Product Description
British artist Francis Bacon (1909-1992), one of the foremost artists of the 20th century, is known for his expressive figurative paintings. Perhaps Bacon's most famous image - the so-called "screaming pope" in Study after Vel zquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1953) - became the touchstone for the longest series of paintings in his career, the Papal Portraits of 1953. In 1953 "haunted and obsessed by the image...by its perfection", Bacon sought to reinvent Vel zquez's 17th-century Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1650) in the paintings that are the focus of this book. Francis Bacon replaced the grand, official state portrait with an intimate, spontaneous "candid camera" glimpse behind the well-ordered exterior. While the Spanish master Vel zquez portayed the pope ex cathedra, Bacon captured him in camera, as if behind a closed door or through a one-way mirror. This series of eight papal portraits, painted during a period of just a few weeks in the summer of 1953, was brought together for the first time by noted Bacon scholar Hugh M.Davies for a 1999 exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, along with several other works from the same period, including Sphinx I and two Study after Vel zquez paintings from 1950. This book includes an essay by Davies, discussing the artist's influences and sources of imagery for the series, and a previously unpublished interview that Davies conducted with Bacon in 1973. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

L'art mis en morceaux
Le style de Francis Bacon melange l'art d'antan, les artistes contemporains, le photojournalisme et le subconscient de Sigmund Freud. Par exemple, l'Etude d'apres le portrait du Pape Innocent X par Velazquez rappelle le Portrait du Cardinal Filippo Jacinto par Titian et, par des vetements ensanglantes, le style de l'egouttement par Jackson Pollock. Dans le Fragment de la crucifixion la figure qui bat les bras rappelle la Descente de la croix par Rubens et La chahut par Georges Seurat. Surtout dans ses peintures de la crucifixion du Christ, Francis Bacon devient photojournaliste, avec ses themes preferes de l'inhumanite, l'isolement, la trahison et le voyeurisme. Il devient psychanalyste dans le Portrait de Georges Dyer accroupi au style des baigneuses d'Edgar Degas, et dans l'Etude de la nue avec la figure dans le miroir c'est le style des voyeurs de l'arriere-scene par Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Alors lire le livre veut dire que l'on finit par apprendre un peu de l'histoire et de la technique de l'art.

Broken Art
FRANCIS BACON puts elements from the art of earlier centuries and the subconscious of Sigmund Freud into the bluntly powerful style of news photography. That style works for his themes of isolation, Peeping Toms, predatory people's inhumanity to others, and treachery, all of which can be found in his crucifixion scenes. I find his art cleverly disturbing, particularly in the way that he reworks Old and New Masters: Day- and Twilight-type figures from Michelangelo's de Medici tomb statues in "Triptych - studies of the human body"; Matthias Grunewald's "The mocking of Christ" in the bandaged eyes of the lone female witness to "Three studies for figures at the base of a crucifixion"; Titian's "Portrait of Cardinal Filippo Archinto" and Jackson Pollock-type drip in the curtain veiling and bloodspattered robe of "Study after Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X"; Rubens' "Descent from the cross" and Georges Seurat's "La chahut" in the figure leaning over the T-shaped cross and the flapping arms showing successive motion in "Fragment of a crucifixion"; Diego Velazquez's "Las meninas" in the right panel-reflected artist of "Studies from the human body"; Rembrandt-type meat side in the European formal portrait-styled "Painting 1946"; Edgar Degas' tub-bathing women in "Portrait of George Dyer crouching"; Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec-type backstage observers in "Study of nude with figure in a mirror"; Marcel Duchamp's "The bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even (the large glass)" in the frustrated, mechanical love of "Three studies of figures on beds"; and Henri Michaux in "Statues and figures in a street" full of tiny dark figures. So Hugh Davies and Sally Yard's helpful text and well-chosen illustrations help reader understanding of what modern art is about and how one painter fits with other times. The authors help me go beyond theme, into art technique: their book applies Max Doerner's THE MATERIALS OF THE ARTIST AND THEIR USE IN PAINTING, Hazel Harrison's MASTER STROKES, and Waldemar Januszczak's TECHNIQUES OF THE WORLD'S GREAT PAINTERS. ... Read more

Product Description
Francis Bacon's "Inquiry Touching Human Nature" is an engagement at a fundamental level with the political and philosophic thought of one of the founders of modernity, Francis Bacon. Bacon had a comprehensive vision of the human situation. And because he saw the costs or dangers of modern life as clearly as he predicted its achievements and boons, Bacon is a thinker who addresses directly and deeply our own perplexities. ... Read more

Product Description
The statesman, scientist, and philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) lived a divided life. Was he a noble scholar, or a conniving political crook? Was he a homosexual? Lisa Jardine and Alan Stewart draw upon previously untapped sources to create a controversial, nuanced portrait of the quintessential "Renaissance man," one whose achievements, while enormous, were nonetheless sadly circumscribed by his class and station.Amazon.com Review
For modern readers--especially those in the sciences who revere him as the father of the inductive method--Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is the model of an English Renaissance man whose towering intellectual achievements somewhat paradoxically set him floating above mundane historical particulars. British academics Lisa Jardine and Alan Stewart fling Bacon back into the hurly-burly of Elizabethan and Jacobean politics, where he unquestionably belongs. Indeed, their magnificently detailed rendering of Bacon's bumpy progression to the pinnacle of royal office-holding, as James I's lord chancellor (he was forced to "retire" in 1621 after a bribery scandal), makes his scientific and philosophical contributions even more remarkable. How on earth did he find time to write The Advancement of Learning (1605) and Novum Organum (1620) at all? In the authors' deliciously dense re-creation, notable for their shrewd evaluations of often misleading written source material, Bacon seems almost exclusively preoccupied with intriguing for promotion, struggling to pay debts incurred by his lavish lifestyle, and currying favor with both Elizabeth's and James's male favorites. (The latter tactic leading to contemporary charges of "sodomy" that the authors do not necessarily dismiss.) Some may regret that this warts-and-all portrait does not spend more time on Bacon's books, but Jardine and Stewart brilliantly succeed in their stated goal of providing "a rich context for those works." Seldom has a scholarly tome so palpably conveyed the gritty, sweaty, faction-ridden reality of being a working politician at the turn of the 17th century. --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Flawed diminishing of a great British genius
Writing a biography of a famous person carries an ethical responsibility to convey, or at least try to convey, a sense of what made that person great. If one wants to understand the genius and polymath that was Sir Francis Bacon (the authors of this work deny him his title) then this book will lead away from such discoveries. There is evidence of diligent research that makes the book interesting to scholars and by and large it is well written and readable, but Baconians will be offended by its persistently mean-spirited view of a shallow self-serving man, wheeling and dealing in the cause of his own advancement. There is ample evidence that Bacon was loved by contemporaries (friends) who appreciated him as a poet,a philosopher,a wit,a superb speaker and a man of generosity whose contribution to English Rennaissance thought was of inestimable value to mankind.You will not find him here.

All about the life, little about the man
This book is in many ways superb.The writing is smooth, the judgments intelligently based on evidence, the archival research prodigious.But it leaves one with oddly little sense of Bacon the man.Partly that's because the authors don't speculate, confining themselves to the historical record.That's a great virtue, but it also means we never get a sense of Bacon's relations with his wife, or even his sexuality.We hear about his chronically poor health, but not what his symptoms suggest to a modern doctor.Also, the authors don't examine Bacon'swritings in any sort of detail.This is definitely a "life and times", not a "life and letters."

The authors rarely step back to give an overall picture.There are no scene-setting panoramas, no authorial intrusions to explain why, for example, they decided to go into such detail about the activities of Bacon's brother Anthony.One gathers that the authors believe Anthony and Francis were working closely together, but I would have liked to have their thinking explained more fully.(Although Anthony is practically the main character of the first quarter of the book, his death is mentioned only in passing.)

These criticisms reflect my occasional irritation with the book, but they don't detract from the authors' tremendous achievement.If the authors had included everything I missed, the book would have been quite a bit fatter, and that would have been a negative, too.As it is, the book is (just barely) small enough to be read without risk of injury, unlike so many other modern biographies.

The book contains a great deal about Bacon's political activities, as another reviewer has noted.That's because a great deal of Bacon's life was occupied with political activities.If all you want to read about is Bacon's scientific works, you shouldn't read a biography of their author.In the case of Isaac Newton, there is practically no difference between the life and the scientific work.But in Bacon's case, there is not only a difference but a dichotomy.He was a successful lawyer and politician who also happened to kick-start the Scientific Revolution.

To summarize, Hostage to Fortune provides all the details, but not the outline.My advice would be to familiarize yourself with the basic course of Bacon's life and his achievements before reading this book, so you can fully appreciate its richness.

Mixed Feelings
A powerhouse of academic scholarship, this book is the most tedious and boring biography I have ever read.Too many pages on Bacon's political career, too little on his scientific achievements.

Bacon for sceptics.
While the book starts slowly with what seems to be an overly detailed account of Bacon's family and their activities, it is a clear headed and balanced account of a man who achieved fame across the centuries, as well as in his own time---but never great virtue, character or happiness in his own life.It is quite readable, and even engrossing in the second half.Scholars will appreciate the careful documentation and extensive reference to sources and supporting materials. ... Read more

Product Description
With the publication of Utopia (1516), Thomas More provided a scathing analysis of the shortcomings of his own society, a realistic suggestion for an alternative mode of social organization, and a satire on unrealistic idealism. Enormously influential, it remains a challenging as well as a playful text. This edition reprints Ralph Robinson's 1556 translation from More's original Latin together with letters and illustrations that accompanied early editions of Utopia.

This edition also includes two other, hitherto less accessible, utopian narratives. New Atlantis (1627) offers a fictional illustration of Francis Bacon's visionary ideal of the role that science should play in the modern society.Henry Neville's The Isle of Pines (1668), a precursor of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, engages with some of the sexual, racial, and colonialist anxieties of the end of the early modern period. Bringing together these three New World texts, and situating them in a wider Renaissance context, this edition--which includes letters, maps, and alphabets that accompanied early editions--illustrates the diversity of the early modern utopian imagination, as well as the different purposes to which it could be put. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

This edition NOT recommended for certain teaching purposes
This edition of More's Utopia (and Bacon, and Neville), is a valuable volume in one respect: it makes available historic early translations/editions of these three texts. However, this aspect makes it less than desirable for one major intended audience of Oxford Classics: students in college courses. In particular, the 1557 edition of More's Utopia, while a fascinating read from a historical perspective (e.g. the use of "weal-public" alongside synonyms like commonweal, commonwealth, and republic), is simply too difficult and antiquated for most college students to understand and appreciate what is going on in this important text. I'm a college instructor and I ordered this volume because it seemed to offer a good value for all three works. But my students found it MUCH too hard to understand (and I have to admit, the Utopia text was even slow going for me), so I had to post an online version in more contemporary English for them to read, and the week's discussion was hijacked by this problem of the text. Bottom line, if you are looking for a course text that will engage your students, keep shopping, because this edition will only frustrate them (and you, when you have to find another text of Utopia for them to read).

Interesting tales, particulary the lesser-known "Isle of Pines"
As usual, Oxford does a good job with translations, introductions and notes.

More's "Utopia" is the longest and best of the three works presented in this book, at least as far as fleshing out the details of how a utopian civilization would really look, particularly when situated among other civilizations.But, since most people are familiar with it to some degree, I'll discuss the other two writings in more detail.

Bacon's "New Atlantis" is the least satisfying of the three utopian civilizations.First, it isn't complete, barely beginning before it ends.Second, it seems to be more about scientific specialization (i.e. how the New Atlantic culture has made great strides in various fields of science [e.g. agriculture, astronomy]) than about utopian society per se.It is interesting how Bacon relates these islanders, far from Europe, to the famed ancient Atlantean society.

Neville's "Isle of Pines" is an interesting tale of shipwreck and discovery.A ship sinks near the coast of a faraway island, killing everyone except a man with the last name "Pine" and a few women, one of whom is black.What follows is a fascinating story of old/new-world racism and debauchery.Basically, the Pine fellow starts bedding ALL the women (two of whom, if I recall, are sisters) because, you know, they're not getting rescued any time soon and they've got to keep civilization going.Eventually, they all dispense with the wearing of clothes.Then ALL the women get pregnant and turn into baby factories and everyone breeds like rabbits until there are hundreds of people within one or two generations.The interesting tack that Neville takes is that Pine only sleeps with the black woman at night, she "craftily" sneaking into his bed.In addition, her progeny happen to be the bad apples of the island, which is discussed from the perspective of some visiting sailors many years after the shipwreck.Fascinating view into the European mind from several centuries back.

Good collection
I have enjoyed Oxford World Classics for a long time because of the notes, biographies, and other content that is added to the book to supplement the stories themselves. This is a decent collection of three stories, with all the necessary notes and such. If you're curious about Utopia, buy this book and you'll get two other visions of Utopia as well, making for a good overall reading experience (once you get past the old language, which is rather clunky at times, but that is how it was written) and you'll learn a few things too.

Prose which still affects our thinking
Literature before James Joyce, before Jane Austen, before Daniel Defoe: NoUlysses, no Emma, no Robinson Crusoe - for modern readers it is hard toimagine a stock of English literature without the existence of these andother important writers and their `novels'. What kind of literature couldone refer to in a pre-novelistic age? As a matter of fact, there wereauthors, such as Sir Thomas More and Sir Francis Bacon, who wrote prosewhich, indeed, still affects our thinking. However, neither More nor Baconused English, but chose Latin as their original means of expression. Forwhat reasons? And none of these authors was in fact a free-lance writer -they were all occupied in public and political spheres. What made themactually write fictional works? How does their fiction relate to theircultural environment - or, what was regarded as `fiction'? These textscover a century of political, religious, scientific and literary debatesand gave rise to a new understanding of knowledge, and introducedinfluential literary devices. ... Read more

Product Description
Francis Bacon is celebrated as one of the most important British artists of the twentieth century. From the 1940s to his death in 1992 he worked consistently as a painter, ignoring other passing, fashionable trends in art. Throughout his career, the human figure was the dominant subject in his work: his paintings of men and women go far beyond a simple likeness and instead are portraits of complex psychological states. This book has been produced to coincide with the 2005 summer exhibition, which will be held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. In two essays, the book examines fifty of some of his most intense works: his small-format portraits. This will be the first museum exhibition devoted to this fascinating aspect of his work and the first on Francis Bacon in Scotland. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Searching into the intimacy of the human.
The catalogue for a 2005 exhibition held at the Scottish National Gallery of Art and at the Hamburg Kunsthalle, this book focuses on a crucial body of works that Bacon painted all throughout his career. Most of these works are small-scale, which means that little is lost of the gripping effect they usually have on first-hand viewers, through reproduction (all the more so as the illustrations are excellent). After an introductory essay that aimsat debunking the various clichés that have marked the gradual public acceptance of Bacon's work (the distortion of the human figure as a reflexion of the brutality of our post-war world is one of those clichés)by showing how these portrait reveal the intimacy and innermost personality of the models, the book follows a chronological pattern, grouping the paintings by periods and models (early heads of the 40's and 50's, Men in Blue of 1954, Peter Lacy, George Dyer, Henrietta Moraes, Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne). A special section is devoted to the self-portraits from 1963 to 1987.

A surprisingly high-quality publication that is one of the few reasonably priced books on Bacon.

disappointing
I expected something else. In 'Van Gogh and Expressionism' the Baconimages are vibrant and colorful and interesting. They include studies for portraits of Van Gogh as well as self portraits. They look much like the cover of this book. Unfortunately, the only image I liked WAS the cover. Had I looked through this book in a bookstore I would not have purchased. Perhaps i am not much of a Bacon 'fan'. Let that be a lesson to me.....more research in the future before purchasing.

Examining the Essence of the Model and Exposing the Passion
FRANCIS BACON: PORTRAITS AND HEADS is a superb catalogue that accompanied an exhibition in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh last summer and unlike most of the Bacon retrospectives, this exhibition focused entirely on the many heads Bacon painted. As other artist come and go Francis Bacon continues to be one of the more 'published' artists of the twentieth century and it is refreshing to see that there are still new things to say about the work of one of the most significant painters in recent years

Included are self portraits, portraits of famous people some of whom actually commissioned portraits while the majority are of friends, lovers, fellow artists, and images from photographs. Bacons small works carry as much power as the large canvases, perhaps that is due to the lack of need to place the figure in a constructed environment or space. Or perhaps when Bacon concentrated on only the head, his probing eye could explore and paint the model's psyche (as well as his own responsive psyche!).

The reproductions are superb, on excellent paper, and given full attention in the catalogue. There are two fine essays in addition to the obligatory Introduction and comments from the curatorial staff. Though most of these paintings can be found in other catalogue raisonnes of Bacon's work, seeing the small head portraits in a single space is a fine idea and one from which we continue to learn about just what made Bacon unique and inimitable! Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, August 06


... Read more

Product Description
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), commonly regarded as one of the founders of the Scientific Revolution, exerted a powerful influence on the intellectual development of the modern world. He also led a remarkably varied and dramatic life as a philosopher, writer, lawyer, courtier, and statesman. Although there has been much recent scholarship on individual aspects of Bacon's career, Perez Zagorin's is the first work in many years to present a comprehensive account of the entire sweep of his thought and its enduring influence. Combining keen scholarly and psychological insights, Zagorin reveals Bacon as a man of genius, deep paradoxes, and pronounced flaws.

The book begins by sketching Bacon's complex personality and troubled public career. Zagorin shows that, despite his idealistic philosophy and rare intellectual gifts, Bacon's political life was marked by continual careerism in his efforts to achieve advancement. He follows Bacon's rise at court and describes his removal from his office as England's highest judge for taking bribes. Zagorin then examines Bacon's philosophy and theory of science in connection with his project for the promotion of scientific progress, which he called "The Great Instauration." He shows how Bacon's critical empiricism and attempt to develop a new method of discovery made a seminal contribution to the growth of science. He demonstrates Bacon's historic importance as a prophetic thinker, who, at the edge of the modern era, predicted that science would be used to prolong life, cure diseases, invent new materials, and create new weapons of destruction. Finally, the book examines Bacon's writings on such subjects as morals, politics, language, rhetoric, law, and history. Zagorin shows that Bacon was one of the great legal theorists of his day, an influential philosopher of language, and a penetrating historian.

Clearly and beautifully written, the book brings out the richness, scope, and greatness of Bacon's work and draws together the many, colorful threads of an extraordinarily brilliant and many-sided mind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

misses the boat
Zagorin has not added much to the great mystery of Francis Bacon. He has written a superficial understanding of the life and as a result left out many salient aspectsthat would have provided greater insight into Bacon'smotivations and philosophy. Save your money on this one and buy a copy ofAlfred Dodd's:"Francis Bacon's Personal Life Story"instead. ... Read more

Product Description
A thoroughly revised introduction, new editorial footnotes, and an updated bibliography complete this revised edition of New Atlantis and The Great Instauration. Presented here is the standard nineteenth-century text of Bacon's works as annotated by Jerry Weinberger, editor. Also included are a list of principal dates in the life of Francis Bacon and a note on the texts. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: C. Scribner's sons in 1908 in 414 pages; Subjects: Drama / General; Literary Collections / Essays; Philosophy / General; Philosophy / Logic; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

ESSAYS OF FRANCIS BACON (LARGE PRINT)
DID NOT MEET DESCRIPTION BY AMAZON.
THERE WAS NO LISTING BY EACH ESSAY TITLE.
THERE WAS NO DESCRIPTION IN EACH ESSAY OF MEANING OF ELIZABETHAN TERMS,NOR ANY TRANSLATION OF FREQUENT LATIN QUOTATIONS.
NOR ANY INTERPRETIVE COMMENTS ON THE ESSAYS.
ALL THESE THINGS ARE FOUND NORMALLY IN MODERN EDITIONS.
THIS BOOK WAS DOWNLOADED FROM THE INTERNET AND IT SHOWS. ... Read more

Product Description
An engaging biography of lawyer, writer, and philosopher Sir Francis Bacon.

"All rising to great place is by a winding stair," wrote Sir Francis Bacon. It wasn’t until he was forty-five that Bacon’s feet found the first step on that staircase, when King James I made him Solicitor-General, from where he rose through the ranks to become Lord Chancellor. Many accounts of the life of Sir Francis Bacon have been written for scholars, but du Maurier’s aim was to paint a vivid portrait of this remarkable man for the common reader. In The Winding Stair, she illuminates the considerable achievements of this Renaissance man: as a writer, lawyer, philosopher, scientist, and politician.

Dame Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989) wrote more than 25 acclaimed novels, short stories, and plays, including Rebecca and The House on the Strand. She was also a passionate and skillful biographer. Now, her finest biographical works are being reissued in the distinguished Virago Modern Classics series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Part of the Shakesperian writing team?
Yes, the novelist who gave us Hitchcock's "Jamaica Inn," "Rebecca," and "The Birds," was also a historian, especially anything that had to do with her own family and her own "country," southwest England.

"The Winding Stair" begins where "Golden Lads" ends. It begins with Francis at age 40, on the death of his brother.

The title comes from the quote that one's ascent in life is like a winding stair, taking one step at a time.

Easy to read, and fills in the gaps of Francis Bacon's life. But the best part of this is the fact that it was written by a celebrity in her own right: Daphne du Maurier. ... Read more

Product Description
Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest British artists of this century. For over fifty years the intense emotions conveyed in his works have shocked and enthralled an ever-growing audience. David Sylvester, a leading Bacon scholar, brings together many of the artist's best paintings involving the human figure, the central subject of his work. Bacon's diverse body imagery can be seen in his self-portraits; nude studies; portraits of friends such as Henrietta Moraes, George Dyer, and Lucian Freud; and his series of Popes. Many of Bacon's prototypes were "found" images: reproductions of Michelangelo, Velsquez, Degas, Muybridge's photographs of the human figure in motion, film stills from Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, magazine photos of politicians and boxers.Bacon disliked working directly from a model and therefore often commissioned photographs, especially from John Deakin. A prolific creator of self-portraits, Bacon painted dozens, mostly small canvases of his head. Usually three are put together to form a triptych; sometimes one appears as a solo canvas or as a unit in a triptych along with other people's heads. One of the most powerful is a full-length portrait, the Sleeping Figure of 1974, painted from a photograph of him stretched out on a hospital bed. Other paintings portray bodies wracked by violencea wailing mouth, a cry of despair. Sylvester's observations show how certain images were linked to incidents in Bacon's life, such as childhood fear of his father and his lifelong devotion to his nanny. The catalog includes paintings that date from 1945 to the mid-1980s, including single canvases and triptychs from collections around the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

For inspiration
Not so long before I had no idea of who Bacon was and what he painted. Remember how I once skipped lectures in university and played PSX game Silent Hill all day along. In Making OF of this game I first time heard that some art inspiration for game was taken from Bacon paintings. And so I came to Bacon and his art :)
Personally for me, and again just for me, I gave this book 5 stars because pictures here catch my eye like none art before. Bacons pictures by some reason looks stunning and scary at the same time. This book contains his pictures of human body theme only, as a cover says. I liked the way author gone - less text, more pictures. Second half of the book is containing just paintings with minimum comments below, mainly one paint picture on whole page. There are also few "three page rollout" inserts, showing few Bacon's triptych paintings which I liked. Pictures of second half is fully colourfull, first half of the book contains one page for text and other page for black and white, zoomed in picture of Bacon, that gives kinda cool look.
This book will gave it's best to filmmakers, animators, concept artists, scriptwriters, Bacon enthusiasts who seek to take inspiration for horror art, movies, animations, whatever.

disappointing
I think I had a false expectation. I expected something 'more' - images similar to the Bacon images in 'Van Gogh and Expressionism' which are stunning and vibrantly colorful. The images in this book fell short of that. Had I looked through this book in a bookstore, I would not have purchased.I should have done more research on Bacon before purchasing this and the Bacon portraits book which also was a disappointment but better than this one.

A marriage of words and paintings
David Sylvester is one of the finest biographers of contemporary painters on the shelves today.His insights into such obtuse minds as Giocomettti and de Kooning and Francis Bacon have brought us, the viewer and thinker, closer to the real synapses at work.In this lavishly illustrated catalogue the emphasis is on the whole human body - alone, in confined spaces, distorted and reassembled in triptychs.Sylvester opens this format with terse discussions about particular paintings, using only black and white details of the works he is discussing.Then, once we have the groundwork established, the last half of the book is simply the paintings, printed on the finest peper, with foldouts that do justice to the triptychs and color separations that are as near to the originals as is possible.A feast for the eyes and mind....and imagination. ... Read more

Product Description
Considered by many the greatest painter since Turner, Francis Bacon lived the life of an outsider in violent times. Sinclair explores the influences of Bacon's childhood in Ireland and his youth in Berlin and Paris, and London in the Depression. He takes this turbulent life through to a wise and witty old age, with its extraordinary refusal of honours, fame and riches. Sinclair has also produced biographies of Jack London and John Ford. ... Read more

Product Description
PREFACE LIKE all grea~ philosophica.l works, the Adtancement oj Leanl-lo,g is constructed 011 a systematic plan, of which the ana.lysis is as follows:- BOOK I. THE DIGrilTY OF LEARNING. To the King: introductory (p. 3). A. Negative part; the discredits of learning (pp. G-40). 1. - from divines (p. C). 2. -from politics (p. 11). 3. --fl'om learllt~d mer. themselves (p. 18). 1) from their fortune (p. 18). 2) from their mannerS (p. ~l). 3) from their studies (p. 2u), including- (1) three dise:.tses of learning (p. 26). (2) its pecclllt humonrs or errol'S (p. 3f». B. Positive part: t.he dignity of lcnowledge (pp. 40- 66 ). 1. Divine evidences (p. 10). 2. l1nmn.n proof~ (p. 47). BOOK II. THE SURVEY OF LEARNING. 'fo :·he King: acts performed by KillgS and others for t.he ad 'ancement of learning (p. G7). Three parts of h Ullian learning (p. 75) ;- A. History (p. 76). 1. Nat ural. 2. Civil. R F. c.c 1 e ~i::l f;tj ~R.1. 4. J.Jiterary. B. Poetry (p. 89). 1.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the difficult to read text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Beautiful images!
I saw the Bacon's retrospective at the Met this summer and the prints in this monograph are exquisite! As a visual artist, I find that art books with good reproductions are so inspirational.
I suppose one disadvantage is that the work represented in this book is from a more limited time frame. But the paintings reproduced are comprehensive of the 50s and they are incredibly beautiful. Deep, dark portraiture and where there is color, it's always vivid and brilliant. The earlier investigations of the smeared, moving faces, the Popes and the abstracted figures are well documented in this monograph. It's a beautiful book and well worth the price.

Always interesting....
There is really not much to the book to be honest. There are about 30 paintings decently reproduced -- all of them very interesting -- but without much commentary except for a few. (Though I quickly discovered Bacon's paintings are fun to psychoanalyze for yourself.)It provided a short interesting biography that I told my mother to read which afterward she stated,"he has a disease for which there is no name..." -- and I agreed. Finally, the book ends with some of Bacon's letters.

Francis Bacon: The Formative Years
The shelves in the art section of bookstores, public and private libraries contain many publications about the important 20th Century figurative artist Francis Bacon: one would think there was little left to be said about the bizarre genius who influenced so many artists and thinkers.But this new volume by long admired proponent of Francis Bacon's work and historical significance, Michael Peppiatt, sheds even more light on how Bacon arrived at the point of creating such disturbing and magnificently painted works.

Born in 1909 Francis Bacon did not become a serious artist until the mid 1930s, electing to travel to Berlin and Paris and other magnetic hubs plying his trade as a hustler and effete and along the way making significant statements in the decorative arts and design.Peppiatt takes us from the late 1940s when Bacon's few paintings were of animal life and objects of design elements into the period of the 1950s when he explored the figure, developed his 'caged figure' theme and stretched his portraiture to extremes beyond which few other artists have dared go.It is the combination of history, drawings, previously unpublished reproductions of some paintings, photographs, and a collection of letters Bacon wrote to various people that Peppiatt writes with such mastery of description of Bacon's oeuvre that makes this volume so readable and memorable.

The well designed and produced book served as a catalog for a traveling exhibition of the works described in the book.It is not meant to be a definitive total biography of the artist: Peppiatt's 1996 'Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma' is the primer on the artist's life and work.But it is in closer studies such as this book covers that we discover more of the secrets and motivations that have established Francis Bacon as the important artist he became.Highly recommended.Grady Harp, September 07

The man behind the artist
This is the catalogue for a traveling exhibition (England and the U.S.)focusing on a crucial decade in Bacon's art, when he really revealed himself as a master, transcending the tradition of figurative painting. Many rarely seen works are illustrated (e.g. the portraits of the Sainsburies, one of the artist's first patrons). The book ends with a review of the letters written by Bacon to his first dealer and to his patrons, moving letters where he often asks for money loans, sometimes in a humble and desperate tone that betrays the mundane behind the genius. A valuable addition to the literature on Bacon. ... Read more

Product Description
From the anguished, screaming, tortured canvases of Francis Bacon to the witty, ironic, twirling, sliced farmyard animals of Damien Hirst, Matthew Collings guides us merrily through art's Yellow Pages. "Matthew's wired and rushy art history, alternately irritating and insightful, gives late 20th century BritArt what it needs--a confusing, loony relevance".--David Bowie. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Needs to be updated.
I bought this book back in 1999. It was a year before the infamous Saatchi exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. I think this book gives too much praise and favoratism to the British artists featured inside. It doesn't give any information on their flaws, and you need to know the artists' flaws in order to understand their work.

British art has been rising in prestige in the last decade, and this book should be updated for a new edition. It should also include American reactions to the Brooklyn Museum show in 2000, plus the changes in the artists' styles.

Corr!
Matthew Collings is extremely aware of the zeitgeist.His criticisms can be so accurate that it hurts.To get a broad overview on the phenomena of Brit Art I really can't reccommend it enough.

Lightweight but fun
The chattiness is fine.I haven't seen Collings on television but I can imagine how he'd be entertaining there.I wondered about his motives a few times when Collings' own paintings showed up deep in the background ofphotos -- obviously he's so deep in this world that he may have someagendas.But the overall impression is certainly friendly and the fewartists he dismisses are big enough to take it.It's a fun book you canread in a couple of hours.The only problem then is remembering any ofwhat's been said.

EXCELLENT VISUALLY, INCREDIBLY SELF-STROKING OTHERWISE.
I recommend this for the photos, almost completely. And I do not mean the cover photo where the author, Matthew Collings, has chosen to put a huge picture of himself with an eye-trapping bullseye painting behind his head.This mystified me, till I read the incredibly disorganized, ungrammaticalaccount Collings writes, really more of a reminiscence than a history.Along the way he attacks the brilliant R.B. Kitaj and the rest of theSchool of London(including those such as Bacon and Freud) as "a bunchof oldsters exhibiting their charcoal life drawings and stuff."Incisive commentary that. Collings must make Robert Hughes tremble.Basically this is one huge self-promotional book, but generouslyillustrated with works of Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin and othersfrom the infamous and brilliant SENSATION show, and contains, in spite ofits obnoxiously chatty style, many interesting anecdotes about the Londonart world. One can almost piece it together despite the annoying narrator.The current London art scene is beautifully dangerous and the SENSATIONShow(and I hope its catalog goes into print in the US soon)may be, in theend, as influential as the 1913 Armory Show, so it deserves study. Artneeded back some kind of edge. The book is an OK intro to the subject andthe photos alone justify purchase.

My only other complaint is theconstant recurrence of those completely nightmarish perversions ofconceptual art, the "living sculptures"(or charlatans, as I liketo call them) Gilbert and George, laced oddly throughout the book for noapparent reason. What do they do? In a nutshell, they go about and placethemselves in context, in photos or live. Why they think they'reinteresting wherever they're placed, or make a place interesting by theirpresence, is beyond me, but they've apparently made a great deal of lootfrom this. Go figure. John Roberson

Nah. It's not really all that good.
I'd recommend something with a bit more... Marc Quinn in it ... Read more

Product Description
The paintings of Francis Bacon are so confrontationally wordless in their articulations of the human plight that they seem-almost as a result-to attract continual commentary and meditation (not least from Bacon himself). Since Bacon's studio and its contents were moved to Dublin, and those contents at last documented and examined, a wealth of information has come to light about the artist's processes, his working habits, his readings and his source material. Benefiting from these new resources for Bacon studies, and marking the centenary of the artist's birth, this collection of nine essays from leading scholars worldwide is edited by the leading Bacon scholar Michael Harrison, and is full of fascinating new takes on the work. Contributors to these new perspectives on Bacon are Darren Ambrose, Rebecca Daniels, Hugh M. Davies, Marcel Finke, Martin Harrison, Andrew R. Lee, Brenda Marshall, David Alan Mellor, Joanna Russell and Brian Singer. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Commemorating the 400th anniversary of the publication of Francis Bacon's Advancement of Learning (1605), this collection examines Bacon's recasting of proto-scientific philosophies and practices into early modern discourses of knowledge. Like Bacon, all of the contributors to this volume confront an essential question: how to integrate intellectual traditions with emergent knowledges to forge new intellectual futures. The volume's main theme is Bacon's core interest in identifying and conceptualizing coherent intellectual disciplines, including the central question of whether Bacon succeeded in creating unified discourses about learning. Bacon's interests in natural philosophy, politics, ethics, law, medicine, religion, neoplatonic magic, technology and humanistic learning are here mirrored in the contributors' varied intellectual backgrounds and diverse approaches to Bacon's thought. ... Read more

Product Description
Author name not noted above: Sir Thomas Browne. Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf.Volume III features:• Essays or Counsels--Civil and Moral and The New Atlantis, by English scientist and philosopher SIR FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626), the former the foundational writings of his development of the scientific method, and the latter his utopian novel that influenced British notions of science as a noble endeavor.• Areopagitica and Tractate on Education, by English poet JOHN MILTON (1608-1674), respectively his tract against censorship and his ideas on educational reform; both helped modernize English society.• Religio Medici, by English polymath SIR THOMAS BROWNE (1605-1682), one of the earliest personal memoirs that, as a psychological self-evaluation, would later influence Jung. ... Read more

Product Description
The portrait Bowen paints of this controversial man, Francis Bacon (1561-1626), balances the outward life and actions of Bacon with the seemingly contradictory aspects of his refined philosophical reflections. When Bacon's more notorious attributes are set in historical context, his actions seem less personally vindictive against the backdrop of an entire age seemingly devoted to the very vanity and ingenuousness with which he is so often accused. As Lord Chancellor of England, Bacon was impeached by Parliament for taking bribes in office, convicted, and banished from London an the law courts. In a prayer Bacon composed during the interval following his punishment, he reveals that the dichotomy of his existence was no more deeply felt than by himself, and he readily admits that his obligations to society were not as suited to his nature as the study of philosophy, science and law. Modem scholars hold Bacon's philosophical works, "Novum Organum", "Advancement of Learning" and "New Atlantis" as his greatest achievements.Bowen's story reveals a man whose genius it was not to immerse himself in the rigour of scientific experimentation, but to realise what questions science should ask, and thereby reach beyond the status quo and appeal to the wider imagination of his generation. In his writings, Bacon challenged established social and religious orders, raised questions about mind/body relation and the role of dreams, and foresaw the day when scientists at colleges and universities would share experimentation. It is Bacon's legacy to have gone beyond his age and, out of pure intuition, anticipate the concerns of future generations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A biographical portrait of Bacon
Francis Bacon was a man filled with contradiction. He was consumed by two ambitions: 1) an insatiable thirst for knowledge and, 2) an endless "striving for political favor and position." The latter ambition finally did him in, bringing about his impeachment from Parliament for taking bribes, losing the high position (Lord Chancellor) he had spent his whole life striving for. Five years of life were left to Bacon after his disgrace, time spent in scientific and writing pursuits, but the damage was done.

Ms. Bowen does not write a full and detailed biography here, but rather more a profile or "evocation." She sacrifices the impartial and detached position of the historian clearly in her prologue by declaring her great admiration for Bacon. And although she doesn't hide or ignore his faults, it's difficult to read any page and not feel Bowen's awe and respect for her subject. There is much to admire about Bacon: his broad and deep learning (he seemed to be an "expert" on every subject, from law to botany); his wit (this a verbal exchange between Bacon and his arch-enemy Edward Coke: "Mr. Bacon!" says Coke. "If you have any tooth against me, pluck it out, for it will do you more hurt than all the teeth in your head will do you good." "Mr. Attorney!" (Coke was the Attorney General), retorts Bacon. "I respect you, I fear you not, and the less you speak of your greatness, the more I will think of it." (Ouch!); his books such as NOVUM ORGANUM and THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, still regarded highly today; his life-long wish to found a university in England that would employ the scientific method in its pursuit of knowledge and not the old schoolman methods.

But there is also much to disdain: his bluntness; his naivete with regard to his enemies; his inability to control his spending impulses; his almost outrageous ostentation with his scores of servants, men in waiting, etc. He also had what came to become a most unpopular belief, that the king was above the law.

What makes Bowen's portrait of Bacon worth reading is her marvelous writing style. She is a descendant of the old-school of historical writing (Parkman and Prescott come to mind) that was as much of a literary bent as an historical one. She writes beautiful prose, worthy of her subject and the age in which he lived. Reading her book is a most enjoyable experience.
... Read more