Art of the Western World

Fülszöveg

In this magnificently illustrated and comprehensive book, readers will take one of the most beautiful journeys our world has to offer: an exploration of the great paintings, sculptures, and buildings of Western art. Delighting the mind as well as the eye, this superb book—the companion volume to the nine-part PBS television series—moves from the classical roots of Western art in ancient Greece to the grandeur of Roman architecture, the symbolic language of medieval art, the religious spirit of the age of cathedrals, and the unparalleled achievements of the Renaissance. Tracing the evolution of the Western tradition throughout the ages, Art of the Western World reflects the richly detailed realism of the Dutch masters like Rembrandt, the turbulent emotionalism of the Romantics like Turner and Constable, the Impressionists' search for a new reality, and the revolution of the Abstract Expressionists of the twentieth century.
Art of the Western World integrates the works of each... Tovább

Fülszöveg

In this magnificently illustrated and comprehensive book, readers will take one of the most beautiful journeys our world has to offer: an exploration of the great paintings, sculptures, and buildings of Western art. Delighting the mind as well as the eye, this superb book—the companion volume to the nine-part PBS television series—moves from the classical roots of Western art in ancient Greece to the grandeur of Roman architecture, the symbolic language of medieval art, the religious spirit of the age of cathedrals, and the unparalleled achievements of the Renaissance. Tracing the evolution of the Western tradition throughout the ages, Art of the Western World reflects the richly detailed realism of the Dutch masters like Rembrandt, the turbulent emotionalism of the Romantics like Turner and Constable, the Impressionists' search for a new reality, and the revolution of the Abstract Expressionists of the twentieth century.
Art of the Western World integrates the works of each period with the history, values, and ideals that gave birth to Western art: the influence of the Medi-cis and other great patrons of Renaissance Italy; the resurgence of the classical style inspired by the French Revolution; the break with the past evidenced in the works of the Impressionists; the tortured visions of the modern world devastated by wars depicted in the paintings of Picasso, Marc, Grosz, and others; and the post-modern world's international influences, seen in an unprecedented diversity of styles from Cristo to Hockney to Keifer.
A key to understanding the language of art, Art of the Western World offers fresh insights into what the great works meant at the time they were created and why they maintain their special meaning to us now, and is the perfect guide to the most beautiful masterpieces of Western art.
Michael Wood, on-screen host of the PBS Television Network series "Art of the Western World," is a historian, filmmaker, and journalist, and has won acclaim for a series of films on history, travel, and culture, including In Search of the Dark Ages. He is also the author of the best-selling In Search of the Trojan War.
Bruce Cole is a Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts at Indiana University. A former Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, he is the author of many books, including Italian Art 1250-1550: The Relation of Renaissance Art to Life and Society, and Masaccio and the Art of Early Renaissance Florence, about which Sir Kenneth Clark said: "Interesting and illuminating, goes further inside the Florentine movement of the early fifteenth century than any book I know."
Adelheid Gealt is Curator of Western Art and Interim Director of the Indiana University Art Museum. She has written extensively on art for general as well as special audiences. Her recent books include Looking at Art: A Visitor's Guide to Art Museums and The Punchinello Drawings: Donienico Tiepolo, which Newsweek called "an exemplar of what an art book should be." Vissza