The Visual Arts: A HistoryThe most up-to-date and wide-ranging history of art ever published in a single volume, The Visual Arts: A History presents art as an integrated dimension of human activity. With insight and elegance, it offers an authoritative, balanced, and stimulating account of the arts - ranging from a statuette carved in central Europe some 30,000 years ago to contemporary installation pieces by Jenny Holzer and Gary Hill. The scope is international, including the art of Asia, Africa, and Oceania. The fine arts are represented, of course, by painting, mosaic, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, architecture, and photography. But so are other arts: textiles, coins, pottery, enamels, gold and silver work, Earth and Land Art, Body and Video Art, to name a few. Authors Hugh Honour and John Fleming, two of this century's most esteemed art historians, explore the purpose and meaning of art in ways that challenge conventional ideas about "progress" and aesthetic enjoyment. They show how art can give pleasure and also deepen our self-knowledge. They guide us in understanding the visual arts' role in maintaining beliefs, practicing rituals, and transmitting moral and social codes. On the practical side, their text presents a sound account of techniques and methods of painting, building, and sculpting, and it explains the basic tools of the visual arts, such as color and perspective systems. |
Contents
The art of the farmers | 13 |
The early civilizations | 20 |
Sources and Documents Gudeas dream | 26 |
Copyright | |
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ancient ancient Egypt animals apse arches architect architecture artists Bauhaus beauty Bodhisattvas Borobudur bronze Buddha Buddhist buildings built called canvas carved Çatal Hüyük Cathedral central centre century BC Chapel China Chinese Christ Christian church Classical color columns completely composition contemporary created Cubism cult cult image culture decorative depicted developed dome dynasty early effect Egypt Egyptian emperor empire Etruscan Europe European expression feet figures France fresco Gallery gold Gothic Greek Hagia Sophia head Hellenistic human ideal images imperial Impressionists India interior Iran Islamic Italy Jan van Eyck Japanese king landscape later London mainly marble Mesopotamia Michelangelo mosaic Mosque motifs Museum Mycenae nature notably originally painters painting palace panel Paris perhaps period Picasso picture portraits relief religious Renaissance ritual Roman Rome scenes sculpture space spirit statues stone structure stupa style surviving symbol temple tion Titian tomb traditional vault visual arts walls women wrote