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Take a Closer Look. By Daniel Arasse. Translated by Alyson Waters Princeton University Press. 176pp, Pounds 24.95. ISBN 9780691151540 and 9781400848041 (e-book). Published 2 October 2013
Academic essays are not written with the primary aim of giving pleasure; they are meant to impart knowledge. But every now and then one encounters a piece of scholarship so elegant, so virtuosic in its ability to simultaneously enchant and inform the reader that it indirectly reveals the inherent masochism of our practices. The gift of wisdom should not have to be purchased with the reader's suffering, but in the case of academic writing, it usually is.
Take a Closer Look is an outstanding example of what is possible when the stiff formalities of scholarly prose are cast aside in favour of a more playful, imaginative approach. Daniel Arasse, who died in 2003, was an art historian who specialised in the Italian Renaissance. This small, beautiful book consists of six short essays, each staged...