Masterpieces

Tracing the history and critical function of the most hallowed word in the vocabulary of praise, Walter Cahn studies - through numerous illustrations - the changes in the meaning of the term 'masterpiece' from the earliest use of the expression 'chef d'oeuvre' in the Middle Ages to the effects of Romanticism and other influences in the nineteenth century. In the process, he illuminates the change in status of the visual arts from that of mechanical arts, which originated in antiquity and projected into the medieval period, to that of fine arts, which took shape in the Renaissance and was carried forward into later centuries.