In Praise of Hands
By Henri Focilon, Victoria Charles
Length1h 22m
About this audiobook
To speak about art is to evoke the hand of the creator who produced the work. It is to confer to its gestures the importance of thoughts and to explore their point of convergence on the canvas or the stone. With this text, Henri Focillon delivers one of the most beautiful odes to the hand and, simultaneously, to the talent of artists, studying Hokusai, Cézanne, and even Rodin. What do artists such as Rembrandt, David, Gauguin, and Hokusai have in common? A virtuosity of the hand, replies Henri Focillon. The viewer often forgets that behind the works, it is first and foremost a hand and its fingers which guide the paintbrush, the pen, or the stylus. Focillon’s text recalls the importance of this part of the body, in which the artist’s talent comes to life. Within his text, he grants the hand the recognition that it deserves.
Audiobook details
GenreOther
Length1 hr 22 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
2Leonardo da Vinci, St John the Baptist (detail), c. 1513-1516.
3List of Artists
4Anonymous, A Crowd of Hands, c. 9000-7000 BCE
5Anonymous, Greek Painting Depicting a Couple, 480 BCE
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6Euaion Painter (attributed to), Banquet Scene: Man Reclining on a Bench and Youth Playing the Aulos, c. 460 BCE
7Myron, Discobolus the Discus Thrower, c. 450 BCE
8Hagesandros, Athenedoros, and Polydoros (copy after), Laocoön and His Sons, c. 150 BCE
9Heliodorus of Rhodes (copy after), Pan Teaching Daphnis to Play the Flute, 1st century BCE
10Praxiteles (copy after), Aphrodite, known as “Venus of Arles”, end of 1st century BCE
11Anonymous, Venus and Cupid, 1st-2nd century CE
12Anonymous, The Baptism of Christ, c. 520
13Anonymous, Leo VI Prostrate Before Christ in Majesty, 9th-10th century
14Anonymous, Arm Reliquary of St Lawrence, c. 1175
15Anonymous, Arm Reliquary of St Luke of Toulouse, c. 1337-1338
16Anonymous, The “Cosmic Buddha” Vairocana, Tibet, 14th century
17Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434
18Piero del Pollaiuolo, Apollo and Daphne, probably 1470-1480
19Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, c. 1482
20Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, c. 1484
21Giovanni Santi, Christ Supported by Two Angels, vers 1490
22Leonardo da Vinci, A Study of a Woman’s Hands, c. 1490
23Albrecht Dürer, Study of Three Hands, 1493-1494
24Leonardo da Vinci, The Hands of St John in “The Last Supper”, c. 1495
25Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa (La Gioconda), c. 1503-1506
26Raphael, The Three Graces, c. 1504
27Albrecht Dürer, Jesus Among the Doctors, 1506
28Albrecht Dürer, Two Pairs of Hands Holding Books, 1506
29Albrecht Dürer, Praying Hands (detail from Heller Altar), 1508
30Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam (Sixth Ceiling Panel), 1508-1512
31Raphael, Madonna of Loreto, 1509-1510
32Titian, The Temptation of Christ, c. 1516-1525
33Leonardo da Vinci (copy after), The Pointing Hand of the Angel in “The Virgin of the Rocks”, c. 1517-1520
34Raphael, La Fornarina, c. 1520
35Titian, Man with a Glove, c. 1520
36Hans Holbein the Younger, Erasmus, c. 1523
37Titian, Penitent Magdalene, 1533
38Caravaggio, The Chess Players, c. 1562
39El Greco, A Boy Blowing on an Ember to Light a Candle, 1570-1572
40Caravaggio, The Cardsharps, c. 1595
41Caravaggio, Deposition from the Cross, c. 1600-1604
42Caravaggio, The Tooth Puller, 1608-1610
43Peter Paul Rubens, Rubens and Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower, c. 1609
44Peter Paul Rubens, Jupiter and Callisto, 1613
45Rembrandt, The Raising of Lazarus, c. 1630-1632
46Rembrandt, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, 1632
47Rembrandt, Sacrifice of Isaac (detail), 1635
48Anonymous, Infant Buddha, China, Ming Dynasty, 17th century
49Anonymous, Baths and Dressing No. 10, 18th century
50Jean-Honoré Fragonard, A Philosopher Reading, c. 1764
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