Eroticism in Western Art

Fülszöveg

THE WORLD OF ART
Eroticism in Western Art
Edward Lucie-Smith 273 píates 29 iri color
The sexual revolution in the postwar Western world has often seemed an inex-tricable-part of the artistic one; yet overt eroticism is not a recent development in European visual arts. Since the dawn of culture, when paleolithic man carved statuettes with exaggérated sexual characteristics, the erotic impulse has played a significant role. In this wise and witty survey, Edward Lucie-Smith first provides a chronological history of the theme in the context of changing cultural, social, and aesthetic miliéus and then proceeds to classify it in terms of its basic symbol-i§m, revealing how erotic art addresses the viewer in conscious and unconscious terms.
Many in the wealth of illustrations - chosen as much for their quality as works
of art as for their eroticism - celebrate physical charm (for example, in the nude version of the Mona Lisa). Several offer a frank statement about the pleasures of... Tovább

Fülszöveg

THE WORLD OF ART
Eroticism in Western Art
Edward Lucie-Smith 273 píates 29 iri color
The sexual revolution in the postwar Western world has often seemed an inex-tricable-part of the artistic one; yet overt eroticism is not a recent development in European visual arts. Since the dawn of culture, when paleolithic man carved statuettes with exaggérated sexual characteristics, the erotic impulse has played a significant role. In this wise and witty survey, Edward Lucie-Smith first provides a chronological history of the theme in the context of changing cultural, social, and aesthetic miliéus and then proceeds to classify it in terms of its basic symbol-i§m, revealing how erotic art addresses the viewer in conscious and unconscious terms.
Many in the wealth of illustrations - chosen as much for their quality as works
of art as for their eroticism - celebrate physical charm (for example, in the nude version of the Mona Lisa). Several offer a frank statement about the pleasures of love. There are many works, ranging from those of the ancient Greeks to those of Rembrandt and Picasso, that show lovers in action. Others show us how the visual arts help us to exorcize dark fears and darker desires; we encounter the
strange fascination of the legerid of Judith and the still more sinister attraction of Salome.
". . . the author has tackled a difficu/t and complex subject on which no generál and easi/y aöces'sible modern "book exists. He has done this' with sty/é and wit" - British Book News
"The illustrations are fasúinating and the commentary consistently coo!. . . just the right amount of mformahprt'' - Cyril Connolly, The Sunday Times of London
Edward Lucie-Smith is a poet and prolific journalist and broadcasrter. He is the aúthor, of Symbolist Art and Late Modern: The Visual Arts Since 1945. (both in ¦ the World of Árt series). •
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