It’s not so long ago that a doctrine known as ‘Formalism’ maintained that paintings could be reduced to arrangements of shape, color and formal arrangement, without bothering to consider other messages they might convey. Every Picture Hides a Story is a refreshing departure from this approach. Not only do paintings tell stories, this book demonstrates, but as is the way with good stories, they delve down into mysterious hidden secrets.
Whether considering the gender-bending aspects of da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or the anamorphic skull and inconsistent shadows of Holbein’s The Ambassadors, this provocative book makes a good case that the things that are most interesting about paintings are the stories that lurk below the surface, just on the fringe of conscious awareness.
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