Bernard Berenson, renowned art critic
and author of classic works such as Venetian Painters of
the Renaissance (1894), The Study and Criticism of Italian Art
(1901, 1902, 1915,) and Essays in Medieval Art, at the age
of 90 in the Borghese Gallery, Rome (1955).
Bernard Berenson (June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959) was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. He was a major figure in pioneering art attribution and therefore establishing the market for paintings by the "Old Masters".
I appreciated Bernard’s work, it was beautiful. An artist’s work is only what initially gets my attention. As I researched Berenson I really enjoyed reading about his life and mostly the things he has said. Here are some of his well known quotes:
Between truth and the search for it, I choose the second.
Boast is always a cry of despair, except in the young it is a cry of hope.
Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.
Genius is the capacity for productive reaction against one's training.
I would I could stand on a busy corner, hat in hand, and beg people to throw me all their wasted hours.
Life has taught me that it is not for our faults that we are disliked and even hated, but for our qualities.
When everything else physical and mental seems to diminish, the appreciation of beauty is on the increase.
You can parody and make fun of almost anything, but that does not turn the universe into a caricature.