natalie Barney, who lived in Florence during World War II, and also her partner, Romaine Brooks; and art collector Edward Perry Warren. His circle of friends also included Isabella Stewart Gardner, Ralph Adams Cram, and George Santayana, the latter two having met each other through Bernard. Marisa Berenson, an actress, is a distant cousin of Berenson's through Louis Kossivitsky. Louis was a nephew of Berenson's father, Albert Valvrojenski, the orphaned son of his sister. On arrival in the U.S. both Kossivitsky and Valvrojenski took the name of Berenson (Meryle Secrest, Being Bernard Berenson, p. 34). Her sister, Berry Berenson, was an actress/photographer, and the wife of actor Anthony Perkins. Berry died on American Airlines Flight 11 in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City. Professional life Among US collectors of the early 1900s, Berenson was regarded as the pre-eminent authority on Renaissance art. Early in his career, Berenson developed his own unique method of connoisseurship by combining the comparative examination techniques of Giovanni Morelli with the aesthetic idea put forth by John Addington Symonds that something of an artist's personality could be detected through his works of art. While his approach remained controversial among European art historians and connoisseurs, he played a pivotal role as an advisor to several important American art collectors, such as Isabella Stewart Gardner, who needed help in navigating the complex and treacherous market of newly fashionable Renaissance art. Berenson's expertise eventually became so well regarded that his verdict of authorship could either increase or decrease a painting's value dramatically. In this respect Berenson's influence was enormous, while his 5% commission made him a wealthy man. (According to Charles Hope, he "had a financial interest in many works...an arrangement that Berenson chose to keep private." ) Starting with his The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance with an Index to their Works (1894), his mix of connoisseurship and systematic approach proved successful. In 1895, his Lorenzo Lotto: An Essay on Constructive Art Criticism, won critical acclaim, notably from Heinrich Wölfflin. It was quickly followed by The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance (1896), lauded by William James for its innovative application of "elementary psychological categories to the interpretation of higher art". In 1897, Berenson added another work to his series of guides, publishing The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance. After that, he devoted six years of work to The Drawings of the Florentine Painters, which was published in 1903. In 1907, he published his The North Italian Painters of the Renaissance, where he expressed a judgement against Mannerist art, which may be related to his love for Classicism and his professed distaste for Modern Art. His early works were later integrated in his The Italian Painters of the Renaissance (1930), which was widely translated and reprinted. He also published two volumes of journals, "Rumor and Reflection" and "Sunset and Twilight". He is also the author of Aesthetics and History and Sketch for a Self-portrait. I Tatti His residence in Settignano near Florence, which has been called "I Tatti" since at least the 17th century, became The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, a research center offering a residential fellowship to scholars working on all areas of the Italian Renaissance. He had willed it to Harvard well before his death, to the bitter regret of his wife, Mary. It houses his art collection and his personal library of books on art history and humanism, which Berenson regarded as his most enduring legacy. A portrait of daily life at the Berenson "court" at I Tatti during the 1920s, may be found in Sir Kenneth Clark's 1974 memoir, Another Part of the Wood. "During WW2, barely tolerated by the Fascist authorities and, later on, by their German masters, Berenson remained at 'I Tatti.' When the frontline reached it at the end of the summer of 1944, he wrote in his diary, "Our hillside happens to lie between the principal line of German retreat along the Via Bolognese and a side road... We are at the heart of the German rearguard action, and seriously exposed.". The villa remained unharmed. Also unharmed was the bulk of his collections, which had been moved to a villa at Careggi. However, Berenson's Florence apartment in the Borgo San Jacopo was destroyed, with some of its contents, during the German retreat from Florence. Through a secret agreement in 1912, Berenson enjoyed a close relationship with Joseph Duveen, the period's most influential art dealer, who often relied heavily on Berenson's opinion to complete sales of wo.... Discover the Bernard Berenson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Bernard Berenson books.