This is a good, affordable monograph on giambologna, the most significant European sculptor in the period between Michelangelo and Bernini. The plates are large and numerous, and the photography by David Finn is good as usual, particularly notable is his use of dynamic camera angles and soft focus, and his prudential restraint concerning lighting.
So really, this is a five star book, but for a single glaring misstep. The cover of the latest (2006) edition (pictured above), while certainly well-designed, features a photo that has been digitally extracted from its background and pasted onto a stark black field. This process necessarily entails the alteration of the original photo and the desecration of the integrity of the sculpture. It is particularly clear in this case since the original photo, with its background intact, is also included in the book. A closer analysis of the contours reveals that the bungler who carried out the hatchet job made several painful mistakes - he cut off half of the back foot of the Sabine and omitted a portion of the head of the kneeling figure, but included part of the brick wall above that figure's arm and another portion lateral to his knee. This unkown ignoramus also added a window frame from the background to the contour of the standing figure's left leg at the knee. In addition to these egregious, mind-boggling errors, the quality of the contour also suffers the most savage violation - it is everywhere razor sharp, grossly simplified and distorted, and painfully obvious at the smaller details such as the fingers. The overall effect produced is as if a kindergartner, having freshly gained the custody of a pair of safety scissors, carefully snipped the photo and dutifully pasted it onto black construction paper. Whoever did this did not understand Giambologna, sculpture, vision, or anatomy. They betray an ignorance of the form, rhythm, and grace that are the hallmarks of Giambologna's genius. It is an outrage and an atrocity against art - but it doesn't stop there.
Athough there are other instances of post-production abuse throughout the text (though thankfully they are the minority), the most salient concern is for the fate of sculpture books yet to be published. In Phaidon's more recently published Rodin monograph, which I also reviewed, the digital snipping technique is used extensively. This technique is the bane of modern photography, and can be seen everywhere from magazine adds to the coffee table photo books of dorling kindersley and andrew zuckerman. To see it now encroaching on fine art sculpture books is a nightmare, for the love of god Phaidon stop this unholy holocaust now.
