Kategoria BISAC: Art >> Sculpture & Installation

Meyer Schapiro (1904-96), renowned for his critical essays on nineteenth- and twentieth-century painting, also played a decisive role as a young scholar in defining the style of art and architecture known as Romanesque. And, appropriately, when he was invited to deliver the prestigious Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard, he chose Romanesque architectural sculpture as his topic. These lectures, acclaimed for the verve and freshness with which Schapiro delivered them, languished unpublished for decades. But Linda Seidel, who knew Schapiro well and attended the 1967 lectures, has now...

The remarkable evolution of Italian Gothic and Renaissance sepulchral art was initiated, not by the tomb of a pope or a prince but by one made for a saint, Dominic Guzman, founder of the Order of Preachers. The tomb was designed by Nicola Pisano in 1264 and built in San Domenico, Bologna, in 1267. Shortly after its construction, monumental tombs appeared everywhere in Italy, characterized by increasingly large-scale, spatially aggressive, architectonic forms with rich sculptural embellishments. This study analyzes the form and structure of this thirteenth-century monument and explores its...

Tracing the history of the cult of Ludovica, the Altieri Chapel, and the statue, Shelley Perlove illuminates Bernini's contribution, both artistically and iconographically, to the chapel and proposes an interpretation of the precise nature of the experience the beata is undergoing in the sculpture. This interpretation is developed from an examination of the statue in the full context of other works of art in the chapel, medieval and Renaissance tomb sculpture, contemporary accounts of Ludovica's life and cult, and devotional Catholic literature undoubtedly known to Bernini. Woven...

One of Jacques-Louis David's most ambitious and darkly enigmatic paintings, Leonidas at the Pass of Thermopylae, hangs today in the Louvre, largely ignored. Focusing on this painting, Chains embarks on a discourse about the perception of the body, sexuality, and subjectivity in early nineteenth-century European art.

In addition to David, Chains explores the sculptural oeuvre of David's contemporary and rival, Italian sculptor Antonio Canova. Padiyar argues that, like David's postrevolutionary work, Canova's innovative sculptures embodied a new,...

The role of monuments in the Roman imperial cult.

From monumental cathedrals to simple parish churches, perhaps as many as 100,000 churches and civic buildings were constructed in Mexico during the viceregal or colonial period (1535-1821). Many of these structures remain today as witnesses to the fruitful blending of Old and New World forms and styles that created an architecture of enduring vitality.

In this profusely illustrated book, Robert J. Mullen provides a much-needed overview of Mexican colonial architecture and its attendant sculpture. Writing with just the right level of detail for students and general readers, he places...

Winner, Top 100 Books on Science, American Scientist, 2001

In 1992, the University of Texas Press published Before Writing, Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform and Before Writing, Volume II: A Catalog of Near Eastern Tokens. In these two volumes, Denise Schmandt-Besserat set forth her groundbreaking theory that the cuneiform script invented in the Near East in the late fourth millennium B.C.--the world's oldest known system of writing--derived from an archaic counting device.

How Writing Came About draws material from both volumes...

Claude Levi-Strauss's fascination with Northwest Coast Indian art dates back to the late 1930s. "Sometime before the outbreak of the Second World War," he writes, "I had already bought in Paris a Haida slate panel pipe." In New York in the early forties, he shared his enthusiasm with a group of Surrealist refugee artists with whom he was associated. "Surely it will not be long," he wrote in an article published in 1943, "before we see the collections from this part of the world moved from ethnographic to fine arts museums to take their just place amidst the antiquities of Egypt of Persia...

Magnificent and haunting, the tall cedar sculptures called totem poles have become a distinctive symbol of the native people of the Northwest Coast. The powerful carvings of the vital and extraordinary beings such as Sea Bear, Thunderbird and Cedar Man are impressive and intriguing.

Looking at Totem Poles is an indispensable guide to 110 poles in easily acessible outdoor locations in coastal British Columbia and Alaska. In clear and lively prose, Hilary Stewart describes the various types of poles, their purpose, and how they were carved and raised. She also identifies and...

The art of the Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands and Alaska ranks among the most sophisticated and spectacular art traditions of the world. While Haida art has long been recognized as central to the development of the highly formalized northern Northwest Coast style of design, it has often been viewed as somewhat static and anonymous. Robin K. Wright highlights for the first time the distinctive achievements of several of the most important Northern Haida artists and analyzes the art historical developments and stylistic changes in pole carving.

Northern Haida Master...

Cape Dorset Sculpture showcases an extraordinary collection of outstanding works of contemporary Inuit stone sculpture, with related graphic works and classic older carvings. All the artists are from the Arctic community of Cape Dorset, Nunavut, which has had the single greatest impact on the worldwide recognition of Inuit art.

Featured in the book are new sculptures by forty-four leading artists, many of whom were instrumental in shaping the look and direction of Inuit art. By turns powerful and enchanting, these works explore richly varied themes such as Arctic wildlife;...

A unique anthology of articles on contemporary sculptors drawn from the 25-year history of Sculpture magazine, A Sculpture Reader offers a valuable overview of three dimensional art since 1980. Focusing on individual artists rather than themes or movements, the 42 essays in A Sculpture Reader capture the wide-ranging possibilities that characterize contemporary sculpture.

Julie Spiedel's bronze and stone sculptures loom large over their human viewers, their tall stature reflecting her love of ancient monuments and totems, their heavy mass often pierced and punctured by defiant holes, their geometric sections, sliced coils, facets and hard edges softened by texture and exquisite patination. With influences as varied as the megaliths of the British Isles and the totemic Native American art of her home and birthplace, the Pacific Northwest, Spiedel's work builds on organic forms, reinterpreting them with a clear, contemporary vision. Her sculptures are a...

Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, one of the world s leading experts on classical sculpture, turns her attention in this volume to the fourth century, a period of transition from the classical Athenian style to an array of styles found simultaneously in the Hellenistic diaspora. Though a period very rich in important monuments, the fourth century has been particularly challenging and vexing to scholars, and Ridgway s is the first comprehensive study of this sculpture in sixty years.
Ridgway s careful summaries of ongoing scholarly debates illustrate how the fourth century fits into the...