After an introduction on the status of the history of art criticism as an autonomous discipline and on its development during the 20th century, from J. von Schlosser until recent approaches, the book examines apologetical, theological, poetical and literary texts, as well as chronicles, inventories and itineraries, in order to retrace the interpretations of images and art-works, focusing on their uses and modes of perception.
The first three chapters deal with the “resistance” to art in Early Christian texts, which took place in parallel with the progressive dissolution of the antique world. In parallel with the debate about the legitimacy of images, either considered as inducements to idolatry or praised for their didactic efficacy, new prominence was given in the appreciation of objects to values such as preciousness and splendour, values which embodied both symbolical and material meanings.
From the second half of the 11th century and then even more during the successive century, the architectonic and decorative fervour more and more favoured new acknowledgments of the competence of artists, in particular of architects and sculptors, as well as new expressions of appreciation of art works based on the perception of formal qualities. In this period, whilst Bernard of Clairvaux and the Abbot Suger argued for different uses of art in religious buildings, new forms of the discourse on art were established, such as the technical treatise (Teophilus) – which innovated the traditional collection of recipes – and the first guides for pilgrims and travel accounts (chapter 4).
In the 13th century, although with some new accent, Scholasticism mainly persisted in reasserting the traditional subordination of visual arts in its schemes of knowledge and favoured allegorical interpretations of religious buildings and liturgical objects. But, at the same time, the discourse on art begun to permeate a multitude of texts of different kind and intent (from the poetical compositions to the scientific literature) and found new ways in the ‘vulgar’ literature, both in the field of ekphrasis and in that of history (chap. 5).
During the 14th century poets and writers such as Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio, largely contributed to create both linguistic tools and mental schemes which will be later used to interpret the work of artists as well as the function of art and its modes of appreciation. Since the end of the century, artists interested in technical questions and formal values (Cennini and Ghiberti) were able to illustrate in words issues related to art making as well as to its historical framework and ideal meaning (chap. 6).
When at mid-century Ghiberti died, the foundations of this new "system of the arts" have already been laid, on which the multifarious trends of the successive historical-critical reflection will be based: next to “On Painting”, Alberti's treatises on the art of building and on statuary will be instrumental in claiming a new statute for the visual arts. On one side this new statute will be a precondition for a tendency to idealism as well as to specialism, on the other it will stimulate, in parallel with the practice of art, an increasingly ampler and more complex discourse.
