Millard Meiss, American Art History, and Conservation A member of the art history generation from the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s, Millard Meiss (1904–1975) developed a new and multi-faceted methodological approach. This book lays the foundation for a reassessment of this key fgure in post-war American and international art history. The book analyses his work alongside that of contemporary art historians, considering both those who infuenced him and those who were receptive to his research. Jennifer Cooke uses extensive archival material to give Meiss the critical consideration that his extensive and important art historical, restoration and conservation work deserves. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, historiography and heritage management and conservation. Jennifer Cooke is a researcher in History of Art Criticism and Museum Studies at the University of Turin. Cover image: Photo of Millard Meiss by Hans Namuth (1961), Millard Meiss Papers, circa 1918-circa 1977, bulk 1950-1975, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Studies in Art Historiography Series Editor: Richard Woodfeld University of Birmingham The aim of this series is to support and promote the study of the history and practice of art historical writing focusing on its institutional and conceptual foundations, from the past to the present day in all areas and all periods. Besides addressing the major innova- tors of the past it also encourages re-thinking ways in which the subject may be written in the future. It ignores the disciplinary boundaries imposed by the Anglophone expres- sion ‘art history’ and allows and encourages the full range of enquiry that encompasses the visual arts in its broadest sense as well as topics falling within archaeology, anthro- pology, ethnography and other specialist disciplines and approaches. For a full list of titles in this series, please visit https: // www . rout ledge . com/ Studi es- i n- Art- Histo riogr aphy/ book- seri e s/ ASH SER22 50 Comparativism in Art History Edited by Jaś Elsner Constructing the Viennese Modern Body Art, Hysteria and the Puppet Nathan J. Timpano Messerschmidt’s Character Heads Maddening Sculpture and the Writing of Art History Michael Yonan Time in the History of Art Temporality, Chronology, and Anachrony Edited by Dan Karlholm and Keith Moxey New Narratives of Russian and East European Art Between Traditions and Revolutions Edited by Galina Mardilovich and Maria Taroutina Making Art History in Europe after 1945 Edited by Noemi de Haro-García, Patricia Mayayo and Jesús Carrillo Millard Meiss, American Art History, and Conservation From Connoisseurship to Iconology and Kulturgeschichte Jennifer Cooke Millard Meiss, American Art History, and Conservation From Connoisseurship to Iconology and Kulturgeschichte Jennifer Cooke First published 2021 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Taylor & Francis The right of Jennifer Cooke to be identifed as author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Cooke, Jennifer, 1983- author. | Cooke, Jennifer, 1983- Millard Meiss. Title: Millard Meiss, American art history, and conservation: from connoisseurship to iconology and Kulturgeschichte/Jennifer Cooke. Other titles: Millard Meiss. English Description: New York: Routledge, 2021. | Originally published in Italy in 2015 by Ledizioni as Millard Meiss: tra connoisseurship, iconologia e Kulturgeschichte. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifers: LCCN 2020025272 (print) | LCCN 2020025273 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367138349 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367138356 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Meiss, Millard. | Art–Historiography. | Historiography–United States–History–20th century. Classifcation: LCC N7483.M45 C6613 2021 (print) | LCC N7483.M45 (ebook) | DDC 709--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020025272 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020025273 ISBN: 978-0-367-13834-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-13835-6 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India Contents Illustrations and Illustration Credits viii Preface x Acknowledgements xii List of Abbreviations xiii Cited Works by Millard Meiss xiv Introduction 1 Bibliography 4 1 Two Generations of American Connoisseurs 5 Richard Offner’s Scientifc Connoisseurship 5 The Two Cartographers 6 The Foundations for a Science of Connoisseurship 8 A Short History of Meiss’s Attributions 10 The First Thorny Problems of Ugolino Lorenzetti and Francesco Traini 10 ‘Scusi, ma sempre Duccio’: The Case of the Frick Flagellation 17 ‘The World Clearly Wants Giotto to Be the Author’: The Assisi Debate 26 The Sharp Eye of a Connoisseur and the Acute Mind of a Scientist 34 Bibliography 36 2 The Far Side of the Moon: Erwin Panofsky’s Iconology 47 Panofsky Arrives in the United States 47 Towards an American-style Iconology 49 A Casual but Illuminating Conversation 57 The ‘Synthronismus’ 65 ‘Von Haus zu Haus’ 68 The Extent of His Infuence, the Weight of His Authority and the Solidity of His Reign 69 vi Contents Panofskyan Pathways 73 Arnolfni’s Hat 73 Iconology of Light 76 ‘Oology May Qualify as a Branch of Iconology’ 78 Meissian Slumber 81 Bibliography 84 3 Kulturgeschichte or Social History of Art? 98 Reviewing Antal 98 The ‘Pest Book’ and Post-war Scholarship 100 ‘One of the Most Original and Sound Works in the History of Art’ 100 The Historian’s View: Yves Renouard, Hans Baron and Roberto S. Lopez 108 The Habitus Does Not Make the Art Bishop: Berenson and Panofsky 110 Ragghianti’s Attack and the Italian Response 114 ‘A Book That Ought to Have Been Known in Italy Not Only by Scholars Alone’: The Complications of a Translation 117 ‘The Holes in the Meissian Model Have Grown Larger with Each Passing Year’ 123 The History of Culture after the Black Death 125 Bibliography 128 4 The Technical Study of Art 138 Harvard’s Art Laboratory 138 ‘America as Guardian of the World’s Art Treasures’: The American Committee for the Restoration of Italian Monuments 139 ACRIM’s Projects of Restoration 143 The Involvement of Bernard Berenson 145 Meiss’s Studies on Mural Paintings 147 The Trigger-Happy Detachment of Frescoes 147 The Giornate in Assisi with Leonetto Tintori 150 A Book on the History of Art Techniques 154 American Aid after the Flood 157 ‘An Acute Case of CRIAmania’ 157 Ugo Procacci, Tintori’s Brigata and Italian ‘Stubborn Rivalries’ 162 From The Great Age of Fresco to Firenze Restaura 166 Bibliography 171 Contents vii 5 Italian Meiss-Fortunes 182 A Connoisseur’s Early Impressions of Italy 182 An American Panofsky and a Candid Iconologist 184 Meiss’s Associates 187 Longhi and Salmi 187 The Soprintendenti’s Circle 191 A True Gentleman from the 19th Century 194 The Champion of Iconology and History of Culture, or Our Man in Italy 197 When Princeton Mostly Spoke Italian 200 A Three-Faced Man 201 Bibliography 204 Index 211 Illustrations and Illustration Credits Where possible, the images in this book were purposefully chosen from Federico Zeri’s personal photo collection to illustrate the kind of visual reference that Millard Meiss would have used. 1.1 F rancesco Traini, Triptych of St Dominic (central panel), 1344–1345, oil on panel, 175 × 74 cm, Pisa, Museo Nazionale di San Matteo [Bologna, Fototeca Federico Zeri, inv. no. 23689] 12 1.2 Francesco Traini, Madonna and Child with St Anne, 1340–1345, tempera on wood panel transferred to pressed wood panel, 84.9 × 56 cm, Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum [Bologna, Fototeca Federico Zeri, inv. no. 23683] 13 1.3 Lippo Memmi, Glorifcation of St Thomas Aquinas, 1323, tempera on panel, 375 × 258 cm, Pisa, Church of Santa Caterina d’Alessandria [Bologna, Fototeca Federico Zeri, inv. no. 21415] 14 1.4 Buonamico Buffalmacco, Triumph of Death, ca. 1338–1339, fresco, Pisa, Camposanto [Bologna, Fototeca Federico Zeri, inv. no. 23614] 15 1.5 B uonamico Buffalmacco, St George and the Dragon, ca. 1350, fresco, Parma, Baptistry [Bologna, Fototeca Federico Zeri, inv. no. 23608] 16 1.6 C enni di Pepo (known as Cimabue), Flagellation of Christ (cleaned and retouched), ca. 1280, tempera on poplar panel, 24.7 × 20 cm, New York, Frick Art Collection [Bologna, Fototeca Federico Zeri, inv. no. 9960] 18 2.1 G iovanni Bellini (attr.), Portrait of Jacopo Antonio Marcello, ca. 1453, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS 940 Passio Mauritii et sotiorum ejus, f. 38 v 62 3.1 A ndrea Bonaiuti (known as Andrea da Firenze), Spanish Chapel, 1366–1368, view of the interior, Florence, Santa Maria Novella [Bologna, Fototeca Federico Zeri, inv. no. 16066] 101 3.2 A ndrea di Cione (known as Orcagna), Triumph of Death (fragment), ca. 1348, fresco, Florence, Santa Croce [Bologna, Fototeca Federico Zeri, inv. no. 15089] 102 3.3 L ippo Memmi, Crucifxion, ca. 1340, fresco, San Gimignano, Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta [Bologna, Fototeca Federico Zeri, inv. no. 21507]. Authorised by the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio di Siena Grosseto e Arezzo 103 Illustrations and Illustration Credits ix 5.1 C esi Master, Assumption of the Virgin (central panel of the Stella Altarpiece), 1308, tempera on wood, 191 × 175.5 cm, St.-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Villa & Gardens Ephrussi de Rothschild [Bologna, Fototeca Federico Zeri, inv. no. 30907] 189 Photo credits © Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution © Fototeca della Fondazione Federico Zeri, Bologna © Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris