Taste And The Antique: The lure of classical sculpture, 1500-1900 By Francis Haskell & Nicholas Penny
Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500–1900 (Collectible Yale Hardcover Copy)
A Foundational Masterwork on the Canonical Influence, Reception, and Intellectual History of Greco-Roman Sculpture
A Foundational Masterwork on the Canonical Influence, Reception, and Intellectual History of Greco-Roman Sculpture
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500–1900
- Authors: Francis Haskell & Nicholas Penny
- Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven and London
- Publication Date: 1981
- ISBN-10: 0300026412
- ISBN-13: 9780300026412
- Edition Details: First Edition / First Printing. A highly influential, seminal text in the fields of historiography and the history of art collecting.
- Binding: Original publisher's heavy-gauge cloth boards with crisp metallic title stamping along the spine.
- Physical Format: Small Quarto (4to), xvi, 376 pages. Heavily supplemented by 180 curated archival photographs, architectural floor plans, and a comprehensive historical catalogue of iconic antiquities.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Exterior Boards: The original full-cloth boards are straight, solid, and exceptionally well-preserved. The binding remains remarkably square, flat, and firm. Only microscopic, negligible evidence of friction or gentle shelf-wear is detectable on the bottom board rims, completely consistent with excellent archival storage. The entire volume is housed in a clear protective cellophane cover.
- Interior: The textbook block is robust, tight, and completely undamaged. The hinges remain fully uncompromised. Internal pages, visual text layouts, and detailed black-and-white plates are crisp, clean, bright white, and immaculate. Free from modern highlighting, user marginalia, ink signatures, or dealer pencil pricing lines.
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The Dust Jacket: Very Good (VG)
- Condition & Integrity: The original illustrated vintage dust jacket is present and visually excellent. It displays minor, expected signs of light surface friction and micro-creasing along the extreme edges from long-term storage, but remains completely unclipped, retaining its sharp graphic clarity without deep tears or paper loss. Now entirely stabilized and shielded under the protective cellophane cover wrap.
Synopsis & Historical Value
First published in 1981 by Yale University Press, Taste and the Antique is universally celebrated as a transformative milestone in art history scholarship. Co-authored by the formidable intellectual duo Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, this foundational work explores the rise, diffusion, and eventual dissolution of the strict academic canon of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture.
Rather than focusing strictly on aesthetic analysis, the authors trace how a core group of 95 celebrated classical statues—including the Apollo Belvedere, the Venus de' Medici, and the Laocoön—became absolute benchmarks of high taste and artistic authority across Europe for four centuries. Through 15 masterfully written historical chapters, the book examines how these works were acquired, catalogued, replicated, and written about by figures ranging from Renaissance popes to 19th-century novelists. This definitive volume offers an indispensable resource for understanding how classical antiquities shaped the Western imagination before their authority faded in the modern era.
Author Profile: Francis Haskell & Nicholas Penny
Francis Haskell (1928–2000) was one of the most brilliant and influential British art historians of the late 20th century. Serving as Professor of the History of Art at Oxford University, his pioneering work shifted the focus of art history toward the study of patronage, collecting, and the reception of art. His other landmark publications include Patrons and Painters and Rediscoveries in Art.
Sir Nicholas Penny (born 1949) is a deeply respected British art historian, curator, and academic who served as the Director of the National Gallery in London from 2008 to 2015. He has held prestigious curatorial and academic chairs at Oxford, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and Cambridge. Celebrated for his expertise in sculpture and the history of taste, Penny’s rigorous scholarship continues to guide international museum acquisitions, academic curricula, and conservation strategies around the globe.
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