The Twilight of the Intellectuals: Culture and Politics in the Era of the Cold Warby hilton kramerivan r. dee, 398 pages, $27.50 In the summer of 1952, Hilton Kramer’s life took a fateful turn. While attending a program known as the “School of Letters” in Indiana—where he had gone . . . . Continue Reading »
No angel with uplifted hand, no symbolof the Holy Spirit, gliding down ongilded beams—and for all we know the woman is no virgin. Still, any woman readingis an annunciation. Vermeer knew this:reading is parthenogenetic, magic doubling of the self fertilized by words.His girl reading stands in . . . . Continue Reading »
Dante and Michelangelo You were here; Brunelleschi, Donatello, Savonarola, the Medici, Machiavelli, Ghiberti, Leonardo da Vinci—All left their mark; But none is so vividly present As the Florentine dogs As I walk these ancient streets. Looking . . . . Continue Reading »
The expression of art—the exploration of figurative and abstract thought in tangible external forms—is unique to human beings. Even as we think in words, we imagine in the “language” of images. Art is one of the great facilitators of human dialogue, and it provides us as well with . . . . Continue Reading »
“Sherman Led by Victory” Is a St. Gaudens statue, A cast-bronze allegory. With Victory as a woman Pulling his horse’s bridle Out of a sculptor’s stable. Leading him off the pedestal Into a bronze fable. I used to think Sherman A beautiful . . . . Continue Reading »
In 1948, a young American minister from the conservative Bible Presbyterian Church moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, to serve as a missionary to Europe. Intending lo work primarily as an evangelist, this earnest pastor was relatively sequestered from the contentious and obscurantist tendencies of . . . . Continue Reading »
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