The prize was presented by Sir Timothy Clifford at a reception held at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London on the evening of Thursday 5 July. The book was, in the opinion of the assessors, ‘quite simply definitive’. It seemed incredible, several thought, that ‘one man could do it’. It was ‘a revelation of the sheer variety of architecture involved’, all organized ‘with the utmost care and lucidity’. It seems to be, they said, ‘an exhaustive treatment’ of a very understudied but major subject, and yet it ‘opens up entirely new fields for further research and discussion’.
Sir Timothy quoted the assessors' remarks about the other books on the Short List of six:
John Zoffany RA: Society Observed
edited by Martin Postle, was the catalogue of the exhibition of the same name,
at Yale and the Royal Academy, published by the Yale Center for British Art,
New Haven, and the Royal Academy of Arts, in association with Yale University
Press. It was, in the assessors’ opinion, ‘fantastic, wonderful, with an
excellent cast of contributors’. ‘Exciting’, with ‘lots of new material’,
obviously at ‘the cutting edge of research’, and ‘beautifully produced’. It
‘shows the way forward for almost endless research into this underestimated
artist’. ‘This is the Zoffany who captures the imagination’.
The English Castle by John Goodall, published for the Paul Mellon Centre by Yale University
Press, was, the assessors said, an instance of ‘an individual scholar taking an
enormous subject and making it both clear and exciting’. ‘The extraordinary
clarity of the exposition was brilliantly complemented by splendid photographs
and invaluable diagrams of all kinds’. ‘The captions alone are brilliant’ while
‘the text with its many technical terms is not only easy to read but a great
pleasure’. It was, they thought, ‘definitive’.
Inigo Jones: The Architect of Kings
by Vaughan Hart, published for the Paul Mellon Centre by Yale University Press,
was ‘a model for a monograph on any architect’, a ‘focused effort at providing
both a national and international context to Jones’s architecture’. The book
was ‘full of stimulating ideas’, ‘fresh and exciting’, and ‘the author is at
pains to confront several contentious issues – and he does so with vigour’, and
puts forward ‘any number of ingenious and original interpretations’.
Johan Zoffany: 1733-1810 by Mary Webster was also published for the
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press. This
was ‘truly the achievement of a lifetime’, a book that has been some forty
years in the making, and it was ‘well worth the wait’. It was, the assessors
felt, not only ‘extremely successful as a biography’ but also ‘hugely
enjoyable’ with its subject ‘emerging from the shadows in all his eccentricity
and brilliance’. The ‘excellent illustrations’ were considered by several of
the judges almost as valuable as the ‘mass of historical material so very well
marshalled and presented’. ‘A great book’.
Royal Manuscripts: The
Genius of Illumination by Scot Mckendrick, John
Lowden & Kathleen Doyle, published by British Library Publishing,
accompanied the magnificent exhibition of the same name. It was, said the
assessors, ‘exactly the kind of exhibition that the British Library ought to
put on, and the book amply complemented an extraordinary show’. The
illustrations are ‘stunningly’, ‘jaw-droppingly’ beautiful. ‘If anything it
left one wishing for more’.
Sir Timothy reported that the
assessors wished especially to note the outstanding nature of a few of the many
titles which can be seen on the Long List, notably the pioneering study by
Gwen Yarker of portraiture in Dorset, Georgian
Faces – Portrait of a County; the book (in Dutch) of the Stanley
Spencer exhibition in Rotterdam by Alied Ottevanger; and the catalogue raisonné
of William Nicholson by Patricia Reed, Wendy Baron and Merlin James.
The assessors were: Timothy J. Standring, Gates Foundation Curator of
Painting & Sculpture, Denver Art Museum; Robin Simon, Editor, The British Art Journal; Rosemary Hill, sometime Fellow, All Souls’ College,
Oxford, and independent scholar; Katherine Eustace, Editor of the Sculpture journal; Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of The Queen’s
Pictures; Angus Trumble, Senior Curator of Paintings and
Sculpture, Yale Center for British Art
