Kirjahaku

This Fourth Edition is an introduction to the world's major civilizations-to their artistic achievements, their history, and their cultures. Through an integrated approach to the humanities, Arts and Culture offers an opportunity to view works of art, read literature, and listen to music in historical and cultural contexts. In studying the humanities, we focus our attention on works of art, literature, and music that reflect and embody the central values and beliefs of particular cultures and specific historical moments. KEY TOPICS: Expanded coverage from humanities around the globe includes the addition of many non-western and minority works of art and music. This edition also includes various discussions that help create a better balance among the arts and humanities, improving the historical contexts. MARKET: For anyone with an interest in the humanities.

A comprehensive and informed analysis explores the startlingly diverse and sophisticated fine arts in the Middle Ages. Materials, Methods, and Masterpieces of Medieval Art provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the work done by artists in western Europe during the Middle Ages. Art historian Janetta Rebold Benton uses examples such as the Book of Kells, Bury Saint Edmunds Cross, and the Bayeux Tapestry, and the work of artists such as Jan van Eyck and Giotto to explore the various media available to medieval artists and the ways in which those media were used to create a stunning array of masterworks. Although the visual arts of the Middle Ages were extremely colorful, today much of that color has diminished or disappeared, the pigments and threads faded, the gold abraded, the silver tarnished. Materials, Methods, and Masterpieces of Medieval Art allows these works to sparkle once more.

In spite of all the changes in our values and beliefs, the art of the Middle Ages still speaks to us across the centuries. Not only do the great cathedrals remain, many with their spectacular decorations and stained glass, but also a rich treasure trove of paintings, manuscript illuminations, tapestries, sculpture and jewelry. This study encompasses the whole period from Early Christian to late Gothic, the whole of Europe from Ireland to Byzantium, and the whole range of art and architecture. The connections between art and society are particularly stressed, as are the ways in which artistic techniques – such as those used in metalwork and textiles – determined what was produced. Comprehensive and accessible, as well as lavishly illustrated, this is the ideal introduction to a subject that is both visually exciting and profoundly significant to Western culture.

The visual arts enrich our lives in many ways: bringing innovative ideas and the pleasures of beauty and emotion, but they can also confound. How To Understand Art sets out to enhance the viewer’s experience by breaking down the elements of art and sculpture to provide a firm basis for simple enjoyment as well as further investigation. With 100 visual examples drawn from across the globe, the stress is on how to assess art objectively – a key skill for any art student, museum visitor or cultural enthusiast. Janetta Rebold Benton guides the reader to re-evaluate their experiences of looking at art by learning to move beyond ‘I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like,’ and shift towards an understanding of ‘why I like it’. Materials and techniques are discussed – drawing, painting, printing, photography, sculpture and decorative art – making it possible to assess what can (and cannot) be done in certain media. The book also features a section devoted to six key artists who have had a particularly notable and innovative influence on the history of art: Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt van Rijn, Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. Perfectly aimed at students and the general reader, this indispensable guide to the subject is well-placed to encourage questions and discussion, especially in the light of current debates surrounding class, ethnicity, gender and race.With 111 illustrations in colour

A concise, reader-friendly illustrated survey of western art and architecture from prehistory to the present day. Acknowledging how architecture, painting, sculpture and the decorative arts reflect the culture and society of their time, this latest addition to the Art Essentials series invites the reader to experience and appreciate the entirety of Western art from prehistory to today. Focusing on the ‘history’ in art history, each of the twelve chapters opens with a question to ponder, followed by a summary of the major historical developments of the period, touching on social structure, political organization, migration, race, religious beliefs, scientific advances and customs. An exploration of these themes in the visual arts reveals how architecture, sculpture and painting simultaneously shape, reflect, and document the culture of the time and place they were created. A secondary focus explores the constantly evolving aesthetic preferences that swing between naturalism and abstraction, with each era and style either rebelling against the previous or seeking to improve it. Antecedents and outside influences are also discussed.

The art and architecture of the Middle Ages teem with humour. From the painting of a poacher roasted over a spit by a rabbit to an image of angels and devils weighing souls and both cheating, the author shows some of the most delightful examples of medieval visual humour.