Synopses & Reviews
Appropriate for one-semester art history surveys or historically-focused art appreciation classes, A History of Western Art, Fifth Edition, combines sound scholarship, lavish visuals, and a lively narrative to provide students with an accessible and engaging introduction to art history. Focusing on the Western canon, the text presents a compelling chronological narrative from prehistory to the present. A non-Western supplement, World Views: Topics in Non-Western Art, addresses specific areas of non-Western art and augments the Western chronology by illustrating moments of thematic relationships and cross-cultural contact.
About the Author
Laurie Schneider Adams received a Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University. She is Professor of Art History at John Jay College, City University of New York, where she teaches art survey, and at the Graduate Center, where she teaches courses on the Italian Renaissance and on Art and Psychoanalysis. She has published articles on iconography and on art and psychology. She is the editor of Giotto in Perspectiveand of the journal Source: Notes in the History of Art; the author of A History of Western Art, The Methodologies of Art, Art and Psychoanalysis, and Art on Trial; and co-author (with Maria Grazia Pernis) of Federico da Montefeltro and Sigismondo Malatesta: The Eagle and the Elephant and of 5 children's books (with Allison Coudert).
Table of Contents
1: Why Do We Study the History of Art? The Artistic Impulse Chronology Why Do We Value Art? Material Value Intrinsic Value Brancusis Bird: Manufactured Metal or a Work of Art? Religious Value Nationalistic Value Psychological Value Art and Illusion Images and Words Traditions Equating Artists with Gods Art and Identification Reflections and Shadows: Legends of How Art Began Image Magic Architecture Archaeology and Art History Methodologies of Art History Formalism Iconography and Iconology Marxism Feminism Biography and Autobiography Semiology Deconstruction Psychoanalysis 2: The Language of Art Composition Plane Balance Line Expressive Qualities of Line Lines Used for Modeling Depth The Illusion of Depth Perspective Space Shape Types of Shapes Expressive Qualities of Shape Light and Color Physical Properties of Color Expressive Qualities of Color Texture Stylistic Terminology 3: Prehistoric Western Europe The Stone Age Paleolithic MAP: Prehistoric Site in Europe Sculpture Technique: Carving Technique: Modeling Technique: Categories of Sculpture Painting Media: Pigment BEYOND THE WEST: Rock Paintings of Australia Mesolithic Neolithic Menhirs Dolmens Cromlechs Architecture: Post-and-Lintel Construction 4: The Ancient Near East The Neolithic Era MAP: The Mediterranean and the Ancient Near East Jericho Çatal Hüyük Mesopotamia Primary Source: Inanna The Uruk Period Ziggurats Religion: Mesopotamian Gods Cylinder Seals From Pictures to Words Literature: Gilgamesh Sumer: Early Dynastic Period Akkad Society and Culture: Sargon of Akkad Neo-Sumerian The Ziggurat of Ur Babylon Society and Culture: The Law Code of Hammurabi Anatolia: The Hittites Assyria Technique: Glazing The Neo-Babylonian Empire Architecture: Round Arches Iran Society and Culture: Destroying the Archaeological Record The Scythians Achaemenid Persia Architecture: Columns 5: Ancient Egypt The Gift of the Nile The Pharaohs The Egyptian Concept of Kingship Chronology: Egyptian Kings MAP: Ancient Egypt and Nubia The Palette of Narmer Religion: Egyptian Gods The Old Kingdom Pyramids Mummification Sculpture Technique: The Egyptian Canon of Proportion The Middle Kingdom The New Kingdom Temples Painting The Amarna Period Tutankhamons Tomb Egypt and Nubia The Rock-Cut Temple of Ramses II Meroë 6: The Aegean Cycladic Civilization MAP: The Ancient Aegean World Minoan Civilization The Palace at Knossos Media and Technique: Minoan Fresco Religion Pottery Society and Culture: Minoan Scripts Discoveries at Thera The Frescoes Mycenaean Civilization Myth: The Legend of Agamemnon 7: The Art of Ancient Greece MAP: Ancient Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean Cultural Identity Government and Philosophy Philosophy: Plato on Artists Society and Culture: Women in Ancient Greece Literature and Drama “Man Is the Measure of All Things” Religion: Greek Gods and Their Roman Counterparts Painting and Pottery Geometric Style Orientalizing Style Archaic Style Media and Technique: Greek Vases Late Archaic to Classical Style Classical to Hellenistic Style Sculpture Archaic Style Early Classical Style Media and Technique: The Lost-Wax Process Classical Style Classical Architecture: The Athenian Acropolis The Parthenon Architecture: Plan of the Parthenon Architecture: The Greek Orders Myth: Medusa The Temple of Athena Nike The Erechtheum Late Classical Style The Greek Theater Architecture: Greek Theater Sculpture Style: The “Hermes of Praxiteles” Hellenistic Period Sculpture Myth: The Trojan Horse 8: The Art of the Etruscans MAP: Etruscan and Roman Italy Architecture Pottery and Sculpture Women in Etruscan Art Funerary Art Cinerary Containers Sarcophagi Tomb Paintings 9: Ancient Rome MAP: The Roman Empire, A.D. 14-282 Primary Source: Virgils Aeneid Chronology: Roman Periods Architecture: Arches, Domes, and Vaults Architectural Types Domestic Architecture Public Buildings History: Julius Caesar Media: Roman Building Materials Religious Architecture Commemorative Architecture Primary Source: Josephus and the Jewish Wars Sculptural Types The Sarcophagus Media: Color Symbolism in Roman Marble Portraits History: Marcus Aurelius: Emperor and Philosopher Pictorial Style Painting and Mosaic 10: Early Christian and Byzantine Art A New Religion Constantine and Christianity The Divergence of East and West Religion: Christianity and the Scriptures Early Christian Art Sarcophagi Religion: Christian Symbolism History: The Catacombs Basilicas Religion: Saint Peter Centrally Planned Churches Justinian and the Byzantine Style San Vitale Media and Technique: Mosaics MAP: The Byzantine Empire under Justinian I, A.D. 565 Hagia Sophia The Codex The Vienna Genesis Media: Parchment Later Byzantine Developments 11: The Early Middle Ages Islamic Art Religion: Islam The Great Mosque, Córdoba Northern European Art Anglo-Saxon Metalwork Primary Source: Beowulf Hiberno-Saxon Art Media and Technique: Manuscript Illumination The Carolingian Period MAP: The Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne, 814 Manuscripts Religion: Revelation and the Four Symbols of the Evangelists Monasteries Ottonian Period 12: Romanesque Art Economic and Political Developments Society and Culture: Feudalism Pilgrimage Roads MAP: Pilgrimage Roads to Santiago de Compostela, Spain Architecture