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Review Essays of Academic, Professional & Technical Books in the Humanities & Sciences
Art History
Art History (Revised 2nd Edition) by Marilyn Stokstad (Prentice Hall) Students ought to enjoy their first course in art history. Only if they do will they want to experience and appreciate the visual arts—for the rest of their lives—as offering connections to the most tangible creations of the human imagination. To this end, we continue to seek ways to make each edition of Art History a more sensitive, engaging, supportive, and accessible learning resource. The characteristics that elicited such a warm welcome when Art History was first published in 1998 remain its hallmarks today in the revised second edition.
Art History is contextual in its approach and object-based in its execution. Throughout the text we treat the visual arts, not in isolation, but within the essential contexts of history, geography, politics, religion, and other humanistic studies, and we carefully define the parameters—social, religious, political, and cultural—that either have con-strained or have liberated individual artists. A feature called The Object Speaks explores the role of a work of art with-in its context by focusing in depth on some of the many things a work of art may have to say. At the same time that we stay grounded in the works of art that make art history distinctive among other humanistic disciplines, we emphasize the significance of the work of art.
Art History reflects the excitement and pleasures gained by studying art. In writing about art's history, we try to express our affection for the subject. Each chapter opens with a scene-setting vignette that concentrates on a work of art from that chapter. Set-off text boxes, many illustrated, present interesting, thought-provoking material. A number of them follow the theme of women in the arts—as artists and as patrons. Others give insights into discoveries and controversies. The discipline of art history is many dimensional in its possibilities, and Art History invites a positive sampling of these possibilities.
Art History is comprehensive. We reach beyond the Western tradition to examine the arts of other regions and cultures, from their beginnings to the twenty-first century. We cover not only the world's most significant paintings and works of sculpture and architecture but also drawings and prints; photographs; works in metal, ceramic, and glass; textiles; jewelry; furniture and aspects of interior de-sign (things that were once considered only utilitarian); such temporal arts as happenings and performance art; and new mediums such as video art, installation art, and digital art. Acknowledging that the majority of survey courses concentrate on the Western tradition, we have organized the chapters on non-Western arts and cultures so that art can be studied from a global perspective within an integrated sequence of Western and non-Western art. Just as smoothly, non-Western material can be skipped over without losing the thread of the Western narrative.
Art History offers a pedagogical advantage. When first published, Art History was instantly embraced for its groundbreaking use of drawings and diagrams to aid readers in mastering the terminology of art history. The Elements of Architecture and Technique boxes visually explain how buildings are constructed and how artists use materials to do everything from creating cave paintings to decorating armor to making photographs. Maps and timelines guide the reader visually through the narrative. Every chapter has at least one map and a timeline, and the maps identify every site mentioned in the text. Terms specific to art history are printed in boldface type, which indicates their inclusion in the 900 word Glossary. The Bibliography, compiled for the second edition by distinguished art librarian, Susan Craig, has been updated by us for this edition.
As much as possible, without distorting the narrative of art history, we have chosen works of art that are in North American museums, galleries, and collections so that readers can most easily experience these works directly. This selection includes works from college and university galleries and museums.
Art History has a Companion WebsiteTM that makes it possible to integrate the art history survey course with the vast power of the Internet. For students, the Stokstad Companion WebsiteTM features Study Guide, Reference, Communication, and Personalization Modules. For instructors, the Companion WebsiteTM has a special Faculty Module and Syllabus ManagerTM
Art History comes with a complete ancillary package that includes an interactive CD-ROM with hundreds of images from the book, a student Study Guide, and an Instructor's Resource Manual with Test Bank.
The authors responded to your suggestions for making Art History even more teachable. In this revised second edition, we improved the Use Notes and Starter Kit, particularly the definitions of the formal elements, adding new color and diagrams and clarifying the discussions of con-tent, style, and medium. The Introduction continues to be organized around a series of questions but has been revised. The section Nature or Art? has been upgraded and includes subsections on Styles of Representation and The Human Body as Idea and Ideal. The section What Is Art History? includes a subsection on Studying Art Formally and Contextually.
We fine-tuned our coverage of Ancient and Medieval art and used the opportunity of a revised edition to make a few organizational changes. The discussions of Greek and Roman art in Chapters 5 and 6 now have greater chronological flow. For example, the Canon of Polykleitos (Chap. 5) has become a text box at the beginning of the section on the Mature Classical period, where it is closer to the discussion of freestanding sculpture in the Early Classical period. The Roman Republic (Chap. 6) is now a separate topic, with Augustan styles treated under the Early Empire, along with architecture, the Roman city and home, and wall painting. Likewise, Imperial Rome is a separate topic encompassing Imperial architecture, mosaics, the urban plan, monumental sculpture, and portrait sculpture.
In Chapters 7 and 8 we introduce three of the major religions of the Western world in chronological order: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Chapter 7 the discussion of early Jewish art is followed by early Christian art and then moves on to the art of the Western Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches. We have also reorganized and added images to Chapter 8, which is dedicated to Islamic art. The new organization and illustrations give readers the opportunity to study and compare the use, meaning, and appearance of such major building types as synagogues, churches, and mosques.
Art History has been updated to include the most re-cent scholarship, scholarly opinion, technical analysis, archaeological discoveries, and controversies. While the text's currency is not always conspicuous, revised opinion has been incorporated into discussions of art works included in previous editions. Examples include revised opinion on who commissioned the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries and new research on the original ownership of Uccello's Battle of San Romano. We have included a page from the newly purchased Morgan Library Picture Bible with its multilingual commentaries, reevaluated and updated the discussion of Islamic art, and given increased attention to the sixteenth-century masters. We have also brought the text into the twenty-first century, with the inclusion in Chapter 29 of cutting edge contemporary artists Jeff Wall, Jennifer Steinkamp, Matthew Barney, and architect Daniel Libeskind, and with discussions of constructed realities and digital art.
More canonical works are included. We have added text and pictures for thirty-seven works of art new to this edition, including a wall painting from the Chauvet cave, the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Bronzino's Allegory with Venus and Cupid, Claude Lorrain's Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, and Courbet's The Stone Breakers, among others.
Recently cleaned and/or restored works of art and architecture are now illustrated in their cleaned or re-stored states. Among the many new images are Polykleitos's Spear Bearer, Cimabue's Virgin and Child Enthroned, Masaccio's Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and Donors, and Borromini's San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane.
Roman Art: Romulus to Constantine (4th Edition) by Nancy H. Ramage, Andrew Ramage (Prentice Hall) An introductory text surveying the painting, sculpture, mosaics, and architecture of ancient Rome, covering the 1,300 years from the Villanovan and Etruscan forerunners of the Romans to the introduction of Christianity under the Emperor Constantine the Great. Chapters focus on historical periods or dynasties, and explore the history, myth, and literature behind the art. Ideal for students who are studying Roman art for the first time, this exceptionally well-illustrated text explores Roman art in the traditional historical manner -- with a focus on painting, sculpture, architecture, and minor arts. It assumes no prior acquaintance with the classical world, and explains the necessary linguistic, historical, religious, social, and political background needed to fully understand Roman art.
Baccio Bandinelli and Art at the Medici Court: A Corpus of Early Modern Sources by Louis Alexander Waldman (American Philosophical Society) More than five centuries after his birth, the contradictions embodied by the Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli (1493–1560) remain as mysterious as ever. Revered by contemporaries as one of the most important sculptors of his time, he was reviled by his enemies as a truculent, foul-mouthed, avaricious, sycophantic, craven humbug—the farcical image immortalized as the character of Fieramosca in Berlioz's 1838 opera Benvenuto Cellini. But the originality and power of Bandinelli's work, and the long shad-ow it cast over the arts in sixteenth-century Florence and Rome, are as unmistakably clear today as they were to the artist's Medici patrons, who recognized his art as a potent tool for constructing an image of dynastic legitimacy.
Based on a decade of research in archives all over Italy, Baccio Bandinelli and Art at the Medici Court: A Corpus of Early Modem Sources brings this great but often neglected Renaissance artist into sharper focus for modern scholarship. It comprises a comprehensive collection of the documentation on Bandinelli's life and work. The great majority of the texts included in this volume were discovered by the author and are published for the first time, and many come from the private archive of the Bandinelli family.
This book presents a rich, balanced, and at times surprising picture of an artist whose career has all too often been viewed through the jaundiced eyes of his enemies—especially Giorgio Vasari and Benvenuto Cellini—whose far from impartial accounts have long exerted an unduly preponderant influence on Bandinelli's place in art history. All of Bandinelli's major artistic commissions are fully documented, as is his establishment of one of the earliest artistic academies. The sources presented here make it possible to know Baccio with a degree of intimacy that has few parallels in the historiography of Renaissance art. In this rich mosaic of contemporary sources, one can watch Bandinelli wringing commissions and rewards from his patrons, and one can hear his pithy views on art, artists, and the Medici family. But there are also many glimpses of Baccio the man—his amorous exploits, his brawls at fisticuffs, and his persistent struggles to elevate himself to the status of the Florentine patriciate through a trumped-up claim of nobility.
All the documents are furnished with historical commentary and textual apparatus discussing their broader historical con-text, problems of chronology and interpretation, and later interpolations—including hundreds of forged passages inserted by the artist's grandson, the genealogist Baccio Bandinelli the Younger (1578-1636), whose role as forger of the Bandinelli legacy is exposed here for the first time.
Great Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer: 94 Illustrations by Carol Belanger Grafton (Dover Pictorial Archive Series: Dover Publications) selection of illustrations from The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer, first published by W. & G. Foyle, Ltd., 1927. 85 black-and-white illustrations.
A master of many media, Albrecht Dürer (1471—1528) excelled in the art of woodcut design. This modestly priced edition offers an ideal introduction to his work, comprising images both sacred and secular. Scenes from the lives of Jesus and the saints and episodes from the Old Testament appear alongside a variety of subjects, including a portrait of the Emperor Maximilian and Dürer's coat of arms.
The 85 black-and-white illustrations feature brief captions with basic information regarding titles and dates. Long treasured by the world's art lovers, these familiar and lesser-known woodcuts are reproduced in excellent detail. They constitute an indispensable archive for professional art historians and critics as well as a source of pleasure for all others.
Doré’s Spain: All 236 Illustrations from Spain by Gustave Doré (Dover Pictorial Archives: Dover Publications) Unabridged Dover republication of all 236 plates from Spain, by Baron Ch. Davillier, as published by Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, London, 1876. New Publisher's Note. 236 black-and-white illustrations.
One of the most popular (and most prolific) illustrators of all time, Gustave Doré (1832-1883) established his reputation with works of art that embodied romantic style, abundant details, and a dramatic use of light and shade. This collection, reproduced from an extremely rare original edition, includes 236 powerful illustrations the artist created during an extended journey through Spain in the 1860s and 1870s.
Doré was accompanied by his friend Baron Jean-Charles Davillier, an art scholar, writer, and experienced Spanish traveler, who had arranged to sell his account of their journey, illustrated by Doré, to the French publisher Hachette. The two crossed the border near Perpignan in the south of France, and began their journey in the north of Spain near Barcelona. They then continued down the east coast to Andalusia in the far south, then back up through the interior of the country, stopping at Cordoba, Toledo, Avila, Salamanca, Burgos, Bilbao, and many other cities, towns, and villages. They finally ended their years-long excursion in the Balearic Islands.
Despite many hardships and difficulties, Doré managed to create scores of care-fully observed views, capturing the varied physical landscape of the country—mountains, rivers, gorges, lakes, and beaches—but also cities and towns, Roman ruins, Moorish arches, the soaring architecture of castles and cathedrals, as well as the humblest taverns and back alleys. Perhaps most importantly, these rare engravings capture the people of Spain—students, merchants, gypsies, dancers, beggars, musicians, bullfighters, peasants, workmen—all going about their daily lives as Spain teetered on the brink of modernity.
Among the highlights of this volume are a dramatic image of Barcelona's prison of the Inquisition; numerous illustrations recording the Moorish splendor of the Alhambra; along with views of the great Cathedral of Granada, including the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella; El Escorial, the imposing palace-monastery northwest of Madrid; the mosque of Cordoba; the Leaning Tower of Saragossa, and many more. Thanks to these and many other often haunting images, we can look back to the splendor of old Spain, land of Don Quixote and El Cid, and glimpse the landscapes and the lives of the people before the railroads and the Industrial Revolution changed the old ways and customs forever.
Artists of the Middle Ages by Leslie Ross (Greenwood
Press) examines the identities of artists attributed to the most famous and
influential works of medieval art, summarizing their lives and work, and
offering unique insights into the practices and traditions of medieval art and
its role in society. A timeline, chapter bibliographies, a list of further
resources on medieval art, and an index offer additional tools for study.
In the
first volume of the Artists of an Era
series, Leslie Ross examines the identities of artists attributed to the most
famous and influential works of medieval art. These works are much discussed
within the realm of art history, yet the identities of medieval artists fall
victim to incomplete historical records and often remain enigmatic. In ten
narrative chapters, Ross examines this significant area of the art world
(including architecture, iconography, metalwork, scribework, sculpture--even
medieval art instruction) and summarizes the lives and work of that gene's
leading artist or artists. Students will learn not only what is factually known
of an artist's life (as well as what is purely speculative), but also the
processes used to gather the information and fuel speculation. Readers will also
gain unique insights into the practices and traditions of medieval art and the
role it played within medieval society. A timeline, chapter bibliographies, a
list of further resources on medieval art, and an index offer additional tools
to students of medieval art and art history.
Even so,
the documents that survive about artists from the medieval period are thus
rather scanty in comparison to the relatively greater amount of information
available about the lives and careers of artists from later centuries. Medieval
authors who wrote about art-and there are many examples-generally weren't
interested in the personalities of individual artists. "It is rarely possible in
the study of the Middle Ages to make the associations between names,
personalities, and reputations -the kind of incidental biographical information
that fascinate people and that in later centuries has, in one way or another,
contributed to artists' reputations."" It would be tempting to surmise from
thisas has been occasionally done-that medieval artists themselves weren't at
all interested in their own fame or reputations, that medieval artists were
generally humble and pious figures who subordinated any sense of personal
achievement or desire for individual fame to the larger goals of their
patrons-especially the medieval church. As works of art created for religious
purposes do indeed dominate artistic production during the major portion of the
Middle Ages and the names (if not biographies) of so many medieval artists
remain unknown, the idea of the "anonymous artist" working for the "greater
glory" of the church is certainly a logical concept.
Thus, when
scribes such as Eadwine in the mid-twelfth century described himself (or someone
in the period described him) as the "Prince of Scribes" (see chapter 3) and
names such as Gislebertus appear prominently in the earlytwelfth-century
sculpture at Autun (see chapter 1), art historians have been challenged by
these apparent evidences of medieval artistic "personalities." Because we know
nothing more about Eadwine (apart from the fact that his portrait appears in a
famous manuscript written and illustrated at Canterbury), any attempts to
construct his biography remain purely speculative. Similarly, the debates
surrounding the "Gislebertus" inscription at Autun (was he the artist of the
sculpture? the patron of the building?) are indicative of the continuing
challenges in studying and interpreting medieval art.
"Art has
always been produced by individuals and a lack of literary information about
them does not mean that they had no individuality.
However, our modern concept of "artistic individuality"-about the aims,
goals, and behavior patterns of artists generally-may also be conditioned by
our post-Vasarian time. We simply may expect to know more about the lives of
medieval artists than the documentary evidence permits. This may also be because
our own modern ideas of "art" and "artists" are to some extent different from
the medieval concepts. In the Middle Ages, "artists were regarded socially as
artisans, below the rank of merchants in the towns, and, depending on their
precise skills, at the upper end of the rank of peasants in the countryside.""
Artists during the Middle Ages were appreciated (if not, in some cases, also
highly regarded) for their skills-just the same as all other craftspeople were
during the time who also performed their jobs. Certainly, the most talented
artists during the period were also highly sought after by patrons and kept very
busy with commissions, such as the artists (some of whom remain anonymous)
working for European royal courts in the late medieval period (see chapter 10).
But, the ability to be an artist or create art during the Middle Ages appears
not to have been considered any sort of an abnormally special gift that
necessarily gave the artist a high level of regard in medieval society. Artists
were considered to be professional craftspeople who learned their trades through
practical training and apprenticeships-quite often with other family members
with whom they carried on family businesses and traditions. Artists appear not
to have been, during the Middle Ages, considered as grand and heroic figures-or
in any way especially more interesting personality types whose struggles,
trials, and tribulations were worthy of "gossip about them as individuals. The
modern concept of the "artistic personality"-the idea, for example, "that
artists are, and always have been, egocentric, temperamental, neurotic,
rebellious, unreliable, licentious, extravagant, obsessed by their work, and
altogether difficult to live with"-is not a concept which applies comfortably to
artists during the Middle Ages, not only because we have so little information
to go on from the medieval period but also because this notion appears to be a
construct of "artistic biography" in general.
No doubt
the changing social status of artists in the Renaissance period contributed to
and was also enhanced by the creation of artistic biography as a literary form.
When the lives of artists began to be composed in the Renaissance period-when
the interest in the "artistic personality" beganmmore artists appear to have
considered themselves to be independent entrepreneurs and social climbers.
Certainly this is the case with Vasari himself who also made up a fiction
regarding the conversations with his elite and wealthy patrons about their
initial ideas and interest for his book about artists . Just as eager as a
medieval artist, one presumes, to "get work," Vasari in his different approach
directed attention to "the artist" in general as someone worthy also of
psychological interest and consideration-not just a skilled and trained crafter
of artworks but a "hero" and "genius" as well.
Although
there is little documentary evidence to show that these attitudes about art and
artists can be confidently applied to (or read back into) the art of the
medieval period, it is extremely intriguing to see how these notions have
continued to influence the study of medieval art. The lack of documentary
evidence of artistic "personalities" from the Middle Ages has not prevented any
number of scholars (in Vasari fashion) to create "biographies" of medieval
artists where none exist. This has not simply involved the logical and often
necessary creation of "names" (e.g., "The Master of
) for otherwise anonymous medieval artists whose styles can perhaps be
more or less confidently identified by formal analysis. Indeed, the impulse to
create medieval artistic personalities and/or to expand the minimal documentary
details that are available has led to a number of intriguing scholarly
inventions in the form of mythological or semimythological medieval masters
(see especially chapters 4 and 9) whose lives and careers often reveal much more
about modern scholarship than about medieval art history.
The
acknowledgment of the fact that "Historians ... cannot escape from looking at
the past with the eyes of their time" has provided an overall guiding theme for
the chapters in this book. Medieval artists (anonymous, named, or invented) are
discussed in a series of chapters which are primarily organized according to
different media (various forms of painting, sculpture, architecture, and
metalwork) rather than following a strictly "biographical" format. Because the
documentary information about specific medieval artists varies widely, some
individual artists are discussed only briefly whereas others are given greater
coverage. Where information exists on the lives and careers of specific artists,
this data has been woven into larger considerations of the types and techniques
of art produced during the medieval era. The reader will find information about
medieval society and religion as well as medieval art and artists.
Most of the
chapters concentrate on art produced in western Europe from the eleventh through
fourteenth centuries, especially during the "High Middle Ages"-or the eleventh-
and twelfth-century Romanesque period and the twelfth- and thirteenth-century
Gothic period. The medieval era (postclassical, pre-Renaissance) is not a
precisely defined time span by any means. "The difficulty with setting ...
precise starting and ending dates for the Middle Ages is related to the problems
of determining (or agreeing), for example, exactly when the Renaissance began
(generally understood to be earlier in Italy than in northern Europe) and
exactly when the classical period can be said to have concluded." Historians of
medieval art thus may range into the early years of the fifteenth century
(normally considered the Renaissance period) for a discussion of "International
Gothic" style (chapter 10) and appropriately also away from western Europe and
into the important and influential realms of Byzantine art (chapter 8).
Female as
well as male artists (and art patrons) are included in this book as well as
information about the history of medieval art history. The materials covered
should, in conclusion, assist with not only answering but also in better
assessing the questions and challenges raised when considering the individual
lives of medieval arts.
Van Gogh and Gauguin: Electric Arguments and Utopian Dreams by Bradley Collins (Westview) Explores the tumultuous relationship between two great masters of 19th century painting, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, and the impact of that relationship on their art using a psychoanalytic techniques and theories to explain their relationship and our fascination with it.
|span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times New Roman; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"> Although Vincent van Gogh's and Paul Gauguin's artistic collaboration in the South of France lasted no more than two months, their stormy relationship has continued to fascinate art historians, biographers and psychoanalysts as well as film makers and the general public. Two great 19th century figures with powerful and often clashing sensibilities, they shared a house, worked side by side, drank, caroused and argued passionately about art. Their brief venture together, richly documented in the artists' letters and paintings, would be compelling enough even if it had not culminated in the catastrophe of van Gogh's life - his ear cutting. This traumatic climax to van Gogh's and Gauguin's weeks spent in the "Yellow House" in Arles has raised profound questions about the nature of their relationship and about their behavior before and after van Gogh's self-mutilation. Van Gogh and Gauguin will explore the artists' intertwined lives from a psychoanalytic perspective in order to draw a nuanced and sophisticated picture of the artists' dealings with each other. The book will also examine crucial art historical issues such as the aesthetic convictions that both united and divided the two men, and the extent to which they influenced each other's art.History of Art (6th Edition) Slipcase by H. W. Janson, Anthony F. Janson (Abrams) With more than four million copies in print in 14 languages, Janson’s History of Art has long been considered the indispensable art reference, the standard reference guide to Western art. Continuously updated the work remains the best and most balanced text as history and as art criticism. Now, this classic survey of Western art returns in a thoroughly reorganized and expanded Sixth Edition by he author's son, who edited the previous three editions, mindful of the maxim, "If it isn't broken, don't fix it;" but this edition shows extensive changes and embellishments, including seriously revised sections on Baroque, Rococo, and contemporary art; new artists; new images (150 new illustrations) and page design, completely redrawn maps, and reworked bibliography and website directory. Further changes have been made to sections on ancient art; French romantic, realist, and impressionist painting; and the history of Western architecture. The much-anticipated new edition brings together the flawless reproduction quality and scholarship of its predecessor editions with enhanced coverage of many periods and newly illustrated sidebars devoted to music, theater, and historical background. This work continues to be the best single volume survey of Western art available, ideal for survey courses and personal libraries.
The Sixth Edition, reflecting the latest scholarship, makes History of Art’s standing as the authority on Western art and artists more solid than ever. Highly recommended.
A Comprehensive Survey of Stained Glass in Southern Germany and Switzerland
Painting on Light: Drawings and Stained Glass in the Age of Diirer and Holbein by Barbara Butts and Lee Hendrix (J. Paul Getty Museum) (Paperback) From monumental church windows to small panels in private homes, the art of stained glass reached new heights during the late Gothic and Renaissance periods in Germany and Switzerland. Painting on Light: Drawings and Stained Glass in the Age of Diirer and Holbein by Barbara Butts and Lee Hendrix explores the fascinating and fruitful collaboration between celebrated draftsmen and equally talented glass painters in southern Germany and Switzerland from around 1480 to around 1530.
The book focuses primarily on works designed by Nuremberg's celebrated painter and printmaker Albrecht Durer (1471-1528)‑principally known for his woodcuts‑ and Basel's renowned painter Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98‑1543)‑famous for his portraits made in the court of King Henry VIII of England. Both artists are not generally associated with stained glass, yet they played an important role in shaping a new aesthetic for the medium and created some of the most splendid works during one of the most inventive and productive phases in the history of stained glass.
The text discusses large, medium‑sized, and small‑scale stained‑glass panels made for churches, civic buildings, castle towers, private chapels, universities, hospitals, and even bathhouses.
The subjects of these rarely seen drawings and panels range from traditional religious topics to secular themes, including love, Roman history, the heroes of classical mythology, and chivalric pastimes such as hunting and jousting.
This lavishly illustrated volume examines stained glass produced in Nuremberg, Augsburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Strasbourg, Basel, Bern, and Zurich, and includes drawings by Diirer, Holbein, Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Baldung Grien, J6rg Breu the Elder, Hans Burgkmair, Urs Graf, Hans von Kulmbach, Hans Leu the Younger, Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, Hans Schaufelein, Hans Weiditz, and others.
Butts and Hendrix have written an introductory essay that studies the role of drawings, biographies of the artists, and catalogue entries on 152 drawings and stained-glass panels, addressing some of the most challenging problems of attribution facing scholars of German and Swiss Renaissance Art. Also included are essays by stained-glass specialists Barbara Giesicke, Mylene Ruoss, Hartmut Scholz, and Peter van Treeck.Loving Picasso: The Private Journal of Fernande Olivier by Fernande Olivier, translated by Christine Baker and Michael Raeburn (Abrams) Fernande Olivier was the first real love in the life of Pablo Picasso, and the years she spent with the great artist, 1904 to 1912, coincide with the period of some of his most revolutionary work. Here, in her compelling and revelatory journal, published for the first time in English, Olivier vividly depicts her turbulent relationship with Picasso and, in her letters to Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Guillaume Apollinaire, sheds new light on the Parisian art scene of the early 20th century. Honest to the point of bluntness, Olivier--whom Picasso eventually abandoned for Eva Gouel, a younger, more passive friend of hers--sums up her lover as a workaholic, an impulse buyer (when he had cash) of bric-a- brac and good furniture, a contrarian who found charm in wearing peculiar outfits and pretending he had no taste, and a jealous lover who often kept her locked up when he went out. She describes their home, the Bateau Lavoir in Montmartre, as "a weird, squalid building echoing from morning to night with every kind of noise: discussion, singing, shouting, calling, the sound of buckets used to empty the toilet clattering noisily on the floor ... doors slammed, suggestive moaning coming through the closed doors of the studios."
Loving Picasso Olivier's memoirs to life with archival photographs, reproductions of her own artwork, paintings for which she modeled before she met Picasso, and a selection of superb portraits of her by Picasso himself. A foreword and notes by Picasso scholar Marilyn McCully set the journal and letters in context, and an epilogue by distinguished art historian and Picasso biographer John Richardson tells the story of Olivier's life after her final breakup with Picasso.
Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, and the Beauty That Causes Havoc by Arthur I. Miller (Basic) The common wellsprings of human creativity--in art and in science--are explored through the lives of Einstein and Picasso. The most important scientist of the twentieth century, and its most important artist, had their periods of greatest creativity almost simultaneously and in remarkably similar circumstances. This fascinating parallel biography of Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso as young men examines their greatest works-Einstein's special theory of relativity and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, the painting that brought art into the twentieth century. Miller shows how these breakthroughs arose not only from within their respective fields but from larger currents in the intellectual culture of the times: specifically, the rise of photography for Picasso, various well-known practical problems in the design of electric dynamos and the regularization of railroad timetables for Einstein, and for both the increasingly sophisticated ideas of space, time, and invisible forces that made up the cutting-edge science of the day. Ultimately, Miller shows how Einstein and Picasso, in a deep and important sense, were both working on the same problem.Art & Empire: The Politics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815-1860 by Vivien Green Fryd (Ohio University Press) Vivien Fryd illuminates the racist attitudes toward Native Americans and African Americans depicted and embedded in the subject matter and execution of much art inside the United States Capitol in Art & Empire
In Art & Empire, Fryd interprets culturally, historically, and politically the portraits, reliefs, allegories, and historical paintings that have been commissioned or donated over the years for the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C. She demonstrates how the politics of America is written in stone and painted on the walls of the nation's most hallowed walls.
For instance, Native Americans are depicted in tune with white American's belief in their ultimate demise. Generally they adhere to two mythic stereotypes found in antebellum literature and art: the savage who is such a threat that he must be vanquished, and the abject creature who will vanish, "destined to disappear into the shadows of history," according to Fryd.
These attitudes were pervasive in the nineteenth century. More positive depictions, such as those in Enrico Causici's relief Landing of the Pilgrims (page 26), showing Native Americans offering corn to the new immigrants, sentimentally convey the natives as noble savages‑and as virtual stand‑ins physically for ancient Greek gods. Thomas Crawford's lamenting Indian in the statue The Dying Chief Contemplates the Progress of Civilization shows how stereotypes combine, as this man with a perfect physique mediates on the death of his people.
The first recognition of slavery in a Capitol artwork was the painting by Francis Carpenter First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation , which was donated by a citizen fifteen years after manumission. The painting glorifies Abraham Lincoln, and includes in the background an image of the slave owning George Washington, but does not include an African‑American face.
"The virtual absence of blacks from the Capitol decoration throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries suggests that those in power have never felt comfortable acknowledging the reality of slavery in the United States," observes Fryd. "White Americans may have come to terms with the extermination or banishment of the Indians from white territory, whereas African Americans continued to pose a problem, for whether free or enslaved they would live among whites even if excluded from full participation in mainstream society."
Fryd says she hopes that her book will enable readers to understand racist attitudes of the past toward African Americans and Native Americans as they applied to the U.S. Capitol decoration, especially now, at the beginning of the twenty‑first century, "when the population of the United States moves increasingly toward the domination of minority groups." She adds, "Rather than attempting to hide examples of the stereotypes and racist attitudes of the past . . . we should instead retain them in the building and use them as a way to remember and change such attitudes still prevalent in our culture today."
As the only book outside of government publications on its topic, Art & Empire will appeal to scholars of art history, history, literature, political science, and American studies. The general public also will be interested for its illumination of an unquiet but overlooked aspect of the past that literally stares visitors to the Capitol in the face.
Understanding Paintings: Themes in Art Explored and Explained edited by Alexander Sturgis and Hollis Clayson (Watson-Guptill) The first introductory study to discuss the entire western history of painting by genre, rather than by chronology, this fresh approach gives readers a new and enlightened way to view and understand the language of art through the ages. What was the artist trying to convey? Who are those figures supposed to be? Why do images and symbols recur? This book clearly answers these and other questions that viewers often ponder as they tour museums. Every category of subject matter is studied: religious art, myth and allegories, the nude, history painting, still life, portraiture, landscape, genre, and abstraction. Each chapter has an introduction and illustrated overview of the information to be covered, followed by spreads Jthat trace the development of the featured art. The reader is shown, for instance, how self-portraits were conceived at various times and how techniques evolved; which aspects of still life drew on recurrent traditions and which others altered over time. A prized possession to be acquired by art appreciators for their own personal use or as a thoughtful gift, this volume promises to broaden readers' understanding of all the art movements and major artists' work that form the body of Western art.
Covers all the important artists and movements in Western art, from the medieval masterpieces of Duccio to new directions in abstract painting at the end of the twentieth century
Examines each of the major themes and subjects of painting-from the loves of Greek gods to the agonies of war-and explains the symbolism and imagery used to convey the artist's message
Illustrated with over 550 paintings drawn from major international public collections. Timelines chart the development of painting in the context of significant historical and cultural events of the period.
THEMES IN ART EXPLORED AND EXPLAINED:
- RELIGIOUS PAINTING
- MYTH AND ALLEGORY
- THE NUDE
- HISTORY PAINTING
- PORTRAITURE
- LANDSCAPE GENRE
- STILL LIFE
- ABSTRACT PAINTING
“MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES all over the world display a wealth of beautiful, intriguing, and often challenging paintings-but what is each artist trying to convey, and how does each respond to the traditions of painting? Understanding Paintings takes a completely fresh approach to this fascinating subject. Avoiding the well-worn path of chronological art histories, it brings together paintings from the past 800 years of Western art according to their type, from religious painting to abstract art. This book will transform your understanding and appreciation of the history of art, enabling you to recognize the important themes of each type, and to compare and contrast the meaning of individual works. A unique and valuable guide for the museum and gallery visitor, and for all enthusiasts, Understanding Paintings provides an engrossing introduction to a richly rewarding subject.
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