The Ephemeral Museum

When and why did large-scale exhibitions of Old Master paintings begin, and how have they evolved through the centuries? In this book an eminent art historian examines the intriguing history and significance of these international art exhibitions. Francis Haskell begins by discussing the first 'Old Master' exhibitions in Rome and Florence in the seventeenth century and then mov...

When and why did large-scale exhibitions of Old Master paintings begin, and how have they evolved through the centuries? In this book an eminent art historian examines the intriguing history and significance of these international art exhibitions. Francis Haskell begins by discussing the first 'Old Master' exhibitions in Rome and Florence in the seventeenth century and then moves to eighteenth-century France and the efforts to organize exhibitions of contemporary art that would be an alternative to the official ones held by the Salon. He next describes the role of the British Institution in London and the series of remarkable loan exhibitions of Old Master paintings there. He traces the emergence of such nationalist exhibitions as the Rembrandt exhibition held in Amsterdam in 1898 - the first modern 'blockbuster' show. Demonstrating how the international loan exhibition was a vehicle of foreign and cultural policy after the First World War, he gives a fascinating account of several of these, notably the Italian art exhibition held at Burlington House in London in 1930. He describes the initial reluctance of major museums to send pictures on potentially damaging journeys and explains how this feeling gave way to cautious enthusiasm. Finally, in a polemical chapter, he explores the types of publication associated with exhibitions and the criticism and scholarship that have centred upon them. Francis Haskell, who died in January 2000, was one of the most original and influential art historians of the twentieth century. His books included 'Patrons and Painters: A Study in the Relations between Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque' (revised edition, 1980), 'Past and Present in Art and Taste' (1987), 'History and Its Images: Art and the Interpretation of the Past' (1993) and, with Nicholas Penny, 'Taste and the Antique' (1982), all published by Yale University Press. He retired as Professor of the History of Art at Oxford University in 1995.

弗朗西斯·哈斯克尔（Francis Haskell，1928－2000）被誉为20世纪最富有独创性的艺术史家。他生前是英国牛津大学教授，欧洲各国皇家学院或科学院院士，美国哲学院院士，曾获意大利研究塞雷纳勋章、 英国文学艺术勋章和法国勋级会荣誉军团骑士勋章。他的《赞助人与画家》《艺术中的再发现》《趣味与古物》已成为西方艺术史的经典著作，而他的《过去与现在》和《历史及其图像》则被视为观念史和史学史的重要著作。