Life with Berenson
Werner, Alfred
Life with Berenson FORTY YEARS WITH BERENSON, by Nicky Mariano. Introduction by Sir Kenneth Clark. Illustrated. Alfred A. Knopf. 352 pp. $6.95. Reviewed by Alfred Werner T N ITS June,...
...Berenson was often attacked for his desire to amass a fortune through his commercial connections with powerful dealers, especially Sir Joseph Duveen...
...His final illness began in April, 1958, but his mind remained unimpaired...
...had little formal education— before World War I, few European women attended secondary school, let alone a university...
...He once said: "The only thing that money can really buy for us is leisure of mind and the liberty to indulge in wholly disinterested pursuits...
...Miss Mariano has given us enough by telling us much of what she knew about the individual Berenson, his enchantment with young women, his loathing of millionaire dinner parties, his pride in being an East European Jew (despite his conversions, first to Episcopalianism, and then to Catholicism), his contempt for Fascism, and his "exile" during part of World War II on the estate of an Italian diplomat...
...A date was set, but when I phoned his companion and guardian, Nicky Mariano, I received the depressing news that he had become too ill to receive visitors...
...Unfortunately, three years passed before I had the opportunity to go abroad...
...At any rate, he never certified a painting (for a substantial fee, of course), unless he was convinced of its authenticity, and never gave in to Duveen's wishes to authenticate a picture about which he had doubts...
...He could not know enough, or look enough, or look long enough...
...Living near him and for him I learnt the full truth of this...
...JOSEPH E. ILLICK is an assistant professor of history at San Fran cisco State College...
...was contented with supporting needy relatives in a decent rather than lavish manner...
...His books include "U.S...
...But it was Mary rather than Bernard who loved money...
...How delighted I was a few weeks later, when I received a letter from him, written in his spidery hand: "Thanks for the most intelligent article about me that I have seen in a very long time, and in good taste...
...reported how impressive an individual he was...
...While N.M...
...This is confirmed by N.M., who was enchanted by his "slender, elegant figure . . . beautiful eyes . . . charming smile...
...Everyone who met B.B...
...ATHAN THEOHARIS is an as sistant professor of history at Wayne State University...
...ALFRED WERNER, the art critic, is the author of "Barlach...
...Not being an art historian—though, undoubtedly, having become well informed on art in those four decades —N.M...
...Also, "he still enjoyed the early morning light, the swish of the wind in the pine trees, the glorious spectacle of the sunset...
...peacemaker, when little or big feuds threatened to destroy friendships...
...Her father, an Italian, taught church history at the University of Naples...
...N.M...
...I ask who is this Berenson they so vulgarly and stupidly fuss over...
...She writes, for instance: "No man has ever been less of a dilettante...
...ADAM SCHESCH is doing graduate work in Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin...
...THE REVIEWERS FRED WARNER NEAt is a professor of international relations and government at the Claremont Graduate School...
...Foreign Policy and the Soviet Union...
...You have no idea of what absurd rubbishy stuff is being written about me...
...does not conceal his weaknesses—he was given to eruptions of rage and was terribly suspicious of people—the picture she paints is full of light and glamour...
...Reviewed by Alfred Werner T N ITS June, 1955, issue, The Progres sive published my article, "Fabulous Berenson," in which I paid homage to the extraordinary art historian, connoisseur, and wit on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday...
...She rallies to his defense almost as a widow might defend her late husband...
...Nicky Mariano's volume is no biography in the strict sense of the term, but a delightfully entertaining, and probably accurate, account of a long and intimate friendship...
...But one does not turn to this sincere book for references to the Old Masters...
...When he died at his estate, I Tatti, on October 5, 1959, he was ninty-four...
...writes little about art, except for constantly reminding us of how madly B.B...
...often used the image of love being like a delicate plant that had to be cared for day by day, that one could never afford to leave unattended...
...A swelling of the tissues in his mouth made his speech incomprehensible, yet he was still able to work a little, looking at reproductions of Florentine Renaissance paintings, and using gestures to make his comments...
...loved its every manifestation (excepting all art from Picasso onward...
...Mary Berenson, who came from a rich family, wished to bestow riches upon her grandchildren (Berenson was her second husband), while B.B...
...He traveled extensively (always in the company of N.M...
...at an age when most men do not dare to venture out, and he wrote books to his very end...
...Berenson, to help with the task of keeping the thousands of books in order...
...De partment of Health, Education, and Wel fare...
...her aristocratic mother came from a German-speaking Baltic family...
...Life with Berenson FORTY YEARS WITH BERENSON, by Nicky Mariano...
...But I Tatti was enlarged, and the household cost a fortune...
...PHILIP A. HOLAAAN is assistant director of public information for the U.S...
...She felt ill at ease when given the job of librarian at I Tatti by Mrs...
...Even in his old age, he was eager to increase his knowledge...
...Although employed to take care of his books, and, subsequently, relieved to take charge of the photographs, she was everything possible to B.B.: his protector against the bores and parasites who tried to invade I Tatti...
...She summed up her book, and her role in life, by writing: "B.B...
...No one has dared to deny that he was an unusual figure, who made important contributions to art history, but many unpleasant things have been said or written about him...
...Only an idea can be given in a short review of the full riches of this book, as N.M., in four decades, met and took care of the fascinating guests at I Tatti...
...could have become a good writer, had she not preferred to devote her energies to the care of the self-centered B.B...
...Forty Years with Berenson is a charming, reverently written book of reminiscences, and a marvelous supplement to the biography by Sylvia Sprigge that was published in 1960...
...and above all a companion to whom he could unburden his heart, especially after Mary Berenson, in 1931, had become an invalid...
...Miss Mariano is a remarkable person...
...Her pen portraits of people suggest that N.M...
...He has the same name, but nothing else that I recognize as me...
...Berenson suggested that I stop in to see him when I was next in Florence...
...PHILIP D. CURTIN, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin and former chairman of its African Studies Program, wrote "The Image of Africa" and edited "Africa Remembered," which will be published by the University of Wisconsin Press this month...
Vol. 31 • April 1967 • No. 4
