The Dragon's Trail: The Biography of Raphael's Masterpiece | 
 enlarge | Author: Joanna Pitman
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 730116
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0743265130
Dewey Decimal Number: 759.5
EAN: 9780743265133
ASIN: 0743265130
Publication Date: April 17, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Raphael's ISt. George and the Dragon/i is the work of a genius -- an exquisitely rendered vision of heroism and innocence by one of the greatest painters of all time. Yet the painting's creation is only the beginning of its fascinating story, which spans centuries of power play and intrigue, and has made it a witness to the rise and fall of the great powers of the Western world as it seduced its owners to ever greater heights of corruption and greed.PRaphael's masterpiece was commissioned by Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, the ruler of Urbino, in 1506. Raphael was only twenty-three years old, but he had already begun to acquire a reputation as a painter who was as ruthless in his pursuit of money as he was talented. The duke sent the painting to England's King Henry VII as a thank-you for naming him a knight in the Order of the Garter.PThe painting then mysteriously disappeared for one hundred years until King Charles I saw it hanging in the collection of the Earl of Pembroke and acquired it for a book of Holbein drawings. After Charles was beheaded in 1649, his collection was broken up and the painting made its way to the private gallery of the third-richest man in France, where it was ensconced in its own special room. Thirty years later, the philosopher Diderot was instructed by Catherine the Great of Russia to buy it for her vast collection at the Hermitage.PThe heroic curators of the Hermitage protected ISt. George and the Dragon/i from fire, water, and the anarchists of the Russian Revolution, until Joseph Stalin sold it in 1930 to raise cash. The secret buyer was Andrew Mellon, Treasury Secretary of the United States, who in doing so blatantly violated a U.S. sanction against doing any business with Soviet Russia. Mellon eventually founded The National Gallery in Washington, D.C., where ISt. George and the Dragon/i rests to this day.PExceptionally written and breathlessly paced, IThe Dragon's Trail/i is a microhistory that touches on the rise of the Tudors, the downfall of a Stuart, the twilight of the French aristocracy, the terrors of the Bolshevik revolution, and the depths of the Cold War -- all witnessed by one painting that inspired the best and the worst instincts in its owners.
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| Customer Reviews:
A book to skim fast August 10, 2008
John P. Perhonis (University Park, Maryland United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Unfortunately i have to mostly agree with several of the other reviews on this site that gave this book poor ratings. The Dragon's Trail: The Biography of Raphael's Masterpiece, which Ms. Pitman claims is "kind of personal journey of discovery," and in which she characterizes herself as neither a "professional art historian or a scholar" depicts Raphael's painting of St. George and the Dragon as an art "object." She traces the "historical journey" of the painting from its original rendering by Raphael in the early 16th century through its present resting place in the National Gallery, Washington DC. She employs three basic approaches in her narrative: one, the presentation of historical information in a readable fashion, two, depiction of personal experience and travel, and, three, imaginative rendering of "what it must have been like." The idea has potential, but the approach, in the pen of Ms. Pitman, ends up mostly as fluff because she is unable to satisfactorily weave together fact and imaginative writing. It is the third of the three approaches that significantly detracts from an otherwise informative account. When she manages a paragraph or two of just plain factual writing, it isn't bad. We get interesting information presented in a readable and straight-forward manner. But she wants to hold the general reader's interest with a non-academic, imaginative rendering of "what it must have been like." This is the part that reeks of cliches and bad writing. The writing is so transparently patronizing of "what is must have been like," as rendered with strings of facile sensate images, and hyperbolic words, that I somehow feel that Ms. Pitman had intended these parts for a pre-teenage audience. But if so, it is especially important not to expose this age group, of all audiences, to bad taste in writing. On the other hand, if intended for a larger general audience, which is likely the case, one can't render a non-specialist account simply by asserting this is the intention. The ability to write regardless of the intention is the first requirement. And this ability is simply not there, at least in this book. I believe that Ms. Pittman is not concious that she is exercerising bad taste in writing in these parts, which are abundant. The result, unfortunately, is a pretty bad book mostly because it conceived and portrayed as much more than just a cheap romance novel. I suggest for those readers interested in the subject and the theme, that they skim the book, holding their eyes and nose when they get to the "literary" parts. Get the information and run, so to speak. It is also worth noting that Ms. Pittman, in her Acknowledgements section, indicates that her husband was dying of cancer during the writing of this book. This may explain, in part, the unconscious rendering of objectively bad writing. How much can a person duly focus on the task during a period like this? Perhaps Ms. Pittman's deeper self was engaged outside the writing. In this regard, she is to be commended for pulling this off. I remember reading John Gunther's book, Death Be Not Proud, about the death of his son. There are sections of that book that are really strained. One has to ease off in one's criticism in cases like these. It doesn't make an excuse for bad writing, but it does say, people endure by doing what they have to do, and the result is mixed. That's the way I come down on this book, which I will finish reading in the way I describe above.
She just prattles on . . . . . August 19, 2007
Caroline D
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
When I found myself wondering why Ms. Pitman believed that every noun required at least one adjective, rather than paying attention to her story, I knew I was in trouble. When I went back through several pages to ferret out exactly how many times she had already used a particular adjective, I knew I was probably not going to make it through this book. I was correct. br / br /I slogged through about half of it and quit, not because it was difficult reading, but because it never captured my attention and I became irritated every time I sat down to read it. Her "breathlessness" became tiresome well before the end of the first chapter. The book read like an badly-written romance novel. Ms. Pitman made it almost impossible to distinguish between fact and opinion. She carried on for pages about her own imaginings, and I quickly tired of reading, for example, about what she thought Henry VII (or any other historical figure mentioned) was thinking at a particular time. I was also put off by her repeated assertion that she was writing for the "average" reader, rather than for academia. It seemed to be a cover for the shoddy scholarship. Hmmm . . . . . br / br /The subject IS fascinating, but the writing was abominable. With a growing pile of unread books beckoning from my bedside table, I just had to stop wasting my precious time on this one.
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