The Devil in the Gallery

How Scandal, Shock, and Rivalry Shaped the Art World

De: Noah Charney

Narrado por: Julian Elfer

Scandal, shock, and rivalry all have negative connotations, don't they? They can be catastrophic to businesses and individual careers. A whiff of scandal can turn a politician into a smoking ruin.

But these potentially disastrous "negatives" can and have spurred the world of fine art to new heights. A look at the history of art tells us that rivalries have, in fact, not only benefited the course of art, from ancient times to the present, but have also helped shape our narrative of art, lending it a sense of drama that it might otherwise lack, and therefore drawing the interest of a public who might not be drawn to the objects alone.

The Devil in the Gallery is a guided tour of the history of art through it scandals, rivalries, and shocking acts, each of which resulted in a positive step forward for art in general and, in most cases, for the careers of the artists in question. In addition to telling dozens of stories of such dramatic moments and arguing how they not only affected the history of art but affected it for the better, we will also examine the proactive role of the recipients of these intentionally dramatic actions: The art historians, the critics and even you, the general public. The Devil likes to lurk in dark corners of the art world, morphing into many forms. Let us shed light upon him.

©2021 Noah Charney (P)2021 Tantor

A great listen!

This is one of Noah Charney’s best books. I have listened to a number of his books on Audible. They are all informative and written quite well. I have developed a real fascination for the subject of art which has been looted, destroyed, damaged, forged, stolen, etc. after listening to Prof. Charney’s books and watching his lectures on Wondrium aka The Teaching Company aka The Great Courses.

Good stories, poor narration.

The stories were interesting, but I’m not sure they truly proved the hypothesis/premise.
It was frustrating to hear Italian and Spanish masters’ names butchered by the narrator. Given this is a work that requires the author to be familiar, at a minimum, with these figures, the badly mispronounced names were like nails on a chalkboard and undermined the validity of the scholarship.
The attempts by the author to use popular vernacular also fell flat, especially when delivered in an Oxbridge accent with no hint of irony.

Charney Brought the Art World to Life

This was a really fun jaunt through art history. Charney brought all kinds of things into a discussion and made art, fun and interesting, more exciting than I had realized fine art could be and gave some great explanations of newer art. I’m going to go back now and listen to this again!

Some interesting anecdotes- poor narration

There was enough interesting information in the text to keep me listening until the end, but there was a lot of repetition, and the material could have been organized a bit better. The narration was sub par- the narrator’s mispronunciation of renowned master artists’ names was unprofessional and very irritating.!

Unspectacular

This is just a collection of hohum stories, several of them possibly not even true, about rivalries and moral degeneracy of artists throughout the ages. I get tired of there always being some sexual perversion as the underlying emphasis behind great art. Can’t we just enjoy it? But no, there must be something morally degenerate behind each thing of great beauty, especially if it is religious in nature.

True, Caravaggio had problems, I’m not saying issues did not exist, but there’s really no definitive proof of much of what the author states, until we come into modern times.

A lot of time is spent on performance art and it’s hard not to think that much of is isn’t fueled by mental health issues and a need to be thought of as someone very special.

I didn’t mind the narration all that much but the English often have a certain cadence in how they read, like in news reporting, and it’s not that effective in book narration. I can see why most people did not enjoy it. Being an American it’s also odd to hear the word urinal pronounced as ur-rye-nal, and you do hear it quite a bit in this book, that it becomes a little humorous.