/lit/ - Literature

>>18128280
>difficult in what sense ?
He is difficult in the same way as Joyce, Mallarmé or Carlo Emilio Gadda are difficult. Although an art critic and historian, he wrote with a flowery language, adorned with outdated words and with a flowing, sweetly punctuated syntax that resembles poetry. It is really beautiful. The ideas are not quite difficult, he simply expresses his opinions on painters (opinions that are very reliable) and describes the art scenes that flourished in the various Italian cities through the centuries. He is, quite accurately, a modern Vasari.

If I keep thinking about patrician books on art, another option would be Della Pittura Italiana by Giovanni Morelli. It was originally written in German, so if your friend is German or something you could buy the original edition. Otherwise there is an excellent translation published by Adelphi, with 110 illustrations. Morelli is famous for having invented a method of authorship attribution based on the "identifying marks" of each artist; for example he was able to determine the author of an anonymous painting just by looking at the nose or, say, the pinky toe of a figure. Apart from this, Della Pittura Italiana is also an elegantly written book, touching various subjects and art periods.

Of course both Longhi and Morelli require a good-level knowledge of Italian. As I said I was just considering really "patrician" books on art, since I got the feeling that your friend is very tasteful and sophisticated. There might be other choices however.