Dealing with oft-told tales, [Levey] manages to be fresh and compelling. Intellectual context is a constant concern of his, and in untangling the threads of Florentine politics and weaving them together with the strands of cultural history he achieves a welcome clarity...In painting his Florence portrait, like those Florentine portrait painters of the Renaissance, Sir Michael never fails to add the small, illuminating detail...[An] invaluable [book].
-- William Weaver New York Times Book Review
Levey's portrayal [of Florence] is that of an eminent art historian elegantly at home in painting, sculpture, and architecture...The book has...a masterly survey of post-Renaissance Florence, of the treasures produced during the city's long decline. Levey is one of our most penetrating connoisseurs of Mannerism and the baroque...[A] loving, erudite tour.
-- George Steiner New Yorker
Michael Levey, the eminent British art historian, is among the most learned and eloquent of [Florence's] adoptive citizens...[He] is never less than highly companionable. Though this is not a guidebook, he is a natural guide, with all the wit and volubility...of a practiced cicerone.
-- Dan Hofstadter Wall Street Journal
[A] lucid, well-informed, and wide-ranging text.
-- Charles Hope New York Review of Books
It would be a brave person to offer yet another interpretation [of Florence], but few could be better qualified to do so than Michael Levey. As a distinguished art historian and former Director of the National Gallery, he has the right sort of familiarity with Florentine art to lend authority to his observations; as an amateur musicologist and novelist, he is certainly aware of broader cultural issues and has an eye for the telling vignette that brings his subject to life. Enthusiastically hybrid, his Florence: A Portrait is both a guide, history and personal appreciation of a city which has now become a shrine of cultural faith more than a living entity...One could go on...pointing out striking passages or perceptive comments [in the book], but anyone who knows Levey's earlier writings can readily understand why his personal view of Florence would be worth reading. Like any successful travel-writer, he has the ability to project a sympathetic and congenial personality, one able to respond interestingly to the variety of Florence...Michael Levey has produced a handsome tribute.
-- Bruce Boucher Times Literary Supplement
Levey's book is...a big, muscled analysis, edifying but erudite, of Florence's political and artistic history from earliest times through the nineteenth century. He supplies Florence with a living, breathing corporality in place of its rather mummified tourist image of frozen-in-time, outdoor art museum...A book worthy of the time it demands.
-- Booklist
Levey, former director of London's National Gallery and a prolific art historian, explores the long history of the fabled city-state of Florence...A fine achievement. Exceptionally detailed reporting about a fascinating city.
-- Kirkus Reviews
[T]his book is almost a personal tour of Florence, providing unusual insights and detail...[I]t meanders through history and art providing the reader with an intimate view of Florentine personalities and environs.
-- Library Journal
