History of Art

This book undertakes a critical survey of art history across Europe, examining the recent conceptual and methodological concerns informing the discipline as well as the political, social and ideological factors that have shaped its development in specific national contexts.

What do we mean when we call a work of art `beautiful`? How have artists responded to changing notions of the beautiful? Which works of art have been called beautiful, and why? Fundamental and intriguing questions to artists and art lovers, but ones that are all too often ignored in discussions of art today. Prettejohn argues that we simply cannot afford to ignore these questions. Charting over two hundred years of western art, she illuminates the vital relationshipbetween our changing notions of beauty and specific works of art, from the works of Kauffman to Whistler, Ingres to Rossetti, Cézanne to Jackson Pollock, and concludes with a challenging question for the future: why should we care about beauty in the twenty-first century?

For more than a millennium, from its creation in 330 CE until its fall in 1453, the Byzantine Empire was a cradle of artistic effervescence that is only beginning to be rediscovered. Endowed with the rich heritage of Roman, Eastern, and Christian cultures, Byzantine artists developed an architectural and pictorial tradition, marked by symbolism, whose influence extended far beyond the borders of the Empire. Today, Italy, North Africa, and the Near East preserve the vestiges of this sophisticated artistic tradition, with all of its mystical and luminous beauty. The magnificence of the palaces, churches, paintings, enamels, ceramics, and mosaics from this civilisation guarantees Byzantine art's powerful influence and timelessness.

The Benezit Dictionary of Artists, published since 1911, is a landmark reference work in Art History, a magnificent 14 volume biographical dictionary of painters, sculptors, draftsmen, and engravers from around the world and across history. With entries on over 175,000 artists, the Benezit is one of the most comprehensive and definitive resources on artists. Unique features include the dictionary's coverage of obscure artists and the inclusion of images of artists' signatures, monograms, and stamps. Entries are clear and concise, andoften contain auction records, museum holdings, and bibliographies. Valued for both its wide coverage of lesser-known artists and its deep coverage of artists occupying the core pantheon of art, the Benezit is an essential resource for scholars, librarians, museum curators, art dealers, andcollectors.

A topically classified chronology of more than 30,000 artworks from circa 1300 to the 1990s that take as their theme the subjects of Greek and Roman mythology.