{"product_id":"the-invisible-masterpiece-9780226042657","title":"The Invisible Masterpiece","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe \"invisible masterpiece\" is an unattainable ideal  a work of art into which a dream of absolute art is incorporated but can never be realized. Using this metaphor borrowed from Balzac  Hans Belting explores the history of \"the masterpiece\" and how its status and meaning have been elevated and denigrated since the early nineteenth century. Before 1800  works of art were either imitative (portraits and landscapes) or narrative (history painting). But under the influence of Romantic modernity  the physical objecta painted canvas  for example  or a sculpturecame to be seen as visible testimony of the artists attempt to achieve absolute or ultimate art; in short  the impossible. This revolution in interpretation coincided with the establishment of the first public art museums  in which classical and Renaissance works were presented as the \"real\" masterpieces  timeless art of such quality that no modern artist could possibly hope to achieve. The Mona Lisa and other celebrated paintings preoccupied artists who felt burdened by this cult of the masterpiece as it came to be institutionalized.  Belting explores and explains how twentieth-century artists  following Duchamp  struggled with their personal dreams of absolute art. It was not until the 1960s that artists  such as Warhol  finally began to reject the idea of the individual  totemic work of art and its permanent exhibition  as well as the related concept of the \"masterpiece\" and the outmoded art market that fed off it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651726139445,"sku":"ByrdShop_0226042650","price":249.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780226042657.jpg?v=1781838346","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-invisible-masterpiece-9780226042657","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}