I certainly agree with the above editorial, except it's more than candy.
As an amateur it's one thing to read chapter after chapter that reveal my arthistorical ignorance of this giant, yet another to see image after color image (even in the catalogue!) that elicit "whoa-I'd-no-idea," how influential his style, and those of the other International Style artists, were on his contemporaries, and the socio-geopolitical-economic forces that help explain Master Johannes' influence.
So if you enjoy, wish to understand more about, or just can't get enough of the Ecykians, you need to buy this book. The images are good, a great many new to me, but not quite as compellingly printed as deVos' "The Flemish Primitives : The Masterpieces". However that superb book is more an insular collection than this continental analysis.
In trying to understand a rather invisible man and his unusually complex life, showing what he touched; where he traveled; what his colleagues and admirers achieved, who gave him thematic inspiration, guidance and financial incentive; and the many reasons why, are the features making this book exceptional. Until we can restore an enlightened monarchy, or princes of more than software or heredity, books such as this will have to lead us out of last century's fog.
Two negatives: 1. typical tedious troves of trivia that slow/show off scholarship but add little. Luggage in the trunk, please. 2. Just two pages about how the International Style miracle began (the book begins at 1432, another immaculate conception?). Obviously subject enough for another book, but unless the first artist was an eidetiker, the factors catalyzing the I.S. are linked to those of its spread and might have been given a chapter.
Well worth the price.
