Traces the historical development of attitudes toward the arts over the past 150 years, suggesting that the present is a period of cultural liquidation, nothing less than the ending of the modern age that began with the Renaissance.
The lecturer traces the historical development of attitudes toward the arts over the past 150 years, suggesting that the present is a period of cultural liquidation, nothing less than the ending of the modern age that began with the Renaissance.
"When an extremely intellectual, extremely experienced, extremely wise man shares his thoughts with others, the result seizes the imagination at once. Such is the effect of these essays. . . . Barzun examines art as religion, as destroyer, as redeemer, and in relation to what he calls 'its tempter, science,' but never forgets the basic essential. As he says, 'the last word on art should indeed be: mystery. But that need not stop any of us from dealing with it as if we understood more than we can.' And how good it is to have one's mind stretched to that understanding of 'more.'"
