The Discord of Lionello Venturi

Abstract

This article comments on an essay written by the art historian Lionello Venturi published in 1923. There, the critic exposes his opinions, that differ significantly from the then-current views of the established historiography, on the possibility of accepting the superiority of the reliefs made for the second door of the Baptistery of Florence over those, made about twenty years prior, for the first door . His contempt, however, entails a review of the scope and limitations of the “pictorial bas-relief” procedure, as well as the modern and “neoclassical criticism” that, in common with their position, attest to the long-lived critical subordination to idealism.