Penelope J. E. Davies
holds a B.A. from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. from Yale University and is currently Associate Professor at the University of Texas in Austin. Her research focuses on public art and architecture and politics in ancient Rome. She is author of Death and the Emperor: Roman Imperial Funerary Monuments from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius (Cambridge University Press 2000 and University of Texas Press 2004, winner of the Vasari Award, as well as articles and essays on ancient Rome.
In her own words, why she joined the project:
“I joined this project hoping that the new edition would bear witness to a constantly evolving dialogue about art, in which formulating new questions is as important as finding new answers. The new edition also necessitates balancing an accepted canon of ‘great works’ with new additions to reflect changing definitions of art and artists, and to incorporate recent discoveries – a responsibility to be approached with caution. The project has proved challenging at every step, but tremendously invigorating and rewarding.”
Reviewer quote:"Professor Davies has managed to include and condense the basic developments of these ancient art traditions in clear, interesting and well-integrated prose. Throughout, she never fails to introduce the various theories and ideas about these works of art and indicate what we don’t know, as well as controversies ... The result is an authoritative, lively and challenging text that cannot fail to stimulate and challenge university undergraduate students and prepare them for subsequent chapters in this new book." David Gordon Mitten, Harvard University
Walter B. Denny
is Professor of Art History at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and also currently serves as Consulting Curator for Islamic Art at the Smith College Museum of Art. He received his B.A. from Oberlin College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.While his research interests concentrate mainly on the art and architecture of the Ottoman Turks, his teaching and consulting range from Museum Studies and Orientalism to serving as guest curator for a wide variety of museum exhibitions. In addition to exhibition catalogues, his publications include books on Ottoman Turkish carpets, textiles, and ceramics, and articles on miniature painting, architecture and architectural decoration.
In his own words, why he joined the project:
“For me, introducing students to the history of art for the first time is the most exciting, the most worthwhile, and the most important task that any art historian can hope for. After thirty-five years of teaching, I welcome the chance to participate in a project where I am able to introduce a large student audience to the beauty, the breadth, the complexity, and the challenge of Islamic art. I hope that Islamic art, a mirror reflecting an important and often misunderstood culture and society, will provide students with a way to understand and appreciate the achievements and the aspirations of Islamic people today, as well as an understanding of their important and deeply-rooted historical accomplishments in the visual arts.”
Reviewer quote:
"Walter Denny’s pan Islamic view of the material over time and space makes this updated Janson’s survey an enlightened pleasure." Charles Little, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Frima Fox Hofrichter,
Professor and Chair of the History of Art and Design department at Pratt Institute, received her Ph.D. at Rutgers University and wrote her doctoral dissertation on the seventeenth-century Dutch artist, Judith Leyster (supported by a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Award for Women’s Studies). The resulting book was later published as JUDITH LEYSTER, A DUTCH ARTIST IN HOLLAND’S GOLDEN AGE (Davaco, 1989) and granted CAA’s Millard Meiss Publication Fund Award. Her work in gender and social history continued with the notable exhibition, Haarlem, the Seventeenth Century (Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers) and Leonaert Bramer, 1596-1674, A Painter of the Night (Haggerty Museum, Milwaukee). Hofrichter has maintained her investigations of art and social history, weaving both together in publications examining aspects as diverse as astronomy and prostitution.
In her own words, why she joined the project:
“I was honored when I was invited to participate in the Janson Project. It was an incredible compliment, yet an overwhelming responsibility at the same time. But more than this rush of emotions, it meant that I would have the opportunity to have Janson’s History of Art read more like I taught! There could be not only more women artists included, but also more images of women, more of a sense of the fabric of social history that set the stage for the art. Writing for Janson, contributing to this basic historical survey, meant that I would have the possibility to not just re-invent, but also re-invigorate, the canon for the next generation of art history students.”
Reviewer quote:
"By their nature, survey texts tend to lag behind contemporary developments in the discipline, but Hofrichter has brought Janson’s text as close to the scholarly moment as is likely to be possible. In particular, I would signal her engagement with new methodologies, enhanced contextualization, up-to-date interpretation of individual pieces, and inclusion of thoughtfully
chosen new works." John Beldon Scott, University of Iowa
Joseph Jacobs
is an independent art historian, writer, and critic living in New York City. He was the curator of modern art at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, director of the Oklahoma City Art Museum, and curator of American art at The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey. His publications include SINCE THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE: 50 YEARS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART, THIS IS NOT A PHOTOGRAPH: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF LARGE-SCALE PHOTOGRAPHY, and A WORLD OF THEIR OWN: TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN FOLK ART.
In his own words, why he joined the project:
“Life is about challenges, and for me as an art historian, writing a large portion of a major survey book on the history of art has to be one of the greatest challenges in the profession. My goal is to bring art history alive in a way that is rarely done in survey books. This means organizing the material in an especially meaningful and powerful fashion, in effect, creating a narrative thread that is both exciting and in its clarity educational.”
Reviewer quote:
"This is a great leap forward for the Janson text ... This version is smart, clear, very carefully organized and extremely fluid and highly readable. I would say that apart from providing the basic historical information and offering excellent formal analysis-a foundation of the Janson text since Peter Janson’s original version—this new version is also steeped in material culture and social/cultural history. It is jargonfree: thank you. It is politically sensitive without pandering; and it is always thorough." Ken Silver, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Ann M. Roberts
holds a B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. An art historian specializing in the Renaissance, she has published essays articles, and reviews on both Northern and Italian Renaissance topics. Her research focuses on women in the Renaissance. She has taught at Illinois State University, the University of Iowa, and is currently Professor of Art at Lake Forest College.
In her own words, why she joined the project:
“The discipline of art history has changed in the decades since Janson wrote his textbook. We are no longer so comfortable with the authoritative voice, and are aware of other traditions and possible outcomes beyond the narrative that Janson gave his history. New questions and approaches to the history of art, new research and newly discovered or created objects require us to reflect and reconsider what seemed such certainties in 1962. The sheer scope of the field, even measured only by the weight of many survey textbooks, makes it nearly impossible for one person to synthesize the discipline, even when limited, as in this case, to the Western tradition. One of the attractions to this project for me was its collaborative approach: specialists in six subfields have worked together in this edition, revising and updating the story told in earlier editions. Several voices, not one, are heard in this edition. In many cases, questions are posed, interpretations are debated, and readers discover we don’t know all the answers.”
Reviewer quote:
"Ann Roberts’s lucid prose recounts the history of Renaissance art and architecture as an unfolding story that immediately absorbs the reader. She subtly shifts attention from modernist notions about the genius of the artist to a more balanced exchange of ideas between patrons and artist that better reflects the circumstances in which the art was created." Jeryldene M. Wood, University of Illinois—Chicago
David L. Simon
is the Jetté Professor of Art at Colby College, where he received the Basset Teaching Award in 2005. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Boston University and received his doctorate from the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London. He has lectured and published on Romanesque art and architecture in this country, as well as in England, France, and Spain. Among his publications is the catalogue of Spanish and southern French Romanesque sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters.
In his own words, why he joined the project:
“I have always been fond of Janson’s History of Art. As an undergraduate student I remember the respect, near awe, with which my professors referred to H.W. Janson and his achievement in writing an intelligent and up-to-date account of Western art from caves through the modern period. I could not resist the opportunity to participate in the current project of modernizing Janson, because it provided the opportunity to preserve those aspects of Janson I most admired and to introduce elements that, as a result of recent scholarship, we now recognize as significant.”
Reviewer quote:
"The beauty and majesty of the art of the Middle Ages is here given articulate and authoritative testimony...David Simon has made Janson’s masterpiece more solid, illuminating and eminently useful. His work is a sensitive and sensible compliment to this timeless text."
Charles Little, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Preface xiv
Faculty and Student Resources for Teaching and Learning with Janson’s History of Art xix
Introduction xxi
PART ONE: THE ANCIENT WORLD
Chapter 1: Prehistoric Art
PALEOLITHIC ART 2
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Cave Painting 5
Interpreting Prehistoric Painting 5
Paleolithic Carving 7
INFORMING ART: Telling Time: Labels and Periods 9
Paleolithic houses 11
NEOLITHIC ART 11
Settled Societies and Neolithic Art 11
Architecture in Europe: Tombs and Rituals 15
INFORMING ART: Dating Techniques 17
Chapter 2: Ancient Near Eastern Art
SUMERIAN ART 22
Temple Architecture: Linking Heaven and Earth 23
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Mud Brick 23
Sculpture and Inlay 25
PRIMARY SOURCES: The Gilgamesh Epic 25
Visual Narratives 27
Cylinder Seals 29
THE ART HISTORIAN’S LENS: Losses Through Looting 29
ART OF AKKAD 30
Sculpture: Power and Narrative 30
NEO-SUMERIAN REVIVAL 32
Architecture: The Ziggurat of Ur 32
Sculpture: Figures of Gudea 32
PRIMARY SOURCES: Texts on Gudea Figures from Lagash and Surrounding Areas, ca. 2100 33
BABYLONIAN ART 33
The Code of Hammurabi 34
ASSYRIAN ART 34
PRIMARY SOURCES: The Code of Hammurabi 35
Art of Empire: Expressing Royal Power 37
LATE BABYLONIAN ART 37
The Royal Palace 38
REGIONAL NEAR EASTERN ART 38
The Hittites 40
The Phoenicians 40
The Hebrews 41
IRANIAN ART 41
Early Iranian Art 42
The Persian Empire: Cosmopolitan Heirs to the Mesopotamian Tradition 43
Mesopotamia Between Persian and Islamic Dominion 46
Chapter 3: Egyptian Art
PREDYNASTIC AND EARLY DYNASTIC ART 50
The Palette of King Narmer 50
INFORMING ART: Egyptian Gods and Goddesses 52
THE OLD KINGDOM: A GOLDEN AGE 53
Old Kingdom Funerary Complexes 53
INFORMING ART: Major Periods in Ancient Egypt 54
The Pyramids at Giza: Reflecting a New Royal Role 55
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Building the Pyramids 56
PRIMARY SOURCES: Excerpt from the Pyramid Text of Unis (r. 2341–2311 BCE) 58
Representing the Human Figure 59
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM: REASSERTING
TRADITION THROUGH THE ARTS 62
Royal Portraiture: Changing Expressions and Proportions 62
Funerary Architecture 63
THE NEW KINGDOM: RESTORED GLORY 65
Royal Burials in the Valley of the Kings 65
Temples to the Gods 67
Block Statues 70
Images in New Kingdom Tombs 71
AKHENATEN AND THE AMARNA STYLE 72
The Amarna Style 72
Tutankhamun and the Aftermath of Amarna 75
THE ART HISTORIAN’S LENS: Interpreting Ancient Travel Writers 75
PAPYRUS SCROLLS: THE BOOK OF THE DEAD 77
PRIMARY SOURCES: The Book of the Dead 77
LATE EGYPT 78
Chapter 4: Aegean Art
EARLY CYCLADIC ART 82
MINOAN ART 84
The “Palace” at Knossos 84
Wall Paintings: Representing Rituals and Nature 86
THE ART HISTORIAN’S LENS: Two Excavators, Legend, and Archaeology 87
Minoan Pottery 89
Carved Minoan Stone Vessels 90
Late Minoan Art 92
MYCENAEAN ART 93
Architecture: Citadels 93
Mycenaean Tombs and Their Contents 96
Sculpture 99
Chapter 5: Greek Art
THE EMERGENCE OF GREEK ART: THE GEOMETRIC STYLE 104
INFORMING ART: Greek Gods and Goddesses 105
Geometric Style Pottery 105
Geometric Style Sculpture 107
THE ORIENTALIZING STYLE: HORIZONS EXPAND 107
Miniature Vessels 108
ARCHAIC ART: ART OF THE CITY-STATE 109
The Rise of Monumental Temple Architecture 109
STONE SCULPTURE 113
Architectural Sculpture: The Building Comes Alive 115
Vase Painting: Art of the Symposium 119
THE CLASSICAL AGE 123
Classical Sculpture 123
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: The Indirect Lost-Wax Process 128
Architecture and Sculpture on the Athenian Akropolis 131
PRIMARY SOURCES: Aristotle (384–322 BCE) 133
THE ART HISTORIAN’S LENS: Repatriation of Cultural Heritage 134
PRIMARY SOURCES: Plutarch (ca. 46–after 119 CE) 136
THE LATE CLASSICAL PERIOD 141
Late Classical Architecture: Civic and Sacred 141
Late Classical sculpture 142
Painting in the Late Classical Age 145
THE AGE OF ALEXANDER AND THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD 147
Architecture: The Scholarly Tradition and Theatricality 148
City Planning 150
Hellenistic Sculpture: Expression and Movement 154
THE ART HISTORIAN’S LENS: J.J. Winckelmann and the Apollo Belvedere 157
Hellenistic Painting 161
Chapter 6: Etruscan Art
FUNERARY ART 165
Tombs and Their Contents 166
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Etruscan Gold-Working 169
ARCHITECTURE 173
City Planning 174
SCULPTURE 175
Dynamism in Terra Cotta and Bronze 175
Chapter 7: Roman Art
EARLY ROME AND THE REPUBLIC 181
THE ART HISTORIAN’S LENS: Recognizing Copies: The Case of the Laocoön 183
NEW DIRECTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE 183
Sculpture 188
PRIMARY SOURCES: Cicero (106–43 BCE) 192
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Copying Greek Sculptures 193
Painting and Mosaic 194
PRIMARY SOURCES: Polybius (ca. 200–ca. 118 BCE) 194
THE EARLY EMPIRE 195
Architecture 196
THE ART HISTORIAN’S LENS: Two Pantheon Problems 202
Portrait Sculpture 203
Relief Sculpture 207
PRIMARY SOURCES: Josephus (37/8–ca. 100 CE) 210
Art and Architecture in the Provinces 213
Domestic Art and Architecture 216
THE LATE EMPIRE 222
Architecture 222
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Painted Stone in Greece and Rome 223
Architecture in the Provinces 227
Portrait Sculpture 228
Relief Sculpture 229
PART TWO: THE MIDDLE AGES
Chapter 8: Early Jewish, Early Christian, and Byzantine Art
EARLY JEWISH ART 237
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART 240
Christian Art before Constantine 240
INFORMING ART: The Life of Jesus 241
PRIMARY SOURCES: The Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis) 244
Christian Art after Official Recognition of Christianity 245
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Mosaics 248
BYZANTINE ART 254
Early Byzantine Art 254
PRIMARY SOURCES: Procopius of Caesarea (Sixth Century) 258
The Iconoclastic Controversy 265
Middle Byzantine Art 265
PRIMARY SOURCES: St. Theodore the Studite (759–826 CE) 266
Late Byzantine Art 273
INFORMING ART: Biblical and Celestial Beings 273
Chapter 9: Islamic Art
Religious Architecture 280
PRIMARY SOURCES: Muhammad Ibn Mahmud Al-Amuli (Iran, 14th Century) 280
THE FORMATION OF ISLAMIC ART 281
INFORMING ART: Islam and Its Messenger 283
Secular Architecture 284
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ISLAMIC STYLE 285
Religious Architecture 285
Luxury Arts 287
ISLAMIC ART AND THE PERSIAN INHERITANCE 287
Architecture 287
Figural Art Forms in Iran 288
THE CLASSICAL AGE 290
THE ART HISTORIAN’S LENS: Spanish Islamic Art and Europe in the Middle Ages 290
The Fatimid Artistic Impact 291
The Ayyubids and the Seljuk Turks of Asia Minor 292
LATER CLASSICAL ART AND ARCHITECTURE 294
Mongol Patronage 295
Timurid Patronage 295
Mamluk Patronage 296
Nasrid Patronage: The Alhambra 299
THE THREE LATE EMPIRES 300
PRIMARY SOURCES: The Ottoman Sultan Selim II (1524–1574) 300
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: The Oriental Carpet 301
The Ottomans in Europe and Asia 302
The Safavid Period in Iran 304
The Mughal Period in India 308
PRIMARY SOURCES: Abd Al-Hamid Lahori (d. 1654) 309
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN ISLAMIC ART 310
Chapter 10: Early Medieval Art
ANGLO-SAXON ART 314
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Metalwork 315
The Animal Style 316
HIBERNO-SAXON ART 318
Manuscripts 318
PRIMARY SOURCES: Lindisfarne Gospels 320
VIKING ART 322
CAROLINGIAN ART 324
Sculpture 324
Illuminated Books 325
Architecture 328
PRIMARY SOURCES: Hariulf (ca.1060–1143) 331
PRIMARY SOURCES: St. Angilbert (ca. 750–814) 332
OTTONIAN ART 333
Architecture 333
Metalwork 336
Ivories and Manuscripts: Conveyors of Imperial Grandeur 340
Sculpture 343
Chapter 11: Romanesque Art
FIRST EXPRESSIONS OF ROMANESQUE STYLE 349
Architecture 349
Monumental Stone Sculpture 350
MATURE ROMANESQUE 351
Pilgrimage Churches and Their Art 351
PRIMARY SOURCES: The Pilgrim’s Guide 352
Cluniac Architecture and Sculpture 356
PRIMARY SOURCES: St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) 359
Cluniac Wall Painting 365
Cistercian Architecture and Art 366
Other Benedictine Architecture and Wall Painting 367
Book Illustration 368
THE ART HISTORIAN’S LENS: Preserving and Restoring Architecture 369
OTHER REGIONAL VARIANTS OF ROMANESQUE STYLE 372
Western France: Poitou 372
Southeastern France: Provence 373
The Holy Land 374
Tuscany 375
Germany 378
The Meuse Valley: Mosan Style 379
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Vaulting 380
Normandy and England 381
THE PARADOXICAL MEANING OF ROMANESQUE 386
Chapter 12: Gothic Art
EARLY GOTHIC ART IN FRANCE 391
Saint-Denis: Suger and the Beginnings of Gothic Architecture 391
PRIMARY SOURCES: Suger of Saint-Denis (1081–1151) 393
Chartres Cathedral 395
Laon Cathedral 397
Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris 398
HIGH GOTHIC ART IN FRANCE 399
The Rebuilding of Chartres Cathedral 400
PRIMARY SOURCES: Theophilus Presbyter (12th Century) 402
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Stained Glass 405
THE ART HISTORIAN’S LENS: Modules and Proportions 406
Amiens Cathedral 408
Reims Cathedral 408
RAYONNANT OR COURT STYLE 413
Sainte-Chapelle 413
Saint-Urbain in Troyes 415
Manuscript Illumination 416
LATE GOTHIC ART IN FRANCE 418
Manuscript Illumination 418
Sculpture 420
Architecture: The Flamboyant Phase 422
THE SPREAD OF GOTHIC ART 423
Spain 423
England 426
Germany 430
PART THREE: THE RENAISSANCE THROUGH ROCOCO
Chapter 13: Art in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Italy
THE GROWTH OF MENDICANT ORDERS AND THE VISUAL ARTS IN ITALY 438
The Franciscans at Assisi and Florence 438
Churches and Their Furnishings in Urban Centers 441
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Fresco Painting and Conservation 441
Pulpits in Pisan Churches 442
Expanding Florence Cathedral 445
Building for the City Government: The Palazzo della Signoria 448
PAINTING IN TUSCANY 449
Cimabue and Giotto 449
Siena: Devotion to Mary in Works by Duccio and Simone 453
PRIMARY SOURCES: Agnolo di Tura del Grasso 454
THE ART HISTORIAN’S LENS: The Social Work of Images 455
Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti 458
Artists and Patrons in Times of Crisis 461
PRIMARY SOURCES: Inscriptions on the Frescoes in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena 461
NORTHERN ITALY 465
Venice: Political Stability and Sumptuous Architecture 465
Milan: The Visconti Family and Northern Influences 465
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Credits