History of art Books

Book SynopsisThe whimsical imagery of four tapestries in the permanent collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum and currently on display at the Getty Center is perplexing. Created in France at the Beauvais manufactory between 1690 and 1730, these charming hangings, unlike most French tapestries of the period, appear to be purely decorative, with no narrative thread, no theological moral, and no allegorical symbolism. They belong to a series called the Grotesques, inspired by ancient frescos discovered during the excavation of the Roman emperor Nero's Domus Aurea, or Golden House, but the origins of their mysterious subject matter have long eluded art historians. Based on seven years of research, Conundrum: Puzzles in the Grotesques Tapestry Series reveals for the first time that the artist responsible for these designs, Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636-1699), actually incorporated dozens of motifs and vignettes from a surprising range of sources: antique statuary, Renaissance prints, Mannerist tapestry, and Baroque art, as well as contemporary seventeenth century urban festivals, court spectacle, and theater. Conundrum illustrates the most interesting of these sources alongside full-color details and overall views of the four tapestries. The book's informative and engaging essay identifies and decodes the tapestries' intriguing visual puzzles, enlightening our understanding and appreciation of the series' unexpectedly rich intellectual underpinnings.

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Book SynopsisOne of the finest works from the golden era of Flemish manuscript illumination, the Getty's copy of the Romance of Gillion de Trazegnies tells of the adventures of a medieval nobleman. Part travelogue, part romance, and part epic, the text traces the exciting exploits of Gillion as he journeys to Jerusalem on pilgrimage, is imprisoned in Egypt and rises to the command of the Sultan's armies, mistakenly becomes a bigamist first with a Christian and then a Muslim wife, and dies in battle as a glorious hero. The tale encompasses the most thrilling elements of the Western romance genre -- love, villainy, loyalty, and war -- set against the backdrop of the East. This lavishly illustrated volume reveals for the first time the complexity of this illuminated romance. A complete reproduction of the book's illustrations and a partial translation of the text appear along with essays that explore the manuscript's vibrant cultural, historical, and artistic contexts. The innovative illuminations, by the renowned artist Lieven van Lathem, juxtapose the reality of medieval Europe with an idealized vision of the East. This unusual pairing, found in the text and illustrations, is the source of a rich discussion of the fifteenth-century political situation in the West and the Crusades in the East.Trade Review"Elizabeth Morrison and Zrinka Stahuljak's monograph provides an excellent introduction to this manuscript that is both accessible to general readers as well as to specialists in the field."--Renaissance Quarterly ..".[a] sumptuously produced and indisputably elegant work..."--The Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisWith more than 26,000 works, the Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. collection of photographs is the largest single group of artworks in any medium at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Wagstaff (1921-1987) amassed his extraordinary collection between 1973 and 1984, recognizing early that photography was an undervalued art form on which he might have a profound impact as a collector. He was mainly attracted to photographs that stimulated his imagination, and his taste ran toward the idiosyncratic-images that surprised him chiefly because he had never seen them before.In choosing the 147 works reproduced in this volume, Paul Martineau selected masterpieces as well as images from obscure sources: daguerreotypes, cartes-de-visite, and stereographs, plus mug shots, medical photographs, and works by unknown makers. The latter category contains some of the most outstanding objects in the collection, demonstrating Wagstaff's willingness to position unfamiliar images alongside works by established masters as well as underrepresented contemporary artists of the time, including Jo Ann Callis, William Garnett, and Edmund Teske.This book is published to accompany an eponymous exhibition on view at the J.Paul Getty Museum from March 15 to July 31, 2016; at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT, from September 10 to December 11, 2016; and at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, ME, from February 1 to April 30, 2017.

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Book SynopsisThe Roman Empire had a rich and multifaceted visual culture, which was often variegated due to the sprawling geography of its provinces. In this remarkable work of scholarship, a group of international scholars has come together to find alternative ways to discuss the nature and development of the art and archaeology of the Roman provinces. The result is a collection of nineteen compelling essays-accompanied by carefully curated visual documentation, seven detailed maps, and an extensive bibliography-and organized around the four major themes of provincial contexts, tradition and innovation, networks and movements, and local accents in an imperial context. Easy assumptions about provincial life in Rome-from what makes a province to how they interacted with metropolises-give way to more complicated stories. Similarities and divergences in local and regional responses to Rome appear, but not always in predictable places and in far from predictable patterns.The authors dismiss entrenched barriers between art and archaeology, center and provinces, even "good art" and "bad art," extending their observations well beyond the empire's boundaries, and examining phenomena, sites, and monuments not often found in books about Roman art history or archaeology. The book thus functions to encourage continued critical engagement with how scholars study the material past of the Roman Empire and, indeed, of imperial systems in general.Trade Review"In addition to the quality of most of the contributions, the value of this collection lies in the fact that different ideas on the same sets of problems are included in a single volume (unfortunately a rare occurrence), which makes the reading of the whole a very stimulating exercise."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review "Beautiful and carefully edited."--Art Newspaper "The contributions to this volume . . . offer nuanced interpretations of provincial visual cultures. . . . This volume is recommended especially for institutional libraries supporting art historians and classicists." --Religious Studies Review

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Book SynopsisDuring Qing dynasty China, Italian artists were hired through Jesuit missionaries by the imperial workshops in Beijing. In The Shining Inheritance: Italian Painters at the Qing Court, 1699-1812, Marco Musillo considers the professional adaptations and pictorial modifications to Chinese traditions that allowed three of these Italian painters -- Giovanni Gherardini (1655- ca. 1729), Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), and Giuseppe Panzi (1734-1812) -- to work within the Chinese cultural sphere from 1699, when Gherardini arrived in China, to 1812, the year of Panzi's death. Musillo focuses especially on the long career and influence of Castiglione (whose Chinese name was Lang Shining), who worked in Beijing for more than fifty years. Serving three Qing emperors, he was actively engaged in the pictorial discussions at court. The Shining Inheritance perceptively explores how each painter's level of professional artistic training affected his understanding, selection, and translation of the Chinese pictorial traditions. Musillo further demonstrates how this East-West artistic exchange challenged the dogma of European universality through a professional dialogue that became part of established workshop routines. The cultural elements, procedures, and artistic languages of both China and Italy were strategically played against each other in negotiating the successes and failures of the Italian painters in Beijing. Musillo's subtle analysis offers a compelling methodological model for an increasingly global field of art history.Trade Review"Lavishly illustrated, and including an invaluable glossary and bibliography, this book is required reading for scholars and connoisseurs of Chinese and Italian art."--Choice

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Book SynopsisThis fiery and influential book, available for the first time in English, presents an Italian Futurist's radical ideas about art and architecture Futurist Painting Sculpture (Plastic Dynamism), a truly radical book by Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916), claimed a central position in artistic debates of the 1910s and 1920s, exerting a powerful influence on the Italian Futurist movement as well as on the entire European historical avant-garde, including Dada and Constructivism. Today, Boccioni is best known as an artist whose paintings and sculptures are prized for their revolutionary aesthetic by American and European museums. But Futurist Painting Sculpture demonstrates that he was also the foremost avant-garde theorist of his time. In his distinctive, exhilarating prose style, Boccioni not only articulates his own ideas about the Italian movement's underpinnings and goals but also systematizes the principles expressed in the vast array of manifestos that the Futurists had already produced. Featuring photographs of fifty-one key works and a large selection of manifestos devoted to the visual arts, Boccioni's book established the canon of Italian Futurist art for many years to come.First published in Italian in 1914, Futurist Painting Sculpture has never been available in English-until now. This edition includes a critical introduction by Maria Elena Versari. Drawing on the extensive Futurist archives at the Getty Research Institute, Versari systematically retraces, for the first time, the evolution of Boccioni's ideas and arguments; his attitude toward contemporary political, racial, philosophical, and scientific debates; and his polemical view of Futurism's role in the development of modern art.Trade Review"This edition of Umberto Boccioni's 1914 book is a very welcome addition, providing a more nuanced account of Futurist art and theory from the pen of the movement's most prominent artist."--Burlington Magazine

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Book SynopsisIn 2008, the Berlin Antikensammlung initiated a project with the J. Paul Getty Museum to conserve a group of ancient funerary vases from southern Italy. Monumental in scale and richly decorated, these magnificent vessels were discovered in hundreds of fragments in the early nineteenth century at Ceglie, near Bari. Acquired by a Bohemian diplomat, they were reconstructed in the Neapolitan workshop of Raffaele Gargiulo, who was considered one of the leading restorers of antiquities in Europe. His methods exemplify what was referred to as "une perfection dangereuse," an approach to reassembly and repainting that made it difficult to distinguish what was ancient and what was modern. Bringing together archival documentation and technical analyses, this volume provides a comprehensive study of the vases and their treatment from the nineteenth century up to today. In addition to lavish illustrations, two in-depth essays on the history of the vases and on Gargiulo's work, as well as detailed conservation notes for each object, this publication also features the first English translation of Gargiulo's original text on his understanding as to how ancient Greek vases were manufactured. This is the companion volume to an exhibition on view at the Getty Villa, from November 19, 2014, to May 11, 2015, and then at the Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin from June 17, 2015, to June 18, 2017.Trade Review"In summary, this superb study provides the first full account of the red-figure Apulian vessels in Koller's collection in more than a century. It will prove of great interest to scholars and students of Apulian vase painting, restoration practices, and art history. Lavishly illustrated with high-quality photographs and archival drawings, this book is, undoubtedly, an important contribution for future research and conservation projects."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review "Sumptuous . . . highly recommended."--Choice

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Book SynopsisThe odore Rousseau (1812-1867), arguably the most important French landscape artist of the mid-nineteenth century and a leader of the so-called Barbizon School, occupies a crucial moment of transition from the idealizing effects of academic painting to the radically modern vision of the Impressionists. He was an experimental artist who rejected the traditional historical, biblical, or literary subject matter in favor of "unruly nature," a Romantic naturalism that confounded his contemporaries with its "bizarre" compositional and coloristic innovations. Lavishly illustrated and thoroughly documented, this volume includes five essays by experts in the field. Scott Allan and Edouard Kopp alternately examine Rousseau's diverse techniques and working procedures as a painter and as a draftsman, as well as his art's mixed economic and critical fortunes on the art market and at the Salon. Line Clausen Pedersen's essay focuses on Mont Blanc Seen from La Faucille, Storm Effect, an early touchstone for the artist and a spectacular example of the Romantic sublime in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek's collection. This catalogue accompanies an eponymous exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from June 21 to September 11, 2016, and at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek from October 13, 2016, to January 8, 2017.Trade Review"Lavishly illustrated... highly recommended."--Choice "[This] excellent catalogue ... guide[s] us a considerable way down the path to enlightenment."--Burlington Magazine

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Book SynopsisA rigorous account of the European origins of American art museums American art museums share a mission and format that differ from those of their European counterparts, which often have origins in aristocratic collections. This groundbreaking work recounts the fascinating story of the invention of the modern American art museum, starting with its roots in the 1870s in the craft museum type, which was based on London's South Kensington (now the Victoria and Albert) Museum. At the turn of the twentieth century, American planners grew enthusiastic about a new type of museum and presentation that was developed in Northern Europe, particularly in Germany, Switzerland, and Scandinavia. Called Kulturgeschichte (cultural history) museums, they were evocative displays of regional history. American trustees, museum directors, and curators found that the Kulturgeschichte approach offered a variety of transformational options in planning museums, classifying and displaying objects, and broadening collecting categories, including American art and the decorative arts. Leading institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, adopted and developed crucial aspects of the Kulturgeschichte model. By the 1930s, such museum plans and exhibition techniques had become standard practice at museums across the country.Trade Review"When you wander a little off the beaten track at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you may find yourself in an 18th-century French bed- room, or In the Frank Lloyd Wright room, or the poignant Damascus Room, with its Arabic Inscriptions and splashing fountain. Al the Wadsworth Atheneum ln Hartford, recent reinstallations include a Dutch wonder cabinet on a grand scale. At the Art Institute of Chicago, the perfectly miniaturized Thorne period rooms are ever-popular. One doesn't have these diorama experiences at the Louvre or London's National Gallery, or in the Prado. Is it a particularly American practice to shape a fine arts museum as a procession through periods of history understood through decorative and in architectural installations. The museum-goer who has wondered about this will find much to consider inn Kathleen Curran's book, The Invention of the American Art Museum."--Apollo

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Book SynopsisDue to the technological advances of the nineteenth century, an abundance of black drawing media exploded onto the market. Charcoal, conte crayon, and fabricated black chalks and crayons; fixatives; various papers; and many lifting devices gave rise to an unprecedented amount of experimentation. Indeed, innovation became the rule, as artists developed their own unique-and often experimental-processes. The exploration of black media in drawing is inextricably bound up with the exploration of black in prints, and this volume presents an integrated study that rises above specialization in one over the other. This richly illustrated catalogue brings together such diverse artists as Francisco de Goya, Maxime Lalanne, Gustave Courbet, Odilon Redon, and Georges Seurat and explores their inventive works on paper. Sidelining labels like "conservative" or "avant-garde," the essays in this book employ all the tools that art history and modern conservation have given us, inviting the reader to look more broadly at the artists' methods and materials. This volume accompanies an exhibition of the same name on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from February 9 to May 15, 2016.Trade Review..".[a] groundbreaking publication..."--Fine Art Connoisseur

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Book SynopsisThis gorgeously illustrated book examines the practice and materials of a prominent Abstract Expressionist The career of the German-American painter and educator Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) describes the arc of artistic modernism from pre-World War I Munich and Paris to mid-twentieth-century Greenwich Village. His career also traces the transatlantic engagement of modern painting with the materials of its own making, a relationship that is perhaps still not completely understood. In these interrelated narratives, Hofmann is a central protagonist, providing a vital link between nineteenth- and twentieth-century art practice and between European and American modernism. The remarkable vitality of his later work affords insight not only into the style but also the literal substance of this formative period of artistic and material innovation. This richly illustrated book, the fourth in the Getty Conservation Institute's Artist's Materials series, presents a thorough examination of Hofmann's late-career materials. Initial chapters present an informative overview of Hofmann's life and work in Europe and America and discuss his crucial role in the development of Abstract Expressionism.Subsequent chapters present a detailed analysis of Hofmann's materials and techniques and explore the relationship of the artist's mature palette to shifts in the style and aging characteristics of his paintings. The book concludes with lessons for the conservation of modernist paintings generally, and particularly those that incorporate both traditional and modern paint media. This book will be of value to conservators, art historians, conservation scientists, and general readers with an interest in modern art.

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Book SynopsisOne of the most imaginative and fascinating artists of eighteenth-century France,Edme Bouchardon (1698-1762) was instrumental in the transition from Rococo to Neoclassicism and in the artistic rediscovery of classical antiquity. Much celebrated in his time, Bouchardon created some of the most iconic images of the age of Louis XV. His oeuvre demonstrates a remarkable variety of themes (from copies after the antique to subjects of history and mythology, portraiture, anatomical studies, ornament, fountains and tombs), media (drawings, sculptures, medals, prints), and techniques (chalk, plaster, wax, terracotta, marble, bronze).With five essays by experts on Bouchardon's sculpture and graphic arts, more than 140 catalogue entries, and a detailed chronology, this book aims to demonstrate the originality of Bouchardon's art within the cultural and social context of the period, while suggesting the subtle relationship between, as well as the relative autonomy of, the artist's two careers as a sculptor and a draftsman.This lavishly illustrated publication represents anunprecedented and thorough survey on this major andunique artist from the Age of Enlightenment, offering in-depth scholarship based on unpublished material detailingthe subtle relationship between, as well as the relative autonomy of, the artist's two careers as a sculptor and a draftsman.Trade Review"Excellent."--Art Newspaper

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Book SynopsisOne of the most imaginative and fascinating artists of eighteenth-century France, Edme Bouchardon (1698-1762) was instrumental in the transition from Rococo to Neoclassicism and in the artistic rediscovery of classical antiquity. Much celebrated in his time, Bouchardon created some of the most iconic images of the age of Louis XV. His oeuvre demonstrates a remarkable variety of themes (from copies after the antique to subjects of history and mythology, portraiture, anatomical studies, ornament, fountains and tombs), media (drawings, sculptures, medals, prints), and techniques (chalk, plaster, wax, terracotta, marble, bronze). This lavishly illustrated publication represents an unprecedented and thorough survey on this major and unique artist from the Age of Enlightenment, offering in-depth scholarship based on unpublished material detailing the subtle relationship between, as well as the relative autonomy of, the artist's two careers as a sculptor and a draftsman.Trade Review"With illustrations of excel-lent quality. Bouchardon is well served by this fine catalogue which, with its comprehensive survey of the life and work, should win new admirers for this innovative and most interesting artist."--Art Newspaper

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Book SynopsisZen art poses a conundrum. On the one hand, Zen Buddhism emphasizes the concept of emptiness, which among other things asserts that form is empty, that all phenomena in the world are illusory. On the other hand, a prodigious amount of artwork has been created in association with Zen thought and practice. A wide range of media, genres, expressive modes, and strategies of representation have been embraced to convey the idea of emptiness. Form has been used to express the essence of formlessness, and in Japan, this gave rise to a remarkable, highly diverse array of artworks and a tradition of self-negating art.In this volume, Yukio Lippit explores the painting The Gourd and the Catfish (ca. 1413), widely considered one of the most iconic works of Japanese Zen art today. Its subject matter appears straightforward enough: a man standing on a bank holds a gourd in both hands, attempting to capture or pin down the catfish swimming in the stream below. This is an impossible task, a nonsensical act underscored by the awkwardness with which the figure struggles even to hold his gourd. But this impossibility is precisely the point.

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Book SynopsisIn the years after World War II, artists in Argentinaand Brazil experimented with geo- metric abstractionand engaged in lively debates about the role of theartwork in society. Some of these artists used novelsynthetic materials, creating objects that offered analternative to established traditions in painting-proposing that these objects become part ofeveryday, concrete reality. Combining art historicaland scientific analysis, experts from the GettyConservation Institute and Getty Research Instituteare collaborating with the Coleccio n Patricia Phelpsde Cisneros, a world-renowned collection of LatinAmerican art, to research the formal strategies andmaterial decisions of these artists working in theconcrete and neo-concrete vein.Making Art Concrete presents works by Lygia Clark,Willys de Castro, Judith Lauand, Rau l Lozza, Toma sMaldonado, He lio Oiticica, and Rhod Rothfuss, amongothers with new spectacular photography. Thephotographs, along with information about the now-invisible processes that determine the appearance ofthese works, are key to interpreting the artists' technical choices as well as the objects themselves. Indeed, this volume sheds further light on the social, political, and cultural underpinnings of the artists' propositions, making a compelling addition to the field of postwar Latin American art.

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Book SynopsisPraised by Albrecht Du rer as being "the best in painting," Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1430-1516) is unquestionably the supreme Venetian painter of the quattrocento and one of the greatest Italian artists of all time. His landscapes assume a prominence unseen in Western art since classical antiquity. Drawing from a selection of masterpieces that span Bellini's long and successful career, this exhibition catalogue focuses on the main function of landscape in his oeuvre: to enhance the meditational nature of paintings intended for the private devotion of intellectually sophisticated, elite patrons. The subtle doctrinal content of Bellini's work-the isolated crucifix in a landscape, the "sacred conversation," the image of Saint Jerome in the wilderness-is always infused with his instinct for natural representation, resulting in extremely personal interpretations of religious subjects immersed in landscapes where the real and the symbolic are inextricably intertwined.This volume includes a biography of the artist,essays by leading authorities in the field explicating thethemes of the J. Paul Getty Museum's exhibition, anddetailed discussions and glorious reproductions of the twelve works in the exhibition, including their history and provenance, function, iconography, chronology, and style.Trade Review"One of the year's best museum shows." --Los Angeles Times

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Book SynopsisJose Clemente Orozco's 1930 mural, Prometheus, created for the Pomona College campus, is a dramatic and gripping examination of heroism. This thoughtful exhibition catalogue examines the multiple ways Orozco's vision resonates with four artists working in Mexico today. Isa Carrillo, Adela Goldbard, Rita Ponce de Leo n, and Naomi Rinco n-Gallardo share Orozco's interest in history, justice, social protest, storytelling, and power, yet approach these topics from their own twenty-first- century sensibilities. These artists activate Orozco's mural by reinvigorating Prometheus for a contemporary audience.This gorgeous volume presents substantial new scholarship connecting Mexican muralism with contemporary art practices. Three new essays address different aspects of Orozco, Prometheus, and the connections between Los Angeles and Mexico. The contributors take on a broad range of topics, from murals as public art to how Orozco's work fits into contemporary frameworks of aesthetic theory. The book also includes a chronology, vibrant reproductions, and critical essays focused on the contemporary artists.

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Book SynopsisDistant blue hills, soaring trees, vast cloudless skies-the majesty of nature has always had the power to lift the human spirit. For some it evokes a sense of timelessness and wonder. For others it reinforces religious convictions. And for many people today, it raises concerns for the welfare of the planet.During the Renaissance, artists from Italy to Flanders andEngland to Germany depicted nature in their religious art tointensify the spiritual experience of the viewer. Devotionalmanuscripts for personal or communal use-from small-scale prayer books to massive choir books-were filled withsome of the most illusionistic nature studies of this period.Sacred Landscapes, which accompanies an exhibition at theJ. Paul Getty Museum, presents some of the mostimpressive examples of this art, gathering a wide range ofilluminated manuscripts made between 1400 and 1600, aswell as panel paintings, drawings, and decorative arts.Readers will see the influ-ence of such masters as AlbrechtDu rer, Jan van Eyck, Leonardo da Vinci, and Piero dellaFrancesca and will gain new appreciation for manuscriptilluminators like Simon Bening, Joris Hoefnagel, Vincent Raymond, and the Spitz Master. These artists were innovative in the early development of landscape painting and were revered through-out the early modern period. The authors provide thoughtful examination of works from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries.

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Book SynopsisThis volume accompanies a major international loan exhibition featuring some three hundred works of art rarely or never before seen in the United States. It traces the development of gold working and other luxury arts in the Americas from antiquity until the arrival of Europeans in the early sixteenth century. Featuring spectacular works from recent excavations in Peru, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Mexico, this exhibition focuses on specific places and times-crucibles of innovation-where artistic exchange, rivalry, and creativity led to the production of some of the greatest works of art known from the ancient Americas. The book and exhibition explore not only artistic practices but also the historical, cultural, social, and political conditions in which luxury arts were produced and circulated, alongside their religious meanings and ritual functions.Golden Kingdoms creates new understandings ofancient American art through a thematic exploration ofindigenous ideas of value and luxury. Central to thebook is the idea of the exchange of materials and ideasacross regions and across time: works of great valuewould often be transported over long distances, or passed down over generations, in both cases attracting new audiences and inspiring new artists. The idea of exchange is at the intellectual heart of this volume, researched and written by twenty scholars based in the United States and Latin America.Trade Review"With twelve major articles and over two hundred detailed catalog descriptions/illustrations, this book will obviously be a necessity in any library that caters to an informed public."--Ornament magazine "With beautiful images illustrating the rich diversity of objects and the materials used to make them, this thorough book offers an insight into the values of different cultures in the ancient Americas." --Current World Archaeology "A lush compendium of ornaments, textiles and other objects associated with the gold-working cultures from the ancient Americas."--Wall Street Journal

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Book SynopsisThe art of the Sistine Chapel, decorated by artists who competed with one another and commissioned by popes who were equally competitive, is a complex fabric of thematic, chronological, and artistic references. Four main campaigns were undertaken to decorate the chapel between 1481 and 1541, and with each new addition, fundamental themes found increasingly concrete expression. One theme in particular plays a central role in the chapel: the legitimization of papal authority, as symbolized by two keys-one silver, one gold-to the kingdom of heaven. "The Sistine Chapel: Paradise in Rome" provides a concise, informative account of the decoration of the Sistine Chapel. In unpacking this complex history, Ulrich Pfisterer reveals the remarkable unity of the images in relation to theology, politics, and the intentions of the artists themselves, who included such household names as Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Through a study of the main campaigns to adorn the Sistine Chapel, Pfisterer argues that the art transformed the chapel into a pathway to the kingdom of God, legitimising the absolute authority of the popes. First published in German, the prose comes to life in English in the deft hands of translator David Dollenmayer.

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Book SynopsisGiovanni Andrea Gilio's "Dialogue on the Errors and Abuses of Painters" (1564) is one of the first treatises on art published in the post-Tridentine period. It remains a key primary source for the discussion of the reform of art as it unfolded at the time of the Council of Trent and the Catholic Reformation. Relatively little is known about Gilio himself, a cleric from Fabriano, Italy, although he was evidently familiar with Cardinal Alessandro Farnese's lively court circle in Rome as he dedicated his book to the cardinal. His text-available in English in full for the first time-takes the form of a spirited dialogue among six protagonists, using the voices of each to present different points of view. Through their dialogue Gilio grapples with a host of issues, from the relationship between poetry and painting, to the function of religious images, to the effects such images have on viewers. The primary focus is the proper representation of history, and Michelangelo's Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel is the exemplary case. Indeed, Michelangelo's painting is both praised and condemned as an example of the possibilities and limits of art. Although Gilio's dialogue is often quoted by art historians to point out the more controlling view of art and artists by the Roman Catholic Church, the unabridged text reveals the nuanced and provisional debates, happening during this critical era.

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Book SynopsisNo thinker in the West has had a wider and more sustained influence than the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. From philosophy to drama, religion to politics, it is difficult to find a current cultural or social phenomenon that is not in some aspect indebted to the famous philosopher and the Platonic tradition. It should come as no surprise that contemporary artists continue to engage with and respond to the ideas of Plato. Accompanying an exhibition at the Getty Villa, this book brings together eleven renowned artists working in a variety of media all of whom have acknowledged the role of Plato in their artistic process. Featuring candid interviews with the artists, this volume begins with an essay by the critic and curator Donatien Grau that contextualizes Plato in antiquity and in the present day. Contemporary art, Grau demonstrates, is Platonism stripped bare, and it allows us to reconsider Plato's philosophy as a deeply human construct, one that remains highly relevant today.

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Book SynopsisIn the late 1700s, as the events of the French Revolution roiled France, London displaced Paris as the primary hub of international art sales. Within a few decades, a robust and sophisticated art market flourished in London. 'London and the Emergence of a European Art Market, 1780-1820' explores the commercial milieu of art sales and collecting at this turning point. In this collection of essays, twenty-one scholars employ methods ranging from traditional art historical and provenance studies to statistical and economic analysis; they provide overviews, case studies and empirical reevaluations of artists, collectors, patrons, agents and dealers, institutions, sales and practices. Drawing from pioneering digital resources-notably the Getty Provenance Index-as well as archival materials, such as trade directories, correspondence, stock books and inventories, auction catalogs and exhibition reviews, these scholars identify broad trends, reevaluate previous misunderstandings and consider overlooked commercial contexts to illuminate artistic taste. From individual case studies to econometric overviews, this volume is groundbreaking for its diverse methodological range that illuminates artistic taste and flourishing art commerce at the turn of the nineteenth century.

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Book SynopsisA century ago, all art was evaluated through the lens of European classicism and its tradition. This volume explores and questions the foundations of the European canon, offers a critical rethinking of ancient and classical art and interrogates the canons of cultures and regions that have often been left at the margins of art history. It underscores the historical and geographical diversity of canons and the local values underlying them. Twelve international scholars consider how canons are constructed and contested, focusing on the relationship between canonical objects and the value systems that shape their hierarchies. Deploying an array of methodologies-including archaeological investigations, visual analysis and literary critique-the authors examine canon formation throughout the world, including Africa, India, East Asia, Mesoamerica, South America, ancient Egypt, classical Greece and Europe. Global studies of art, which are dismantling the traditionally Eurocentric canon, promise to make art history more inclusive. To this end, this volume raises new questions about the importance of canons-including those from outside Europe-for the wider discipline of art history.

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Book SynopsisSarnath has long been regarded as the place where the Buddha preached his first sermon and established the Buddhist monastic order. Excavations at Sarnath have yielded the foundations of temples and monastic dwellings, two Buddhist reliquary mounds (stupas), and some of the most important sculptures in the history of Indian art. This volume offers the first critical examination of the historic site. Frederick M. Asher provides a longue duree (long-term) analysis of Sarnath-including the plunder, excavation, and display of antiquities and the Archaeological Survey of India's presentation-and considers what lies beyond the fenced-in excavated area. His analytical history of Sarnath's architectural and sculptural remains contains a significant study of the site's sculptures, their uneven production, and their global distribution. Asher also examines modern Sarnath, which is a living establishment replete with new temples and monasteries that constitute a Buddhist presence on the outskirts of Varanasi, the most sacred Hindu city.

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Book SynopsisBaron Joseph Friedrich von Racknitz's pioneering Presentation and History of the Taste of the Leading Nations in Relation to the Interior Decoration of Rooms and to Architecture (Darstellung und Geschichte des Geschmacks der vorzuglichsten Voelker in Beziehung auf die innere Auszierung der Zimmer und auf die Baukunst) is little known today. Racknitz, a German aristocrat, traced an early global history of design and ornament through discussions of what he distinguished as twenty-four regional historical tastes. He included a diverse group of ancient classical civilizations, European nations and peoples, Eastern civilizations, and more exotic reaches of the world. This sensitive and informed translation by Simon Swynfen Jervis includes reproductions of the original color plates and essays on Racknitz's biography, his publication, and the deeper German Enlightenment context, making this an essential volume for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century architecture, decorative arts, and garden design.Trade Review“Ambitious, handsomely illustrated...A fantastic book that should find its way into every properly scholarly collection”—Wolf Burchard, Art Newspaper

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Book SynopsisIn the first half of the twentieth century, a group of American artists influenced by the painter and teacher Robert Henri aimed to reject the pretenses of academic fine art and polite society. Embracing the democratic inclusiveness of the Progressive movement, these artists turned to making prints, which were relatively inexpensive to produce and easy to distribute. For their subject matter, the artists mined the bustling activity and stark realities of the urban centers in which they lived and worked. Their prints feature sublime towering skyscrapers and stifling city streets, jazzy dance halls and bleak tenement interiors-intimate and anonymous everyday scenes that addressed modern life in America. True Grit examines a rich selection of prints by well-known figures like George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Joseph Pennell, and John Sloan as well as lesser-known artists such as Ida Abelman, Peggy Bacon, Miguel Covarrubias, and Mabel Dwight. Written by three scholars of printmaking and American art, the essays present nuanced discussions of gender, class, literature, and politics, contextualizing the prints in the rapidly changing milieu of the first decades of twentieth-century America.

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Book SynopsisBetween 1667 and 1792, the artists and amateurs of the Acade mie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris lectured on the Acade mie's 'confe rences', foundational documents in the theory and practice of art. These texts and the principles they embody guided artistic practice and art theory in France and throughout Europe for two centuries. In the 1800s, the Acade mie's influence waned, and few of the 388 Acade mie lectures were translated into English. Eminent scholars Christian Michel and Jacqueline Lichtenstein have selected and annotated forty-two of the most representative lectures, creating the first authoritative collection of the 'confe rences' for readers of English. Essential to understanding French art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these lectures reveal what leading French artists looked for in a painting or sculpture, the problems they sought to resolve in their works, and how they viewed their own and others' artistic practice.

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of the radical artists who transformed the ways art is conceived, exhibited, and collected, through the Dada, Surrealist, and Fluxus collections of Jean and Leonard Brown. Throughout the 1960s, Jean and Leonard Brown used their radical tastes, prescient instincts, and friendships with artists to assemble an extensive archive of Dada and Surrealist publications and prints--including works by Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Tristan Tzara. After Leonard's death in 1970, Jean's attention turned to Fluxus and other contemporary genres. Jean also established a site of alternative art production at her Shaker Seed House in Tyringham, Massachusetts, where she invited artists to engage with her collections. Fluxus works embraced the social and political critiques of earlier avant-garde artists and questioned the authority of the increasingly powerful contemporary art world of critics, collectors, curators, and gallerists. This examination of artists and their antiestablishment demands for change shows how their art was created, performed, exhibited, and collected in new ways that intentionally challenged traditional modes. By providing an expanded understanding of avant-garde and Fluxus artists through the lens of the Jean Brown Archive at the Getty Research Institute, this volume demonstrates the profound influence these artists had on contemporary art. This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the Getty Research Institute at the Getty Center November 17, 2020, to April 4, 2021.

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of how an official French visual culture normalized France's colonial project and exposed citizens and subjects to racialized ideas of life in the empire. By the end of World War I, having fortified its colonial holdings in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, the Indian Ocean, and Asia, France had expanded its dominion to the four corners of the earth. This volume examines how an official French visual culture normalized the country's colonial project and exposed citizens and subjects alike to racialized ideas of life in the empire. Essays analyze aspects of colonialism through investigations into the art, popular literature, material culture, film, and exhibitions that represented, celebrated, or were created for France's colonies across the seas. These studies draw from the rich documents and media--photographs, albums, postcards, maps, posters, advertisements, and children's games--related to the nineteenth- and twentieth-century French empire that are held in the Getty Research Institute's Association Connaissance de l'histoire de l'Afrique contemporaine (ACHAC) collections. ACHAC is a consortium of scholars and researchers devoted to exploring and promoting discussions of race, iconography, and the colonial and postcolonial periods of Africa and Europe.Trade Review"Visualizing Empire delves deeply into colonial image making and the difficult issues of conquest, race, media, and cultural stereotyping through a peerless collection of visual artifacts of colonial imagery. The authors frame these works within a multidisciplinary context that at once deepens, broadens, and enhances our knowledge of French colonialism and how it worked both in the metropole and in the complex geographical and cultural worlds in which the French were engaged. Through a close examination of these forms—architecture, mapping, dress, caricature, zoos, fairs, games, advertising, and localized sites of encounter, Visualizing Empire provides us a seat at the table to experience up close the ever expanding thirst of empire that shaped the modern world."—Suzanne Preston Blier, Allen Whitehill Professor of Fine Arts and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University;;“Visualizing Empire introduces a stunning archive, now at the Getty Research Institute, that will be a powerful addition to the study of art and visual culture of early twentieth-century French colonialism. Utilizing a diversity of artifacts—from toys to maps—the authors demonstrate the centrality of material culture in the Republic's imperial ambitions to build consensus at home and to justify its racial, political, and economic dominance in the countries that comprised its colonies. This groundbreaking anthology enacts the importance of rigorous collaborative scholarship as itself a subversive corrective to a past that continues to haunt the present.”—Kishwar Rizvi, Professor in the History of Art, Islamic Art and Architecture, Yale University

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Book SynopsisVibrant colour was essential to the paintings of the American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), and when he began exploring outdoor sculpture in the late 1970s, vivid hues-often achieved through the use of recently developed industrial paints and coatings-remained an important part of his artistic vocabulary. Today, preserving these remarkable works after they have endured decades in outdoor environments around the world is an issue of pressing concern. This abundantly illustrated volume is based on extensive archival research of his studio materials, interviews with his assistants, and a thorough technical analysis of the sculpture Three Brushstrokes, now in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. The book concludes with a chapter showing various options for the care, conservation, and restoration of Lichtenstein's sculptural works, making this an essential resource for conservators, curators, and others interested both in the iconic artist and modern sculpture in general.

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the reception in Latin America of prints designed by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, showing how colonial artists used such designs to create all manner of artworks and, in the process, forged new frameworks for artistic creativity. Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) never crossed the Atlantic himself, but his impact in colonial Latin America was profound. Prints made after the Flemish artist's designs were routinely sent from Europe to the Spanish Americas, where artists used them to make all manner of objects. Rubens in Repeat is the first comprehensive study of this transatlantic phenomenon, despite broad recognition that it was one of the most important forces to shape the artistic landscapes of the region. Copying, particularly in colonial contexts, has traditionally held negative implications that have discouraged its serious exploration. Yet analyzing the interpretation of printed sources and recontextualizing the resulting works within period discourse and their original spaces of display allow a new critical reassessment of this broad category of art produced in colonial Latin America-art that has all too easily been dismissed as derivative and thus unworthy of sustained interest and investigation. This book takes a new approach to the paradigms of artistic authorship that emerged alongside these complex creative responses, focusing on the viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It argues that the use of European prints was an essential component of the very framework in which colonial artists forged ideas about what it meant to be a creator."Trade Review"Rubens in Repeat is an innovative study about the mobility of objects and their reinterpretation across the vast geography of the early modern Spanish Empire. Aaron M. Hyman's attention to buildings, cities, and viceroyalties as settings for the transformation of print into paint, stone, and other media provides a scholarly model for thinking locally and writing globally."-Jesus Escobar, Northwestern University;; "An explosive defamiliarization of the Flemish Baroque as period, geography, and mode. Hyman weaves close looking with startling archival finds to situate Rubens not so much as a transatlantic brand, but as an inflection of what exactly "European" art-and so too Latin American visual culture-was in the long seventeenth century. No longer just the art historical fellow of Van Dyck, Snyders, and Jan Bruegel, here Rubens aligns with Durer, Warhol, even Judd. But time remains fundamental: Hyman sinks us into the documents and places us before dozens of never-published objects, disabling the colonialist myth of the copy as "other." Rubens-always an artist more interesting than his art-emerges as a willful ghost, forever betwixt repetitions."-Christopher P. Heuer, author of Into the White: The Renaissance Arctic and the End of the Image;;"Both "logic" and "copy" are carefully examined, and finally subverted, in this extraordinary book. The extensive use of prints after works by Rubens throughout Spanish and Portuguese America from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries is a commonplace in studies of Latin American art. Delving deeply into specific examples and their variations in different geographies and institutions, Hyman both informs and expands the reader's knowledge and understanding of the paths of creativity and reception."-Clara Bargellini, Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de MexicoTable of ContentsDedication Acknowledgements Introduction: Conformity Part I. The City: Cuzco Ch. 1 Cuzco's Aesthetic of Sameness Ch. 2 Rethinking "Rubens" in the Andes Part II. The Cathedral: Mexico City Ch. 3 Inventors in New Spain Ch. 4 Metropolitan Academicians Part III. The Viceroyalty: New Spain and Peru Ch. 5 The Transatlantic Thesis Disputation Ch. 6 Rubens Works Miracles in New Spain Photo credits Biographical Note Index

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Book SynopsisMediterranean maritime art and the forced labor on which it depended were fundamental to the politics and propaganda of France's King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715). Yet most studies of French art in this period focus on Paris and Versailles, overlooking the presence or portrayal of galley slaves on the kingdom's coasts. By examining a wide range of artistic productions-ship design, artillery sculpture, medals, paintings, and prints-Meredith Martin and Gillian Weiss uncover a vital aspect of royal representation and unsettle a standard picture of art and power in early modern France. ;; With an abundant selection of startling images, many never before published, The Sun King at Sea emphasizes the role of esclaves turcs (enslaved Turks)-rowers who were captured or purchased from Islamic lands-in building and decorating ships and other art objects that circulated on land and by sea to glorify the Crown. Challenging the notion that human bondage vanished from continental France, this cross-disciplinary volume invites a reassessment of servitude as a visible condition, mode of representation, and symbol of sovereignty during Louis XIV's reign.Trade Review"A dazzling collection of early modern artworks and a major interdisciplinary achievement between social history and art history that uncovers, for the first time, how and why the French Sun King Louis XIV shaped his propaganda on the enslavement of Mediterranean Muslims. A masterpiece!"-M'hamed Oualdi, Sciences Po, Paris;; "Superbly illustrated, The Sun King at Sea is a tour de force of the historical imagination that deploys the resources of social and cultural history and of material and visual culture to reveal and portray the enslavement of Muslims for Louis XIV's Mediterranean galley fleet. Martin and Weiss's approach to a disturbing subject too long hidden in plain sight is unflinchingly illuminating yet humane."-Colin Jones, Queen Mary University of London;; "This is not only an original and archivally rich study but also an unsettling and necessary one. The authors combine rigorous historical research with fresh and insightful visual analysis to chronicle the violence, coercion, and suppression that underpinned the fabric of Louis XIV's navy and the diplomatic, material, and symbolic structures of his reign. Martin and Weiss's book is a must-read for all students and scholars of the Sun King's court as well as those interested in slavery, maritime power, and society in early modern Europe."--Mark Ledbury, Director of the Power Institute, The University of Sydney; “An indispensable and original book that centers the Mediterranean Sea in the visual and ornamental imaginary of the so-called Grand Siècle; interprets maritime vessels as pluralistic micro-societies and vehicles of royal propaganda, and locates the roots of Orientalism in an early-modern Turquerie complicated by the longstanding presence of slavery and Islam in France. A must-read!” —Anne Lafont, directrice d'études à l'EHESS

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Book SynopsisWhat happens to us when we die? What might the afterlife look like? For the ancient Greeks, the dead lived on, overseen by Hades in the Underworld. We read of famous sinners, such as Sisyphus, forever rolling his rock, and the fierce guard dog Kerberos, who was captured by Herakles. For mere mortals, ritual and religion offered possibilities for ensuring a happy existence in the beyond, and some of the richest evidence for beliefs about death comes from southern Italy, where the local Italic peoples engaged with Greek beliefs. Monumental funerary vases that accompanied the deceased were decorated with consolatory scenes from myth, and around forty preserve elaborate depictions of Hades's domain. For the first time in over four decades, these compelling vase paintings are brought together in one volume, with detailed commentaries and ample illustrations. The catalogue is accompanied by a series of essays by leading experts in the field, which provides a framework for understanding these intriguing scenes and their contexts. Topics include attitudes toward the afterlife in Greek ritual and myth, inscriptions on leaves of gold that provided guidance for the deceased; funerary practices and religious beliefs in Apulia, and the importance accorded to Orpheus and Dionysos. Drawing from a variety of textual and archaeological sources, this volume is an essential source for anyone interested in religion and belief in the ancient Mediterranean.Trade Review"This handsome book explores Greek concepts of the afterlife as they are expressed in images of the Underworld on monumental funerary vases from Southern Italy. The corpus of some 40 vases is placed within its historical and archaeological context by a set of essays by prominent specialists. The book will join an earlier Getty publication, Oliver Taplin's Pots & Plays (2007), as an essential resource for the study of vase-painting in Greek South Italy."--Alan Shapiro, Dietrich von Bothmer Research Scholar, Greek and Roman Department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art ;; “This excellent and highly informative book guides us through the Underworld as conceived in Greek and Italic southern Italy and as visualized in South Italian vase-painting. Lavishly illustrated, it contains all the vases representing the kingdom of Hades and enables us to explore the many facets of this iconography, from the first known examples found in the Greek colony of Taranto to the complex tableaux of monumental volute-kraters belonging to members of the Italic elite. Under the surveillance of Hades and Persephone, we become familiar with the landscape of the world beyond. Here, we encounter those gods and heroes able to transcend the boundary between this world and the next (such as Dionysos, Orpheus, Herakles, and Theseus), as well as the mortals condemned to eternal punishment (such as Sisyphus and the Danaids). Far from static, the imagery of the Underworld is developed via various patterns; although the precise cultural reasons underlying such differentiation often escape us due to the absence of archaeological context, their variety reveals both the meaningful character of these representations, which were displayed during funerals, and the complex relationship between producers and consumers. ;; Well-written and highly informative essays provide insight into the ancient Greek myths of the afterlife, the available evidence of the Mystery Cults, and the religious and funerary practices of ancient Puglia, reconstructing the wider context and enabling these vases to be better understood. ;; Suitable for a broad readership, the volume explores the attitude of a specific ancient society towards universal concerns such as death and the afterlife via the powerful language of images, greatly enriching our perspective.”--Francesca Silvestrelli, University of the Salento

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Book SynopsisThe painting La Surprise by Jean Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) belongs to a new genre of painting invented by the artist himself-the fete galante. These works, which show graceful open-air gatherings filled with scenes of courtship, music and dance, strolling lovers, and actors, do not so much tell a story as set a mood: one of playful, wistful, nostalgic reverie. Esteemed by collectors in Watteau's day as a work that showed the artist at the height of his skill and success, La Surprise vanished from public view in 1848, not to reemerge for more than a century and a half. Acquired by the Getty Museum in 2017, it has never before been the subject of a dedicated publication. Marking the three hundredth anniversary of Watteau's death, this book considers La Surprise within the context of the artist's oeuvre, and discusses the surprising history of collecting Watteau in Los Angeles.

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Book SynopsisDominicus Lampsonius's The Life of Lambert Lombard (1565) is the earliest published biography of a Netherlandish artist. This neo-Latin account of the life of the painter, architect, and draftsman Lambert Lombard of Liege offers a theoretical exposition on the nature and ideal practice of Netherlandish art, emphasizing Lombard's intellectual curiosity, interest in antiquity, attentive study of the human body, and exemplary generosity as a teacher. This volume offers the first English edition of the The Life of Lambert Lombard, complemented by a new translation of the inscriptions Lampsonius composed to accompany the Effigies of Several Famous Painters from the Low Countries (1572), a cycle of twenty-three engraved portraits of Netherlandish artists developed in collaboration with the print publisher Hieronymus Cock. Together, The Life of Lambert Lombard and Effigies established frameworks for a distinctly Netherlandish history of art. Responding to a growing sense of Netherlandish cultural and political identity on the eve of the Dutch Revolt, these texts proposed a critical alternative to Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists and its Italian model of art historical development, celebrating local ingenuity and skill. They remain the starting point for any history of the northern Renaissance.Trade Review"With exemplary clarity and critical acumen, Edward Wouk, Helen E. B. Dalton, and Julene Abad Del Vecchio's superb translation of two crucial texts on art by Dominicus Lampsonius, humanist man of letters and painter, demonstrates how this important art theoretician promulgated an alternative historiography of art, and specifically, an alternative to Vasari's Vite, viewing northern workshop practice through the lens of Latin rhetorical and poetic sources, both ancient and modern. This edition of Lampsonius's The Life of Lambert Lombard and Effigies of Several Famous Painters from the Low Countries will prove as canonical as the source texts it now makes widely accessible."--Walter S. Melion, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Art History, Emory University;; "Readers of this superb volume, which provides an introduction to Dominicus Lampsonius and English translations of two of his theoretical texts, will benefit from Edward Wouk's remarkable erudition, clarity, and insights into European art. Presenting debates about the stakes that gave rise to Lampsonius's publications, Wouk weaves together encounters, collaborations, and connections drawn from letters, texts, stories, language, and the graphic arts. This nuanced retelling of artistic engagement with antiquity, local traditions, and practices on both sides of the Alps creates a dynamic picture of trans-European exchanges, processes of translation, and Netherlandish inventiveness."-- Bronwen Wilson, Professor of Renaissance and Early Modern Art, UCLA;; "Begun as a long-distance conversation with Vasari, whose Lives of the Artists established the modern historiography of art with Italy as its origin and center, Dominicus Lampsonius's writings offer a vital alternative: a decentering counter-history of artistic ideas, practices, techniques and developments flourishing north of the Alps. Edward Wouk's clear and copiously annotated translations of Lampsonius's elusive texts will greatly expand our understanding of the European tradition." -Joseph Leo Koerner, Harvard University ;; “In this book, Edward Wouk generously makes available in English translation two foundational works in the literature of Netherlandish art. Beyond this, he provides a meticulously documented and rigorously argued introduction that significantly advances the revolution in the understanding of elite art in the sixteenth-century Netherlands that has taken place since the publication of Walter Melion’s Picturing the Netherlandish Canon in 1991. The book really is essential reading for everyone seriously interested in this topic.” —Joanna Woodall, The Courtauld Institute of Art

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Book SynopsisIn 1950, Dana Lamb, an explorer of some notoriety, stumbled on a Maya ruin in the tropical forests of northern Guatemala. Lamb failed to record the location of the site he called Laxtunich, turning his find into the mystery at the center of this book. The lintels he discovered there, long since looted, are probably of a set with two others that are among the masterworks of Maya sculpture from the Classic period. Using fieldwork, physical evidence, and Lamb's expedition notes, the authors identify a small area with archaeological sites where the carvings were likely produced. Remarkably, the vividly colored lintels, replete with dynastic and cosmic information, can be assigned to a carver, Mayuy, who sculpted his name on two of them. To an extent nearly unique in ancient America, Mayuy can be studied over time as his style developed and his artistic ambition grew. An in-depth analysis of Laxtunich Lintel 1 examines how Mayuy grafted celestial, seasonal, and divine identities onto a local magnate and his overlord from the kingdom of Yaxchilan, Mexico. This volume contextualizes the lintels and points the way to their reprovenancing and, as an ultimate aim, repatriation to Guatemala.Trade Review"Cultural restitution-in the form of provenancing "orphaned" ancient monuments-is one of the most important endeavors in contemporary archaeology, art history, and epigraphy. In this book a group of leading scholars combine their considerable expertise to show how the meaning and context of a superb work of purloined art can be illuminated and restored."-Simon Martin, Penn Museum and the University of Pennsylvania ;; "A multifaceted and illuminating account of an enigmatic group of looted monuments, this text offers a unique portrait of an eighth-century Maya sculptor and his world. In addition to considering the artistic, political, and cosmological spheres into which the works intervened, it does not shy away from modern realities of looting and the art market, laying out a persuasive case for the origin of these sculptures that will aid in their eventual repatriation."- Claudia Brittenham, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Chicago;; “Houston and his coauthors have written a unique and compelling study of a Classic Maya sculptor, Mayuy. They combine formal, iconographic, epigraphic, and contextual evidence to produce a biography of sorts from four magnificent lintel sculptures done over an extended time period, highlighting the important emergence of self-identification by Maya artists.”—Thomas B.F. Cummins, Director and Professor of Pre-Columbian and Colonial Art, Dumbarton Oaks

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Book SynopsisWith insightful essays and interviews, this volume examines how artists have experimented with the medium of video across different regions of Latin America since the 1960s. The emergence of video art in Latin America is marked by multiple points of development, across more than a dozen artistic centers, over a period of more than twenty-five years. When it was first introduced during the 1960s, video was seen as empowering: the portability of early equipment and the possibility of instant playback allowed artists to challenge and at times subvert the mainstream media. Video art in Latin America was--and still is--closely related to the desire for social change. Themes related to gender, ethnic, and racial identity as well as the consequences of social inequality and ecological disasters have been fundamental to many artists' practices. This compendium explores the history and current state of artistic experimentation with video throughout Latin America. Departing from the relatively small body of existing scholarship in English, much of which focuses on individual countries, this volume approaches the topic thematically, positioning video artworks from different periods and regions throughout Latin America in dialogue with each other. Organized in four broad sections--Encounters, Networks and Archives, Memory and Crisis, and Indigenous Perspectives--the book's essays and interviews encourage readers to examine the medium of video across varied chronologies and geographies.Trade Review“Encounters in Video Art in Latin America has already emerged as one of the most notable publications on the historical and future paths of video in Latin America. Through essays and interviews permeated by rich images, we enter both broad contextualizations and specific case analyses. The book covers some crucial themes for video on our continent, from the importance of creating and safeguarding collections to examples of contemporary, innovative indigenous video production.”—Solange Farkas, Director and Curator, Associação Cultural Videobrasil

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Book SynopsisRene Magritte (1898-1967) is the most famous Belgian artist of the twentieth century and a celebrated representative of the Surrealist movement. Much has been written about his practices, artistic community, and significance within the history of modernism, but little has been documented regarding his process. Though he was reluctant to discuss his techniques and materials, practical concerns over media and cost shaped his output and legacy. This volume examines fifty oil paintings made by Magritte between 1921 and 1967, now held at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. This technical study of his works using noninvasive scientific imaging and chemical analysis reveals the artist's painting materials, his habit of overpainting previous compositions, and the origins and mechanisms of surface and pigment degradation. Of interest to conservators, scientists, curators, and enthusiasts of twentieth-century art, this book expands our understanding of Magritte the artist and provides new and useful findings that will inform strategies for the future care of his works.

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Book Synopsis"For over fifty years, Barbara T. Smith has been at the forefront of artistic movements in California. Her work across many mediums explores concepts that strike at the core of human nature, including sexuality, physical and spiritual sustenance, technology, and death. In this memoir, Smith weaves together descriptive accounts of her pioneering performances with an intimate narrative of her life. The Way to Be covers the years 1931 to 1981, up to the artist’s fiftieth birthday, resulting in an exhaustive catalogue of her early work. It reveals the personal stories and events behind her pieces and the challenges she faced in an art world dominated by sexism and machismo. Drawing on Smith’s archive at the Getty Research Institute, this enthralling book presents previously unpublished notes, documents, photographs, and firsthand accounts of her life and practice, as well as her more recent reflections on the past. The Way to Be demonstrates Smith’s lasting contributions to the field of contemporary art and provides an engaging commentary on a recent period of great cultural and political change. "

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Book SynopsisThe northern Italian artist Giacomo Ceruti (1698–1767) was born in Milan and active in Brescia and Bergamo. For his distinctive, large-scale paintings of low income tradespeople and individuals experiencing homelessness, whom he portrayed with dignity and sympathy, Ceruti came to be known as Il Pitocchetto (the little beggar). Accompanying the first US exhibition to focus solely on Ceruti, this publication explores relationships between art, patronage, and economic inequality in early modern Europe, considering why these paintings were commissioned and by whom, where such works were exhibited, and what they signified to contemporary audiences. Essays and a generous plate section contextualize and closely examine Ceruti’s pictures of laborers and the unhoused, whom he presented as protagonists with distinct stories rather than as generic types. Topics include depictions of marginalized subjects in the history of early modern European art, the career of the artist and his significance in the history of European painting, and the period discourses around poverty and social support. A detailed exhibition checklist, complete with provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography, provides information critical for the further understanding of Ceruti’s oeuvre.

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Book Synopsis"Landscape emerged as a significant theme in the Roman Late Republican and Early Imperial periods. Writers described landscape in texts and treatises, its qualities were praised and sought out in everyday life, and contemporary perceptions of the natural and built environment, as well as ideas about nature and art, were intertwined with architectural and decorative trends. This generously illustrated volume examines how representations of real and depicted landscapes, and the merging of both in visual space, contributed to the creation of novel languages of art and architecture. Drawing on a diverse body of archaeological, art historical, and literary evidence, this study applies a groundbreaking ecocritical lens that moves beyond the limits of traditional iconography. Chapters consider, for example, how garden designs and paintings appropriated the cultures and ecosystems brought under Roman control and the ways miniature landscape paintings chronicled the transformation of the Italian shoreline with colonnaded villas, pointing to the changing relationship of humans with nature. Making a timely and original contribution to current discourses on ecology and art and architectural history, Shaping Roman Landscape reveals how Roman ideas of landscape, and the decorative strategies at imperial domus> and villa complexes that gave these ideas shape, were richly embedded with meanings of nature, culture, and labor. " "A fresh and original perspective on Roman landscape painting and architecture, this book integrates these artistic forms into an ecocritical approach examining Roman attitudes toward landscape and nature more broadly. It confirms my belief that art and material culture truly come alive as essential sources for understanding the ancient world when studied within the complete tapestry of ancient life experience and thought. The book's exquisite presentation, complemented by a wealth of stunning images, adds an extra layer of enjoyment to the reading experience."-Barbara E. Borg, Professor of Classical Archeology, Scuola Normale Superiore "Combining a deep understanding of ancient architecture and visual culture with ecocritical approaches to environmental design, Shaping Roman Landscape offers a fresh and timely account of the relationship between landscape, representation, and empire in Roman Italy. Through astute and beautifully illustrated analysis, Mantha Zarmakoupi carefully navigates shifting tensions between the Roman elite's sensitivity to nature and climate, on one hand, and their urge to master and aestheticize both space and people and flora and fauna, on the other."-Verity Platt, Professor of Classics and History of Art, Cornell University “This is a bold and meticulously researched attempt to understand how the ancient Romans thought about landscape. It encompasses a wide range of evidence—all beautifully illustrated: from architectural plans of urban parks or country villas to framed panel paintings of rural sanctuaries or palatial residences. And it offers a novel and persuasive picture of the interrelationship of nature and the built environment—‘a way of seeing’—that is distinctively Roman.” —Chris Hallett, U.C. Berkeley, History of Art

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Book SynopsisMaria Magdalena Campos-Pons (b. 1959) makes powerful work that holds and beholds the stories of historically silenced peoples and urges societal change. Her journey as an artist, teacher, and activist has taken her from Cuba through the United States, and her autobiographical compositions honor her Nigerian and Chinese ancestors while also facing the future. With an artistic practice that crosses boundaries, intertwines media-from photography to sculpture, film to performance-and references traditions and beliefs ranging from feminism to Santeria Campos-Pons's work is deeply layered and complex. This volume, the first critical look at the artist's oeuvre in nearly two decades, surveys the concerns, materials, and places invoked throughout her forty-year career. Thoughtful essays explore her vibrant, arresting artwork, which confronts issues of agency and the construction of race and belonging and challenges us to reckon with these issues in our own lives.Table of ContentsForeword - Timothy Potts and Anne Pasternak Acknowledgments - Carmen Hermo Preface: The Calling - Carmen Hermo, Mazie M. Harris, and Jenee-Daria Strand Introduction: La Unica - Amalia Mesa-Bains Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold - Carmen Hermo Rooted in Cuba and Connected to the World - Selene Wendt "This, this, this, this, this": Photography in Pieces - Mazie M. Harris Marking and Mapping: The Video Art Practice of Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons - Phillip A. Townsend Follow FeFa - Jenee-Daria Strand Plates Plate List Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisA behind-the-scenes look at the only fashion show held at the White House and the intersections of fashion and politicsOn February 29, 1968, the White House hosted its first—and only—fashion show. At the time, the patriotic event was lauded by the press, and many predicted it would become an annual occasion, especially since fashion had grown to become the fourth largest industry in the United States, employing 1.4 million Americans, more than 80 percent of them women. But the social and political turmoil of that particular year—from the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy—cast a shadow over the festivities. Using eyewitness accounts as well as carefully preserved records, artifacts, and previously unpublished images, Red, White, and Blue on the Runway re-creates the once-in-a-lifetime event and explores the reasons why the first White House fashion show was destined to be the last. The politics of fashion touched everyone involved in this landmark occasion in American fashion history, from hostess Lady Bird Johnson and the Johnson daughters to the designers, including Bill Blass, Geoffrey Beene, Mollie Parnis, and Oscar de la Renta, as well as the models and guests. Those guests included the wives of governors and of President Johnson's Cabinet, in addition to dozens of fashion designers and prominent journalists who reported on the event. In our own turbulent political climate, Red, White, and Blue on the Runway takes us back to an equally tense time, providing a unique historical perspective on themes of fashion, politics, protest, and image-making that are immediately relevant today.Trade Review"First Lady Lady Bird Johnson knew the importance of fashion, and with her keen interest she made efforts to bring this conversation directly into the halls of the White House." —Jennifer Highfield, President and CEO of National First Ladies' Library "Lady Bird Johnson, a most pragmatic and sensible Texan, was disinclined to devote much time and effort to the pursuit of Megapolitan fashion 'froufrou.' Red, White, and Blue on the Runway traces the evolution of this First Lady into a supporter of the fashion industry and recounts with fascinating insider detail the unique American-themed fashion show at the White House in the tumultuous year of 1968." —Susan W. Greene, author of Wearable Prints, 1760–1860: History, Materials, and Mechanics

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Book SynopsisIn western culture, rock art has traditionally been viewed as ""primitive"" and properly belonging in the purview of anthropologists rather than art scholars and critics. This volume, featuring previously unpublished photographs of Utah's magnificent rock art by long-time rock art researcher Layne Miller and essays by former Utah state archaeologist Kevin Jones, views rock art through a different lens.Miller's photographs include many rare and relatively unknown panels and represent a lifetime of work by someone intimately familiar with the Colorado Plateau. The photos highlight the astonishing variety of rock art as well as the variability within traditions and time periods. Jones's essays furnish general information about previous Colorado Plateau cultures and shine a light on rock art as art. The book emphasizes the exqui­site artistry of these ancient works and their capacity to reach through the ages to envelop and inspire viewers.

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Book Synopsis

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