|
Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles
Charlie's introduction to his blog put it best: "A lifetime in
marketing actually equips a man for very little... Now pushing 58,
I realise with some horror that it is a full half century since I
last took cycling remotely seriously. If this trip does not go
well, I might leave it as long until my next attempt. In September
2012, seven friends of varying fitness and circumference,
accompanied by an elderly camper-wagon and driver, are cycling from
France to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain." Despite
being well past their prime they cycled up the equivalent of Mount
Everest plus a bit as they crossed the Pyrenees, the Montes de Oca,
the Montes de Leon, and the Cantabrian Mountains, in the process
expending over 20,000 calories each (according to Susie's iPhone
App), most of which were put back on each evening. They cycled in
the footsteps of 1,000 years of history, marveled at the art and
architecture accumulated over the centuries, and at times crashed
into it. They visited the sites of miracles and pondered their
meaning, and crossed the 200 meter bridge at Hospital de Orbigo
which in 1434 was the site of a month long jousting tournament.
They experienced the highs and lows of triumph and disaster, and
felt compelled to test the efficiency of the Spanish medical
system. Comment on the blog from Barnaby: "God, troops...it is epic
reading and I am on the edge of my seat as I follow your progress
on my map." The De-Caff Camino is in turn amusing, informative,
easy reading and irreverent, and yet is imbued throughout with the
greatest respect for the history and traditions of the Camino and
those who have written their names into its lore. Improbably
arriving at their destination after two weeks and 500 miles on the
road, the author offers some forthright advice to the Vatican on
how to enhance the experience for pilgrims at last achieving their
goal after so much exertion, self-sacrifice and denial. The De-Caff
Camino is an essential and most entertaining addition to the body
of knowledge of The Way of St James.
In this study 'Art, Poetry and WW1, by Edward Lucue-Smith of
writing, poetry and painting In the Centenary Year of the outbreak
of the First World War the author considers the historical impact
on the general psyche of the calamitous events, reflected in the
expression of poets and visual artists. The volume includes Eric
Kennington, CRW Nevinson, John Singer Sargent, William Orpen,
Stanley Spencer and Paul Nash; and writers Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac
Rosenberg, Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas and T.S. Eliot. In Europe
the painters: Otto Dix, Max Beckman, Franz Marc, Gino Severini,
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Ludwig Meidner. He establishes a continuity
to the theme with reference to works by Velazquez, Watteau, Goya
and others, in their treatment of the spectacle of battle and the
horrors of human conflict.
The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series,
previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth
Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes
since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of
Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the
Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth
century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political
theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are
published in English or French.
How to Read Modern Buildings is an indispensable pocket-sized guide
to understanding the architecture of the modern era. It takes the
reader on a guided tour of modern architecture through its most
iconic and significant buildings, showing how to read the hallmarks
of each architectural style and how to recognise them in the
buildings all around. From Art Deco and Arts and Crafts, through
the International Style and Modernism to today's environmental
architecture and the rise and fall of the icon, all the major
architectural movements from the 1900s to the present day are
traced through their classic buildings. Examining the key
architectural elements and hidden details of each style, we learn
what to look out for and where to look for it. Packed with detailed
drawings, plans, and photographs, this is both a fascinating
architectural history and an effective I-spy guide, it is a
must-read for anyone with an interest in modern design and
architecture.
Unlike anything currently available, A Critical Companion to Tim
Burton is a comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of all the works of
one of the world's most renowned directors and artists. Written by
some of the top scholars working in fields as diverse as
philosophy, film and media studies, and literature, all chapters of
this book illuminate for both scholars and fans alike the entire
artistic career of Burton, giving attention to both his early works
and his global blockbusters.
Memory Landscapes of the Inka Carved Outcrops: From Past to Present
presents a comprehensive analysis of the carved rocks the Inka
created in the Andean highlands during the fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries. It provides an overview of Inka history, a
detailed analysis of the techniques and styles of carving, and five
comprehensive case studies. It opens in the Inka capital, Cusco,
one of the two locations where the geometric style of Inka carving
was authored by the ninth ruler Pachakuti Inka Yupanki. The
following chapters move to the origin places on the Island of the
Sun in Lake Titicaca and at Pumaurqu, southwest of Cusco, where the
Inka constructed the emergence of the first members of their
dynasty from sacred rock outcrops. The final case studies focus
upon the royal estates of Machu Picchu and Chinchero. Machu Picchu
is the second site where Pachakuti appears to have authored the
geometric style. Chinchero was built by his son, Thupa Inka
Yupanki, who adopted his father's strategy of rock carving and
associated political messages. The methodology used in this book
reconstructs relational networks between the sculpted outcrops, the
land and people and examines how such networks have changed over
time. The primary focus documents the specific political context of
Inka carved rocks expanded into the performance of a stone
ideology, which set Inka stone cults decidedly apart from earlier
and later agricultural as well as ritual uses of empowered stones.
When the Inka state formed in the mid-fifteenth century, carved
rocks were used to mark local territories in and around Cusco. In
the process of imperial expansion, selected outcrops were sculpted
in peripheral regions to map Inka presence and showcase the
cultivated and ordered geography of the state.
This volume wades into the fertile waters of Augustan Rome and the
interrelationship of its literature, monuments, and urban
landscape. It focused on a pair of questions: how can we
productively probe the myriad points of contact between textual and
material evidence to write viable cultural histories of the ancient
Greek and Roman worlds, and what are the limits of these kinds of
analysis? The studies gathered here range from monumental absences
to monumental texts, from canonical Roman authors such as Cicero,
Livy, and Ovid to iconic Roman monuments such as the Rostra,
Pantheon, and Solar Meridian of Augustus. Each chapter examines
what the texts in, on, and about the city tell us about how the
ancients thought about, interacted with, and responded to their
urban-monumental landscape. The result is a volume whose
methodological and heuristic techniques will be compelling and
useful for all scholars of the ancient Mediterranean world.
|
|