Content area
Full Text
William S. Heckscher. Art and Literature. Studies in Relationship. Editor Egon Verheyen, Baden-Baden, Valentin Koerner (Saecula Spiritalia 17) and Durham, N.C. (Duke University Press), 1985. 528 pp., 235 illustrations. Introduction by E.V. pp. 9-21 ; Bibliography pp. 23-30.
The welcome edition of essays by the hand of our amicus William S. Heckscher who refers to himself as hamburgensis natione sed non moribus is splendidly presented thanks primarily to the efforts of Professor Egon Verheyen who supplies a thorough, critical Introduction. As we reflect on the all-absorbing investment in terms of time, energy and thought bestowed upon it by its editor, the volume is a rare testimonial to amicitia. Verheyen not only furnishes biographical and bibliographical data but also offers the reader a careful and disciminating selection of articles and other matter ~ 24 items altogether - which, extending over some five decades, gives us a vivid picture of intellectualtdevelopment.
Valentin Koerner, the German publisher-printer, has invested in the volume every imaginable care, beginning with the thirteenth century Oxford ochre' colored, well-designed cover to the flawlessly clear facsimile reproduction of essay after essay, whereby the use of fresh photographs significantly adds to the 'legibility' of the over 200 pictures. Professor Dieter Wuttke, the well-known Renaissance specialist, made the book part of his distinguished series of scholarly monographs. In the United States, the publication is sponsored by the Duke University Press.
As we turn to the Bibliography of our author's works, it becomes clear that the volume represents roughly one-fourth of the total output, not counting three substantial books that appeared under Heckscher 's author-and-editorship since the publication of Art and Literature. Books and booklength articles are sensibly excluded, as are, unavoidably, some outstanding exhibition catalogues that appeared while Heckscher was in charge of the Duke University Art Museum (nudity, weaving, sceptres). Profound studies, among them « Egogenesis, » had, alas, to be omitted.
Not every item in this volume is of immediate relevance to readers of Moreana. What should, however, be of singular appeal is the fact that nearly every contribution offers an arresting example of the application of Heckscher's flexible and wholly...