Great Museums of Italy

Rating:
Summary: Not at all what I expected
Review: I guess it's my own fault. I mean, the title of the book IS "Great Museums of Italy," NOT "Art from the Great Museums of Italy." I knew, when I bought the book that, given that it was trying to cover 8 major gallories in about 230 pages, there would not be more than a small representative selection of works from each musuem; but, even so, I expected much more than I actually got. While each museum IS represented by a small selection of major works, large amounts of space are devoted to text on the history of the museum and its collections, detailed descriptions of the works shows (discussion of the artist, the provenance of the work, etc.), and photos of the interior and exterior of the building.
If you are interested in museum history, this may be the book for you (and even I found interesting the picture of the Brera Gallery in the late 19th century, with artwork hung, literally, edge to edge and floor to ceiling on the walls -- and comparing it to pictures of the galleries today, with some major paintings getting an entire wall to themselves, and most others spaced widely on the gallery walls), but, as a book for museum lovers, it provides a frustratingly minimal selection of works.
A few other issues with the book:
1. Reproduction of the art is often poor. At first I thought that maybe the pictures themself were dirty/faded, and the printer had done the best he could. But, when I compared a couple of pictures in this book with reproductions of the same pictures in my 1970 "BreraMilan" (by Newsweek Books), it seems that this is not the case. Mantegna's famous "Dead Christ is noticibly more washed out and bluish in the newer book, while Caravaggio's "Supper at Emmaus" is far darker and lacking in color contrast.
2. The inclusion of the Ufizzi Gallery is a bit of a puzzle to me. Being, with little question, the most important gallery in Italy (perhaps second to the Vatican Museums), the Ufizzi is already well covered by numerous, well printed, art books, several of which are still in print. (And available from Amazon.com!)So perhaps the space devoted to the Ufizzi could have been better utilized exploring another major, but less well-known collection -- the Ambrosiana in Milan? The Villa Guila (Estruscan Museum) in Rome? The Guggenheim in Venice?
All in all, quite a disappointment.