Thomas HovingCritiques

can't improve on the one review I saw on goodreads which said " museum curator loves cross, himself"That pretty much sums it up perfectly. Hoving is self aggrandizing but also an interesting commentator. The artwork provides a good deal of the story and the somewaht shady Topic mimara, who seels the cross , is a memorable character

Thomas Hoving è stato un importante curatore e amministratore d'arte, noto soprattutto per essere stato il direttore del Metropolitan Museum of Art di New York dove, negli anni Settanta, organizzò una grande mostra sul tesoro di Tutankhamon, esponendovi molti dei preziosi reperti provenienti dalla tomba del giovane faraone. Egli è l’autore di diversi saggi, alcuni oggetto di discussione, dedicati a quello che è forse il faraone più conosciuto dell’Antico Egitto e, probabilmente, il più fotografato, grazie alla preziosa maschera rinvenuta nel suo sepolcro ed esposta al Museo Egizio del Cairo. Tra i suoi libri c’è anche questo “Tutankhamon. Una storia sconosciuta” pubblicato nel 1978 (in Italia l’anno seguente per i tipi della Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, collana Le Scie) ed ancora oggi considerato, per la sua struttura saggistico narrativa, uno dei più apprezzati lavori che raccontano in modo coinvolgente la storia della scoperta e dell'esplorazione della tomba di Tutankhamon nel 1922 da parte dell'archeologo britannico Howard Carter.

Parliamo di trecentocinquanta pagine nelle quali l’autore, grazie al suo stile narrativo vivace, con drammatizzazioni degne della migliore fiction, racconta la storia di una delle più entusiasmanti scoperte archeologiche e delle persone coinvolte in questa grande avventura tra le sabbie che bagnano il Nilo, degna di Indiana Jones. La scoperta della tomba del faraone egiziano, avvenuta nella sera del 26 novembre 1922 nella Valle dei Re, sulla sponda del fiume riservata alla necropoli, opposta a quella dei grandi templi di Luxor, costituì il più ricco ritrovamento sulla civiltà dell’Antico Egitto. Gli scavi, condotti per più di dieci anni, riportarono alla luce migliaia e migliaia di pezzi di grande valore storico e artistico. Un rinvenimento sensazionale per l’epoca, che impressionò tutto il mondo.

La notizia si diffuse con grande celerità, trasmessa dai nuovi mezzi di comunicazione che proprio in quegli anni erano entrati nell'uso corrente: il telegrafo e il telefono furono installati persino nella tomba stessa. Durante gli scavi i ricercatori si servirono di quelli che erano allora i mezzi tecnici d'avanguardia: furono impiegate le prime fotografie a scatto costante automatico e le pellicole cinematografiche a velocità variabile.

“Tutankhamon. Una storia sconosciuta” ci racconta tutto questo ed è stato ristampato più e più volte: nel 2022 una nuova edizione è stata pubblicata dall’editore Res Gestae con la medesima traduzione curata da Inessa Lucci dell’edizione originale del 1979. Vi si trovano dettagli affascinanti sulla vita e sulla morte di Tutankhamon, sulle circostanze che hanno portato alla scoperta della sua tomba e sui tesori straordinari trovati al suo interno. Hoving dipinge un quadro molto chiaro delle persone coinvolte nel ritrovamento e nella successiva analisi dei reperti, offrendoci una narrazione densa, a tratti carica di tensione.

Se, grazie al ritrovamento della sua sepoltura, Tutankhamon, una figura storica indistinta vissuta più di tremila anni fa e morto in giovane età in circostanze misteriose intorno al 1350 a.C., diventò di colpo uno dei personaggi più noti degli anni Venti, lo stesso destino toccò ai suoi due scopritori: Howard Carter, egittologo britannico, e George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, Lord Carnarvon, il ricco mecenate che aveva finanziato le ricerche. Carnarvon morì l’anno successivo: si disse che a ucciderlo fosse stata la maledizione risvegliata dal dissotterramento della mummia e questa voce accese la curiosità e l'eccitazione del pubblico. Ne seguirono centinaia di libri che, secondo Thomas Hoving, erano ben lontani da raccontare con precisione i fatti che portarono alla scoperta, gli eventi di recupero del tesoro del faraone e lo studio accurato degli stessi.

“Come capo del gruppo che per conto del Metropolitan Museum ha organizzato il giro americano della mostra « I tesori di Tutankhamon», a partire dal 1975 mi trovai immerso in tutto ciò che si riferiva a questo misterioso Re-ragazzo. E così cominciai a leggere ogni cosa, sia divulgativa sia scientifica, dedicata a questo soggetto. Ho studiato le 180 pagine del Journal of Entry, dove Carter registrava ogni oggetto rimosso dalla tomba e depositato nelle gallerie del Museo delle antichità egizie al Cairo. Ho esaminato con cura ciascuno dei quasi cinquemila pezzi esposti nelle sale. Sono diventato un grande ammiratore di Howard Carter e del suo mecenate, Lord Carnarvon: mi affascinavano i loro caratteri, i loro metodi di lavoro, i rapporti che avevano allacciato con lo staff della Sezione egizia del Metropolitan Museum, le loro relazioni con la Sovraintendenza alle antichità del Cairo. Cercando di ricostruire un'immagine generale dell'accaduto, ho raggruppato i pezzi provenienti dalle quattro stanze della tomba e - nei limiti del possibile - li ho messi nell’ordine in cui furono scoperti e poi rimossi dai ricercatori. Volevo ricreare in tal modo i momenti vissuti da Carter e i suoi compagni in quell’anno esaltante della scoperta”.

Questo scrive nella sua prefazione l’autore che molti hanno apprezzato per la sua capacità di dare vita, pur nella logica di scrivere un saggio, ad un racconto coinvolgente, entusiastico per certi versi. Ma è comunque sempre necessario, nell'affrontare la lettura, non dimenticare che Hoving non era un egittologo professionista, ma un curatore d'arte, quindi talvolta propenso a pindariche interpretazioni speculative che molti, negli anni, hanno definito come basate su supposizioni, piuttosto che su prove concrete. Aggiungo poi, per dovere di cronaca, che molte nuove scoperte e ricerche sono state fatte nel campo dell'egittologia dopo la pubblicazione del libro, il cui contenuto potrebbe essere affetto da piccoli anacronismi o lacune.

Resta invece immutato lo stile empatico con cui Thomas Hoving sa vestire il lettore dei panni dell’egittologo e condurlo per mano in un’entusiasmante caccia al tesoro. E lo fa cercando di ricostruire l'ordine preciso della rimozione degli oggetti dalle quattro stanze della tomba fatta da Carter, accortosi durante le sue ricerche che esistevano inspiegabili discrepanze tra il testo e la documentazione fotografica composta da più di 1.800 immagini scattate sul posto da Harry Burton, il fotografo del Metropolitan Museum.

E nel farlo non solo ci riporta a rivivere i momenti di uno dei grandi eventi dell’archeologia, ma mette in luce, accanto ai reperti dell’Antico Egitto, una verità non sempre nobile, limpida
e trionfalistica come il racconto riportato dalle cronache arrivate sino a noi. Una verità talvolta permeata di intrighi, di complotti segreti, di attività politiche mascherate, di sotterfugi, di interessi personali, di arroganza, di menzogne, di oscure speranze, di ferite e di dolori. Ma in fondo è questo che trasforma una cronaca in un romanzo.

Pubblicato su: https://www.territoridicarta.com/blog/tutankhamon-una-storia-sconosciuta-lavvent...
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Thomas Hoving's very personal account of how clever he was to acquire a medieval English walrus ivory crucifix for the Cloisters in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where he was a rising star. Very full of his own feelings and his intrigues with officials in his own and other museums and the cross's then owner, a dubious Yugoslav. Displays his remarkable ignorance of the Passion story and related materials as told in the Latin Vulgate Bible, which he apparently had to teach himself de novo to understand the sculptures on the cross. Interesting though depressing interpretation linking anti-Jewish images and texts on the cross to the anti-Jewish policies of a leading monk of Bury St. Edmunds, who may have commissioned it to celebrate his victory over an allegedly corrupt pro-Jewish faction. Has some nice detailed pictures of the carvings.

3/23/22

Let's bid 2.5. There are really two parts to this book. The first section is all about various museum pieces that are fakes: how they were gotten, who uncovered the fakery, etc. It's about the process of uncovering fakes, told from the point of view of the curator or purchaser, naturally. The problem with this section is that it is decidedly encyclopedic and when there are pictures of the item in question, the photos are halfway through the back of the book. Definitely inconvenient and made more frustrating because Hoving mentions tons of artwork and there are only pictures of a few of them. So between reading, looking for photos, and looking up the piece of art on the Internet, I did get exasperated. The second part of the book really follows Hoving and his nemesis Frel, very shady character who bought for the Getty. This begin in an interesting manner and then becomes so full of detail and proofs that the reader begins to lose the impetus and gets mired in detail, similar to the flaws of the first part of the book. Read only if you are passionately interested and can handle Hoving's monumental ego.

lots of fun½

NA

Interesting behind-the-scenes look at the running of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Art for Dummies is a book in the popular series. It discusses the idea of building up your ‘eye’ for art and becoming a Connoisseur. So it talks about delving into the art world and provides plenty of samples and pieces. This is probably for the best since I don’t know what to look for in a piece of art. I am quite the uncultured swine in this case. I can tell you that something looks cool, or interesting, but that is about it. Take the Mona Lisa for example. All I can see is a picture of a Smiling Woman. Other people will see different things, and that is what makes it art I suppose.

As with all books in the Dummies series, to begin it defines the topic it deals with. What exactly is art? As such, art is confusing to many since it is so subjective. You can have art that is feces on a canvas, though that is more of a joke of mine than anything. Along the way, we are treated to some art history that starts with the Lascaux Caves and goes through the ages up to the modern period. The author, Thomas Hoving, gives examples of each period that he mentions and each area of interest. So let’s take Mesopotamia for example; he talks about Sumer, Akkad, Lagash, Assyria, and Neo-Babylonia. Hoving gives the dates that these people were making art and in power and talks a bit about what the pieces were made of and what they look like. Not all of the pieces mentioned have images, so when he talks about a statue found in the city of Nippur that is made of Gypsum and inlaid with shell and precious stones you have to use your imagination a bit.

Once Hoving gets into the Renaissance Period he begins to name the artists that made the pieces and talks about spotting fakes and replicas over originals. He makes Bullet point lists about everything, so it is pretty easy to take in.

So if you ever wanted to learn how to do those things or become a collector of some kind, this book is a good point to begin at. I mean, the author even states that the best way to be good at looking at art is to look at a lot of art. It makes a sort of tautology, but this makes sense. I mean, the best way to get good at reading is to read a lot and to examine what you have read.

I particularly love his study of Helga. While I find her rather...uh...manish, you can see through his art how beautiful she was in his eyes.

The Metropolitan Art Museum is one of my favorite places to visit. To sip tea in the American Wing, overlooking Central Park, is lovely. To see the Tiffany glass works and the large Rodin statue in that wing is one of my favorite things to do. And, during the holidays to visit the incredible Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche is a sheer joy. The American Wing contains the Winslow Homer painting titled Gulf Stream, and I love to absorb every detail of this stunning work!

So, then, what's not to like about the museum, except, the previous director! In his book, page after page is filled with me, me, me, me, me, me, me.

Hailing from a small town, of course, I have no reference of cultivating millionaires, or knowing just the right thing to say at the right time, I imagine that directing such a prestigious museum, fund raising, and navigating through a pinkies-in-the air board of directors has many challenges.

Still, I could not enjoy the book because of the many references to his accomplishments, his hobnobbing, his snobbery, and thus, the continual name dropping made finishing the book a sheer agonizing accomplishment.

I enjoyed reading Museum: Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Danny Danziger. It was a joy to learn about the Met through his wonderful interviews of employees.
That was a five star book; doesn't light up at all.

Hoving was more impressed and obsessed with himself and all the glamorous people he touched rather than explaining the every day workings of the Met.

He may have made the mummies dance, but I'm very sure that after one round, they were happy to go back into their sarcophagus.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Magnificence. Instead of getting a wordy autobiography, Wyeth gives us his paintings and provides the reasoning and associated memories with each work of art. Now, that's a true biography. Thus we see the artist as the artist, not as a biographer wants to be seen.

Wyeth was a Regional Realist and very East Coast American, which also comes across in his descriptions. The reader can look at The Cider Barrel, for instance, and discover that good cider needs to be kept filled to the brim. If that information wasn't there, the picture would still stand, but now you view it in a completely different way.

He also brings out his technique, such as not being as neat as his father, N.C. Wyeth, was with his illustrations. His father's death deeply affected Andrew, as seen in Weatherside. The Olson house is falling apart, but instead of cleaning the artwork, Wyeth remains real, because his father's tragic death reminded him that all things pass and nothing holds still forever. Same with Marsh Hawk, a tempura showing old wagon trains that were later destroyed in a flood. Nothing lasts.

Wyeth can also be humorous, and this is where his descriptions are so apt. Storm At Sea was painted with most of the lighthouse purposely cut off, which irritated a passing tourist who remarked, "You can see he's an amateur by how he's cut off the top of the lighthouse." Everyone is a critic!

"You're in the lap of the gods-almost like painting with your eyes half-closed. Sometimes I don't want to see too clearly."

This entire book is a treasure, not just for the incredible art but for the honesty and the intimacy that Wyeth provides us. I now want to travel to Maine and Chadds Ford, PA to see the countryside and the people of Andrew Wyeth's world.

Book Season = Winter (snow, dry, colorless)

I particularly love his study of Helga. While I find her rather...uh...manish, you can see through his art how beautiful she was in his eyes.

Publication for an exhibition in 1976 of works by Andrew Wyeth

This boek is about the conflict between Howard Carter and the authorities in Egypt, not about Tutankhamun. That makes it not so interesting. Unfortunately it also gives a black and white picture of Howard Carter. I do not recommend this book to people who like to know more about Tutankhamun. Only if you have already everything about the discovery of the grave of Tutankhamun and the life of Howard Carter, it may present the last pieces of the puzzle.½

Probably the most readable book on Tutankhamun! Hoving never lets one's interest flag. Very enjoyable (and informative, the perfect combination).

There is something about the world of crime as it intersects with art that is just fascinating. The cleverness – sometimes brilliance – applied to creating forgeries, cheek by jowl with sometimes massive stupidities that either reveal them or blind suckers who believe in them; the pervasiveness of copies through time and space; the age-old question of why a forgery is worth less than an original when experts can't tell which is which (Mr. Hoving makes his opinion on this topic very clear). In his long career in and around the art world, Hoving collected more stories than, it seems, any other six people combined, and happily among his many gifts was a gossipy, intelligent, conversational writing style which sets those stories down in some terrific pot-boilers of books.

My only regret about False Impressions is the sparseness of illustrations. There are quite a few black-and-white photos inserted, of a few of the works of art discussed as well as people and events along the way, but there are so very many works examined which aren't included, for some of which Goodsearch and Google come up lemons. Ideally, of course, I would have loved to have seen all of the forgeries – and, where applicable, their originals. There is one example of both side by side, challenging the reader to pick which was which, and yes, I did pick correctly, therefore finding it to be a great idea. For the rest, I spent quite a bit of time combing the internet, with decidedly mixed results; some of the forgeries that were discovered have been relegated to storage deep in the bowels of the Met, and will never be seen again by the ordinary public.

Hoving talks here, as in Making the Mummies Dance, about handling the old and beautiful and unique, and that inevitably rouses deep jealousy in me. But he was well aware of the privilege and responsibility and honor of being able to do so, which keeps me from feeling full-blown hate-you envy; he never lost his admiration and adoration of art, never became jaded about the Monets and Vermeers and medieval altarpieces, was as excited by the last wonderful piece he handled as he was by the first - which all is one of the reasons I love to read his books.

This is a great little book for curators and art aficionados. You are given detail shots of works in the Met's collection and have to identify the work and the artist. I would love to see this as a series of books divided by art genre.

After reading this book, the impression I'm left with is that Thomas Hoving is a huge snob.

Basically this book covers the early years of his appointment to director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. I think it helps to have visited the museum to properly appreciate the works he talks about acquiring, and the changes he made to the building.

It is interesting to read a behind-the-scenes account of acquiring works and museum management - but a lot of it is just name dropping and casually mentioning million-dollar price tags. If I ever become a museum director (Lord, save me from that fate) I would want to read this again, but as a lowly curator it makes my brow furrow in disgust.

It receives three and a half stars because it is well written - not because I like the content.½

Woo. Never a dull moment. No spade not called a spade, no opinion unexpressed. One thing I will certainly say for Hoving, though, is that he isn't any more afraid to discuss his own foibles and shortcomings and outright failures than he is everyone else's. That's part of what makes his writing appealing. When his own horn deserves tooting, it certainly gets tooted (and, again, he is fair - others' horns toot all over the place as well), but he doesn't ignore his errors. I'm still stunned by the sheer underhandedness that went into the acquisition of many, if not most, of the works in the museum, and the strata of hatred and enmity and cronyism (?) throughout the art and antiquities community. Maybe it's just as well I never went that route (it was a passing dream) - I would have been eaten alive. I was attracted by the title, which was Hoving's intent when he became Director of the Met. And he did it.

False Impressions is a book about art forgery, mostly the adventures and misadventures of Thomas Hoving as he has detected forgeries, and, to his chagrin, learned that he has been fooled. It is interesting, but not terribly gripping. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but for those with an interest, it's an amiable read.

One disappointment is that the book is not better illustrated. Some of the items that he mentions before getting to his own personal experiences are illustrated in Fake? The Art of Deception the heavily illustrated (mostly in color) catalog of an exhibit at the British Museum. It is a worthy read for anyone interested in the history of art forgeries.

Hoving says "I tend to look upon works of art as partly spiritual and mysterious and partly human and fragile. [...] Because of the complex mixture of humanity and divinity in works of art, it's vital to me that they are what they are supposed to be. It's a matter of human trust." Later: "As the great art critic Walter Pach said of fakes back in 1927, 'A work of art is a thing of life. The imitation is dead. " I am not fully convinced of this.

Consider a prize of the Cloisters' collection, a finger reliquary described as "the epitome of the soaring Gothic style in one small object." In the time that it took Erich Steingräber to explain why he thought it was a forgery, it became "insubstantial. It possessed no weight or heft, or indeed, character. It was only a thin shade, and image of something grand and deeply religious." A mystery, indeed.

Or consider a small sculpture of Virgin and Child supported by angels "made by an artisan who had managed to combine religious piety with the tenderness of motherhood, dogma, and reality. It was an image of such elegant sinuosity that I fell in love at once." But then he realizes that it is a nasty forgery, that it was "elegant and sweet, human and polite" when it should have been "a little awkward, steely, quirky, shadowed with a bit of angst." O.K., it may not be 15th century, but does it not still have all the qualities that it had before? It seems to me that the chief glory of art is not the ability to be slipped into a given pigeonhole of history.

It seems to me that forgery is indeed a breach of human trust, as Hoving says, even when it is not technically a fraud; the forger hoped to fool someone. It is also an offense against history, and, most poignantly, an offense against art and beauty. Not because it is a forgery, but because so often the forger creates an object of beauty and then damages it to make it look old.

But of course, if the forgers were open, and produced works freely admitting that they are modern, they wouldn't be considered as art. The pigeonholes of art history would condemn them. This seems very wrong-headed to me. If the Virgin and Child moves us when it was thought to be 15th century, why shouldn't it move us if it is openly 20th century? It seems to me that art has taken second place to art history and art criticism.

A classic in the art history/discovery genre, non-fiction of course. The characters were all realistic and not caricatures, the events were believable and intriguing, and it was generally educational in terms of art, history, and religion. I especially like the fact that not everything was neatly tied up at the end.

Rarely have I enjoyed a book more while disliking the author so intensely. I think he'd be rather difficult to be in proximity with -- and yet he can tell a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. What an amazing recount of the roller coaster ride of transforming this venerable museum. What an interesting take on city government and arts groups and community groups, etc. The part about the exhibit "Harlem on my Mind" was particularly poignant -- I saw this exhibit as a very small child and it's still etched in my head decades later. A man who accomplished a great deal, who can spin a yarn, and who one can admire for his accomplishments if not his demeanor or methods. Read it.

Nonfiction account of Hoving's pursuit, and acquisition of the late 12th century, two foot tall, walrus ivory, Bury St. Edmonds cross for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the late 50's-early 60's.

Hoving can be erudite and write with pace, a rare combination.

Not exactly Indiana Jones but pretty close to the real thing and a peek behind the scenes of the museum trade to boot. Now I just need to go see the Cross in New York.½

at the risk of sounding like a simpleton, this book would have been far better as a picture book. So much time is spent in trying to DESCRIBE the fakes against the originals, a photo or illustration would have been infinitely more beneficial (because we're not talking about fakes of the Mona Lisa, we're talking Etruscan warrior statues - not the everyday photo calendar fair)

I absolutely loved his Making the Mummies Dance, so I had high expectations of this book. Although I will openly admit I couldn't finish it (so maybe it gets better at the end), but his writing seemed far more pompous this time around. No one wants to spotlight their own failures in missing fakes, but he seems to take far too much glee in pointing out the failures in others, sometimes in an incredulous manner, keeping himself blameless. Also, although technically fakes, since I am not an art expert, the fact that a sculpture was made in the 7th century and not in the 1st doesn't seem to matter very much. They are both old and impressive.

This book is truly for high end art afficianados - maybe with their own sets of reference books to get an idea of what he is describing. There are still moments of wit and insight which kept me going, but by the middle of the book, it just wasn't worth it (to me) anymore.