SECRETS OF ART: Uncovering the Mysteries

Art detective Debra Mancoff reveals cryptic symbols used by Leonardo da Vinci, Vermeer and Caravaggio, uncovers layers of meaning in paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso and Dalí, and provides insight into works by Frida Kahlo, Kara Walker and Marina Abramovic. In fact, the latter currently has an exhibition in London where two naked people stand in a doorway and the viewer is invited to walk between them sideways. It is pictured here in the book from its first performance. We shall peer through layers of paint to chart an artist's change of mind or to bring to light another hand's alterations. We shall untangle the bewildering effects of optical illusion and search for hidden identities. We shall consider the results of censorship, read secret symbols and decode the decorum of dress. We shall look at works that were never finished, or were broken or lost, to see if the part can tell us the story of the whole. We see with new eyes Courbet's Man with a Leather Belt, Jasper Johns' White Flag, Velázquez's Las Meninas, Masaccio's Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Edward Burne-Jones's Phyllis and Demophoon, William Holman Hunt's The Awakening Conscience, Jan van Eyck's The Arnolfini Portrait and Banksy's Love is in the Bin (originally Girl with Balloon) among the chosen pieces of art and photography such as Cindy Sherman's Sultry Woman in a Black Dress (gazing at something outside the frame). The reflection in the mirror reveals a martini coupe on a table and a jacket hanging on the back of a chair. 240 large pages, hundreds of colour and other illus.
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