FAH216 Art in the Age of Spectacle: Iconology/Symbolism

The understanding and enjoyment of a work of art depends as much on the story it depicts as on the artist’s execution of it. But what were once biblical or classical commonplaces are not so readily recognizable today. This book relates in a succinct and readable way the themes, sacred and secular, on which the repertoire of Western art is based. Combined here in a single volume are religious, classical, and historical themes, figures of moral allegory, and characters from romantic poetry that appeared throughout paintings and sculpture in Western art before and after the Renaissance. More than just a dictionary, this text places these subjects in their narrative, historical, or mythological context and uses extensive cross-referencing to enhance and clarify the meanings of these themes for the reader.
The definitive work by which others are compared, this volume has become an indispensable handbook for students and general appreciators alike. This wholly redesigned second edition includes a new insert of images chosen by the author, as well as a new preface and index to highlight the ideas, beliefs, and social and religious customs that form the background of much of this subject matter.

Many art reference sources identify works of art by title, artist, or medium. Identification on the basis of theme or subject has always been more problematic. It is also an approach that many students, teachers, and other library users interested in art wish to pursue. Reference sources taking this approach tend to be narrow in focus, such as those on religious iconography or depictions of saints. Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography (ECI) expands the scope of the thematic guide to art to include mythological, biblical, and literary themes that have been represented in art of all periods and media. ECI includes 119 signed, alphabetically arranged essays on actions (harvesting, kiss/kissing), situations (upside down, widowhood), and concepts (whiteness, calumny). Each essay is divided into sections on motifs and iconographic narratives that constitute subdivisions of the essay. The essay addresses narratives that are the sources of the images, historical background, symbolism, variations in presentation, and how the theme evolved over time. Each section includes references to works of art depicting the theme. These are also listed by section and then in chronological order in a list of Selected Works of Art at the end of the essay. These references include artist, title, medium, date, and location (if known). Each essay includes one full-page black-and-white photograph illustrating a representative work of art. A list of further reading includes books and periodical articles. Includes seven indexes to terms discussed in the entries as well as a bibliography of approximately 300 reference books. This comprehensive, two-volume work still sets the standard for Christian iconography with, for example, more than 80 pages and numerous reproductions devoted to the Crucifixion, as opposed to seven pages and one reproduction in ECI. The broad thematic arrangement and comparative analysis of classical and contemporary, as well as Christian themes, make ECI a complementary resource to Schiller. There is also no doubt that ECI is thorough, scholarly, and effectively arranged with its numerous access points. Its lists of selected works of art for each theme are especially valuable, as this feature is not offered in some sources. The extent of its usefulness will depend on whether the desired subject is among the 119 themes included. The encyclopedia will be less useful to those trying to find artwork depicting literal subjects such as snakes or teapots--and any art librarian can tell you that there are requests like this--than for those seeking conceptual discussions of broad themes. These users will find ECI a treasure (discussed under abundance and luxury).

Designed as a comprehensive supplement to Janson's History of Art, Sixth Edition, Hartt's Art, Fourth Edition, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Eleventh Edition, and Stokstad's Art History (Revised) — but also appropriate as a stand-alone brief reference volume — this handbook defines the most common terms used in discussing the history of visual arts, relating them to specific works illustrated in these standard volumes. Topics covered include art terms, processes, and principles, gods, heroes, and monsters, Christian subjects, saints and their attributes, Christian signs and symbols, chronology of painters, photographers, sculptors, and architects, as well as maps, and a directory of museum websites. For art and art history enthusiasts.

This is a book about the things people say about images. It is not primarily concerned with specific pictures and the things people say about them, but rather with the way we talk about the idea of imagery, and all its related notions of picturing, imagining, perceiving, likening, and imitating. It is a book about images, therefore, that has no illustrations except for a few schematic diagrams, a book about vision written as if by a blind author for a blind reader. If it contains any insight into real, material pictures, it is the sort that might come to a blind listener, overhearing the conversation the sighted speakers talking about images.

The Judeo-Christian tradition has had a profound impact on Western civilization and in particular on Western art. From the flying buttresses and soaring vaults of the Gothic cathedral, to Michelangelo's powerfully rendered frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, to the great bronze baptistery doors in Florence, to Marc Chagall's majestic tapestries for the Knesset in Jerusalem, biblical stories and Christian themes form an integral part in our artistic heritage. But today, a lack of knowledge of the Bible and of Christian doctrine, as well as of church history and of ritual, frequently prevents us from understanding--and appreciating--much of the greatest art that has ever been created. Exquisitely designed and lavishly illustrated--with over 200 pictures, including 16 color plates--The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture offers a goldmine of information on the Judeo-Christian tradition as it applies to Western art. Here are over 1700 alphabetical entries that cover everything from Adam and Eve and the Good Samaritan, to Illuminated Books and Rose Windows, to the great popes and emperors who patronized the arts, to the major artists whose work reflects Judeo-Christian themes. Indeed, readers will find entries on virtually every aspect of the topic: detailed essays on periods and styles in art and architecture, from the Byzantine and the Coptic, to the Gothic, the Romanesque, and the Renaissance; biographical entries on major artists (Giotto, Fra Angelico, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Rubens, and many more), on saints, popes, and patrons (including Saints Peter, Paul, Jerome, and Sebastian, Popes Urban VIII and Clement VII, and Emperors Charlemagne and Constantine) and on major biblical figures (such as Moses and Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Salome and Bathsheba); and briefer entries on icons and symbols (rainbow, dove, the Wheel of Fortune); on art forms influenced by Christian ideas (stained glass, mosaics, frescoes, altarpieces, and rose windows); and on general beliefs (the liturgical year, colors, vessels, Holy Week, and much more). And throughout the book, the Murrays continually interconnect the religious and the artistic.

First published in 1954 and having gone through several editions, this comprehensive book remains the authoritative source in the study of symbols in Christian art. This paperback edition includes all of the three hundred fifty illustrations from the original edition, as well as the complete and unabridged text, revealing . the symbolism inherent in representations of religious personages, the Earth and Sky, animals, birds, insects, and flowers. In addition to a discussion of objects treated symbolically in Christian art, George Ferguson explores Old Testament characters and events and their symbolic representation in art. In addition to a discussion of objects treated symbolically in Christian art, George Ferguson explores Old Testament characters and events and their symbolic representation in art.

From antiquity, when the gods and goddesses were commonly featured in works of art, through the twentieth century, when Surrealists drew on archetypes from the unconscious, artists have embedded symbols in their works. The goal of this book is to provide contemporary readers and museum visitors with the tools to read the hidden meanings in works of art. This volume is thematically divided into four sections featuring symbols related to time, man, space (earth and sky), and allegories or moral lessons. Readers will learn, for instance, that night, the primordial mother of the cosmos, was often portrayed in ancient art as a woman wrapped in a black veil, whereas day or noon was often represented in Renaissance art as a strong, virile man, evoking the full manifestation of the sun's energy. Each entry in the book contains a main reference image in which details of the symbol or allegory being analyzed are called out for discussion. In the margin, for quick access by the reader, is a summary of the essential characteristics of the symbol in question, the derivation of its name, and the religious tradition from which it springs.

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