Overview

Perfect for lovers of travel, art, cultural wonder and the natural world, The Endurance of Things is a rich and accessible collection of short, affectionate essays, chiefly about the life and culture of Italy. Each essay illuminates a different aspect of the country and stems from the author’s experience of places, paintings and people during half a century’s genial explorations. Autobiographical moments develop into reflections on the nature of history, perception, artistic representation, and the passing of time. Inevitably, literature often underlies these discussions. Fragments of Wordsworth and Wallace Stevens and Philip Larkin find a home here, alongside comments on paintings by Piero della Francesca, Titian and Tiepolo amongst many other artists, together with descriptions of Tuscan village life. Indeed, there is almost nothing that might not find a place in these essays. They revel in the pleasures of miscellany: the portrait and the altarpiece; the ragbag and the jewel box.

Full Product Details

Author:   Martin Gray
Publisher:   Constellations Press
Imprint:   Constellations Press
ISBN:  

9781917000062

ISBN 10:   1917000065
Pages:   208
Publication Date:   07 February 2025
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction Restoration, Restoration Genoa Donatello’s David Again Little Owl Giorgione                 The Ox and the As Giotto Art Cities The Italian Beach History and Memory Principina a Mare More on Beaches Unlucky Numbers Giorgio Morandi The Real Sicily Lorenzo Lotto Italian Art in Birmingham Sweet, Sweet Memories are Made of This Ornament and Crime Angels The Shock of the Old Confessions of a Short-Sighted Birdwatcher Nothing Much More The Sea, The Sea Commonplace Thoughts on the Remembrance of Things Past Portraiture Seeing is Believing Sameness and Difference Eagle Eyes What is Past or Passing or to Come The Endurance of Things Lotto Again Squaring the Circle La Gioconda With How Sad Steps, Oh Moon, Thou Climb’st The Skies The Pandemic Unprecedented! Ramping Up! Following the Science If Winter Comes, Can Spring be Far Behind? Can it Really be Thursday Already? Where Angels Fear to Tread Recap on Angels and Potatoes All That Glisters A Past and Present Memory The Etruscans In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle Yes to Baroque The Sound of Silence Skeuomorphs Again Memories of an Old Friend Image Credits Acknowledgements

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Author Information

Martin Gray taught for twenty-four years at the University of Stirling. He has been visiting Italy for over sixty years. Every summer when his children were young, the family threw everything into the back of an elderly Fiat and drove across Europe to stay in Camigliano, a tiny village in mountainous southern Tuscany. He now has an an insider’s knowledge and a deep love for the country. Nearly twenty-five years ago, he started a travel company. Small in scale, but modestly large in ambition, Learn Italy takes groups to enjoy that country’s culture, history and bustling present-day reality. This volume celebrates the lasting pleasure of these visits.

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