Titian: Nymph and Shepherd

by John Berger, Katya Berger Andreadakis

Nymph and Shepherd is presented as a series of stimulating letters exchanged between the internationally renowned author and art critic John Berger and his daughter, Katya.
This correspondence is the extraordinary vehicle for a series of insights into the everyday life and the art of the great Venetian master, following an uncanny incident at the great exhibition of his work staged in Venice in 1990.
While attending the exhibition Katya meets an old man, who she becomes convinced can only be the ghost of the great painter. Her "spiritual" visitor engages her in conversation about the minute particularities of painting some of the pictures there. She shares this experience with her father in a letter. He accepts the encounter at face value and discusses the historical background to the old man's remarks, seeking answers to a series of evidential questions about his daughter's encounter. From then on, the three of them, the old painter, the daughter, and the father discuss painting, bodies, animals, Greece, being a woman today, the constant enigma of existence, and daily life.
Nymph and Shepherd is richly illustrated with the famous Titian masterpieces shown at the exhibition, thus enabling readers to enter the visual adventure and judge for themselves what the visitor from four centuries ago has to say to us today.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

117 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

John Peter Berger was an English art critic, novelist, painter and author. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a college text.

Later he was self exiled to continental Europe, living between the french Alps in summer and the suburbs of Paris in winter. Since then, his production has increased considerably, including a variety of genres, from novel to social essay, or poetry. One of the most common themes that appears on his books is the dialectics established between modernity and memory and loss,

Another of his most remarkable works has been the trilogy titled Into Their Labours, that includes the books Pig Earth (1979), Once In Europa (1983) Lilac And Flag (1990). With those books, Berger makes a meditation about the way of the peasant, that changes one poverty for another in the city. This theme is also observed in his novel King, but there his focus is more in the rural diaspora and the bitter side of the urban way of life.

Reviews

[Safa Furkan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Çok tatlı ve ufuk açıcı bir kitap.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting dialogue on art, and various other things. There's a certain tendancy to over generalise and to rely too heavily on a certain eurocentric, heterosexual gaze that limits the scope of the insights Berger and his daughter strive for. Still, there should be more books like this, and more conversations like this.

[Iñaki Echarte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este pequeño libro (se lee en una tarde) recoge la correspondencia entre John Berger y su hija Katya. El origen es una simple apreciación de John sobre un cuadro de Tiziano durante una estancia en Venecia. A partir de ahí ambos se entregan al desarrollo de múltiples teorías sobre la obra y la vida del pintor, de las sensaciones que le provocan sus pinturas y de sus sentimientos ante el arte en general. Sus puntos de vista son interesantes y peculiares; la lectura de este libro es un pequeño y breve placer.
Muy recomendable.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

A unique book. Some nice poetic passages at times but most of the time just weird and pretentious.

[C. de L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Todos esperan, lo que equivale a decir que están vivos”.



“La piel del hombre —¿te has fijado alguna vez?— cuando es suave es mucho más suave que la de las mujeres”.