Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. With contributions from R. De Puma. - PICÓN, C.A., J.R. MERTENS, a.o.,

New York, 2007. XI,508p. Richly and nicely ills.(full colour photographs). Original burgundy cloth with pictorial dust wrps. Nice copy.Antiquarian Titel: Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. With contributions from R. De Puma. Auteur: PICÓN, C.A., J.R. MERTENS, a.o.,
?This hefty tome ?celebrates the fulfilment of a major goal?, according to Metropolitan Museum of Art director Philippe de Montebello: the inauguration of the entire suite of galleries for Greek and roman art, completed in Spring 2007, after almost fifteen years of reinstallation. The book?s glory, like that of the Met?s collections themselves, lies in the high quality objects therein and the elegance with which they are presented. Here 476 artefacts - marbles, bronzes, coins, gems, jewellery, gold and silver plate, ivories, ambers, glass, frescoes, weaponry, vases, terracottas, etc. - are lavishly illustrated in large color photographs. Included are well known masterpieces and less familiar recent acquisitions (over ninety from the past two decades), as well as some works that have long languished in the Museum?s basement. Following a brief foreword (?) Picón presents a twenty-page illustrated history of the classical collections, tracing their growth from (?) 1870 (?) to (?) 2006. (?) The meat of the book is in seven chapters, or rather sections, of photographs of individual artefacts. These are arranged chronologically (?). The high quality photographs of objects are accompanied by brief ?tombstone?-style captions (i.e., catalogue number, short title, culture, period, date, material, credit line, and accession number). Unsigned ?Notes on the Works of Art? follow the nearly four-hundred pages of photos. (?) The quality and range of this very attractive volume (?) will recommend it to anyone interested in the art of the ancient world.?(KENNETH LAPATIN in The Classical World, 2009, pp.199-200).