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Article: The Decorative Arts Deconstructed.(Review)
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- September 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Denis Diderot did it first in his magisterial Encyclopedie in which, as this worthy successor states, "the clear beam of the Enlightenment was shone on the gloom of the medieval workshop, dispelling many of the mysteries that surrounded the crafts." The plates from the earlier work are used frequently as illustrations in this dictionary of materials and techniques in the decorative arts. As Lucy Trench, the chief editor of this book, writes: "Much of the 18th-century technology that Diderot depicts has continued to this day in the hands of specialist craftsmen, while the clarity, elegance and precision of his plates are unsurpassed by any modem photograph or computer ...