Two portraits of troubled art scholars

Alex Diggins

WHAT IS THE POINT OF ART history? Today, like the clergy in the nineteenth century, it seems fit only for heirs and spares and to while away the time until you snag a Royal. This wasn’t always the case, of course. It was only 50 years ago that John Berger’s Ways of Seeing smashed onto screens like a fist through canvas. And a few years before that when Kenneth Clark bestrode the glories of western civilisation, a colossus in herringbone tweed. Art history was then a serious business — taken seriously. No longer. So it’s a surprise to find it the subject of two debut novels, Michael Mallon’s The Disciple and James Cahill’s Tiepolo Blue. Both feature protagonists who are, or aspire to be, art academics; and both take place…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 2023

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