Tizian. Nymphe und Schäfer.
Publisher: Prestel
Published: April 1, 1996
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 117
ISBN-13: 9783791316505
Description: Titian: Nymph and Shepherd is presented as a series of stimulating letters exchanged between the internationally renowned author and art critic John Berger and his daughter, Katya. This correspondence is the extraordinary vehicle for a series of insights into the everyday life and the art of the great Venetian master, following an uncanny incident at the great exhibition of his work staged in Venice in 1990.

While attending the exhibition Katya meets an old man, who she becomes convinced can only be the ghost of the great painter. Her "spiritual" visitor engages her in conversation about the minute particularities of painting some of the pictures there. She shares this experience with her father in a letter. He accepts the encounter at face value and discusses the historical background to the old man's remarks, seeking answers to a series of evidential questions about his daughter's encounter.

From then on, the three of them, the old painter, the daughter, and the father discuss painting, bodies, animals, Greece, being a woman today, the constant enigma of existence, and daily life. Titian: Nymph and Shepherd is richly illustrated with the famous Titian masterpieces shown at the exhibition, thus enabling readers to enter the visual adventure and judge for themselves what the visitor from four centuries ago has to say to us today.