Annotated bibliography

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Overview
This exhibit draws from many sources, many of which are out of print or are hard to obtain. For an excellent overview of art conservation (not focused on the Feast of the Gods), we recommend the following:

		Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies, by Andrea Kirsh, Rustin S. Levenson (Published June 2000, Yale Univ Press, ISBN: 0300080468, Hardcover - 312 pages; Dimensions (in inches): 1.13 x 10.62 x 8.25; costs around $50 USD. See more info at Amazon.com

		Conservation of Paintings, by David Bomford, from National Gallery Pocket Guides Series (Published February 1998, Yale Univ Press; ISBN: 0300073186; 80 pages; Dimensions (in inches): 0.28 x 8.66 x 4.80), costs around $10 USD. See more info at Amazon.com

Primary references
The primary source for this study is Bull and Plesters (1990), which reports and interprets the scientific examination in depth. For general accounts of X-radiographs and infrared reflectograms, see the video Physics and Fine Art (1993). (Detailed discussion of the application of these scientific techniques to art, is not to be found in readily accessible literature.) The X-radiograph of The Feast of the Gods was first reported in Walker (1966) where he inferred that Titian had altered Bellini's figures (Plesters' cross-sections subsequently showed that to be incorrect). For the composite X-radiograph and infrared reflectogram, see respectively Bull (1993) and Walmsley (1994).

Secondary references
     Some detailed images are to be found in the superb video The Feast of the Gods (1990) which complements this exhibit. The video illustrates the restoration in progress, use of some techniques, the interpretation of the data and shows, on location in Italy, other paintings by Bellini and Titian in Venice and Alfonso's palace in Ferrara.
     For the mythology defining the theme of the painting, see Wind (1948), and subsequently in several places, such as Walker (1966), Appendix D, and Bull and Plesters (1990).
     As an introduction to the extensive literature on the reconstruction of Alfonso's studiolo (which no longer exists), see the conference proceedings on the topic, Cavalli-Bjorkman (1987). It is unknown why Dosso initially altered Bellini's painting. Goodgal (1987) concluded the painting was damanged, but we present the theory of David Bull that it wasa stylistic change.
     For the city-states of the Italian Renaissance, see Coles (1995).
     Particular artists: For Bellini, see Goffen (1989). For Titian, see Biadene (1990); Manca (1993); and Goffen (1997). For Dossi, see Gibbons (1968) and Humfrey (1998). Titian's use of color is discussed in Riley (1995). For Venetian art in the Renaissance, see Humfrey (1995), Vasari (1996).
     For painting materials, the classic is Cennini (1960), the modern classic is Gettens & Stout (1966) and a contemporary source is Smith (1993). The three Art in the Making videos (1988), (1989), (1990) include video of technique. For pigments, see Feller (1986), Roy (1993), West Fitzhugh (1997).
     For this hinterland between science and art, there are no good texts. One, in French, is Mohen (1996). For an introduction to conservation, see Bomford (1997).

Listings of key references are below.

Art in the Making: Impressionism, a video, National Gallery, London, 1990.

Art in the Making: Italian Art before 1400, a video,National Gallery, London, 1989.

Art in the Making: Rembrandt, a video,National Gallery, London, 1988.

Biadene, Susanna, ed., Titian, Prince of Painters, Prestel, New York, 1990.

Bomford, David, Conservation of Paintings, National Gallery Publications, London 1997.

Bull, David and Plesters, Joyce, The Feast of the Gods: Conservation, Examination and Interpretation, Studies in the History of Art 40. Monograph Series II. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1990.

Bull, David, in Manca, Joseph, ed., Titian 500, Studies in the History of Art 45, Washington, D.C., pp. 367-373, 1993.

Cavalli-Bjorkman, Gorel, ed. Bacchanals by Titian and Rubens, Nationalmuseum Stockholm, 1987

Cennini, Cennino, The Craftsman's Handbook, Dover edition, 1960. Reprint

Coles, Alison, Virtue and Magnificence. Art of the Italian Renaissance Courts, Abrams, New York, 1995.

Feast of the Gods, a compact disc, National Gallery of Art/Multimedia Corporation, 1996.

The Feast of the Gods, a video, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1990.

Feller, Robert L., ed., Artists Pigments : a Handbook of their History and Characteristics, Vol. 1, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1986.

Gettens, Rutherford J., and Stout, George L., Painting Materials: A Short Encyclopedia, Dover edition, 1966.

Gibbons, Felton L., Dosso and Battista Dossi: Court Painters at Ferrara, Princeton University Press, 1968.

Goffen, Rona, Giovanni Bellini, Yale University Press, 1989.

Goffen, Rona, Titian's Women, Yale University Press, 1997.

Goodgal, Dana, in Cavalli-Bjorkman, Gorel, ed., Bacchanals by Titian and Rubens, Nationalmuseum Stockholm, pp. 17-24, 1987.

Humfrey, Peter, Painting in Renaissance Venice, Yale University Press, 1995.

Humfrey, Peter, "Two moments in Dosso’s Career as a Landscape Painter." In Dosso’s fate: Painting and Court Culture in Renaissance Italy, ed. Luisa Ciammitti, Steven F. Ostrow, and Salvatore Settis. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1998.

Mohen, Jean-Pierre, L'Art et la Science, L'esprit des chefs-d'œuvre, Découvertes Gallimard : Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 1996.

Riley, Bridget, in Lamb, Trevor, and Bourriau, Janine, eds.,Colour: Art & Science, Cambridge University Press, pp. 31-64, 1995.

Manca, Joseph, ed., Titian 500, Studies in the History of Art 45, Washington, D.C., 1993.

Physics and Fine Art, a video, National Gallery/Institute of Physics, London, 1992.

Roy, Ashok, ed., Artists Pigments: a Handbook of their History and Characteristics, Vol. 2, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1993.

Smith, Ray, The Artist’s Handbook, Knopf, New York, 1993.

Vasari, Giorgio, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Everyman, New York, 1996. (That is an English translation. The original was published in 1568, and is entitled, Le vite de pui eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori. Note, Vasari, while indespensible, is also a gossip, and sometimes inaccurate.)

Walker, John, Bellini and Titian at Ferrara: A Study of Styles and Taste, Yale University Press, London, 1966.

Walmsley, Elizabeth; Metzger, Catherine; Delaney, John K; and Fletcher, Colin. Improved Visualization of underdrawings with solid-state detectors operating in the infrared. Studies in Conservation. 39 (1994) 217-231.

West Fitzhugh, Elisabeth, ed., Artists Pigments : a Handbook of their History and Characteristics, Vol. 3, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1997.

Wind, Edgar, Bellini's Feast of the Gods: A Study in Venetian Humanism, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1948.

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