Piero della Francesca
Among the most significant achievements of the great Italian art  historian, critic, and connoisseur Longhi (1890-1970) is his  pioneering study of early Renaissance painter Piero della  Francesca. The book was published in 1927 and refurbished by the  author in 1950 and 1962, but Longhi's often daunting Italian has  until now resisted satisfactory translation. Tabbat, who also contributed to the translation of Longhi's Three Studies, has  not only made this provocative and mesmerizing work available to  an English-language readership but also most intelligently  updated the author's scholarship and illuminated his  methodology. Nevertheless, the almost exclusively formalistic approach employed by Longhi in his scrutiny of Piero's work and  the evocative and sometimes elusive style of his exposition will  almost certainly confound readers not already familiar with this  art. The rejection of a historical context, a lack of interest  in content, and overstated insistence on the centrality of Piero  to the history of European painting will also doubtless trouble  a contemporary readership. Although this volume is manifestly  not required for nonspecialized collections, any serious art  history collection worth its salt should make it a mandatory  acquisition.Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New YorkCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.