Losing Your Head: Abjection, Aesthetic Conflict, and Psychoanalytic Criticism looks at the subject of beheading in art as a trope of the destruction of the mind. This book discusses both psychoanalytic theory and art criticism. It addresses critics, readers, and spectators interested in the keys of interpretation that psychoanalysis can offer, and analysts who are curious to know if artists can help them refine the tools they use every day. It asks whether artists have something to say about the concepts of reverie and negative reverie or about change as aesthetic transformation, and about aesthetic experience as a paradigm of what is most true and most profound in analysis. Why write about beheading? Many art galleries feature paintings of heroines performing this cruel act: Delilah, Salome, Judith, Yael, and others. At the antithesis to this, there is another theme to be found in painting that consistently garners attention: namely, the so-called "Sacred Conversation," in which the Madonna holds a small child in her lap and their gazes cross. The first scene depicts how a mind is destroyed, the second how it is born. Losing Your Head analyzes well-known artwork from classical literature, cinema, and contemporary art to enhance psychoanalytic understanding.

'We live within a spectacle of empty clothes and unworn masks' In this series of remarkable pieces from across his career, John Berger celebrates and dissects the close links between art and society and the individual. Few writers give a more vivid and moving sense of how we make art and how art makes us. One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.

This is a richly-illustrated study of 'The Oracles of the Three Shrines', the name given to a hanging scroll depicting three important Japanese shrine-deities and their respective oracle texts. The scroll has evolved continuously in Japan for 600 years, so different examples of it offer a series of 'windows' on developments in Japanese religious belief and practice.

The "Song" series of artbooks have covered the sky and the earth - it was only a matter of time before we explored the seas for some inspiration! Mermaid Song Volume One contains an exquisite collection of portraits that celebrate the fabled water-breathers in all their sea-foam sexiness! Any fisherman would gladly crash his boat on the reef for a peek at these aquatic creations, as seen by artists like Arantza, Fastner & Larson, Bruce Colero, Pelaez, James Hottinger, David Dunstan, Malachi Maloney, and many more. Follow the call of these sirens -- their song is the sweetest yet!

Thomas Bewick wrote A History of British Birds at the end of the eighteenth century, just as Britain fell in love with nature. This was one of the wildlife books that marked the moment, the first 'field-guide' for ordinary people, illustrated by woodcuts of astonishing accuracy and beauty. But it was far more than that, for in the vivid vignettes scattered through the book Bewick drew the life of the country people of the North East - a world already vanishing under the threat of enclosures. In Nature's Engraver: The life of Thomas Bewick, Jenny Uglow tells the story of the farmer's son from Tyneside who revolutionised wood-engraving and influenced book illustration for a century to come. It is a story of violent change, radical politics, lost ways of life and the beauty of the wild - a journey to the beginning of our lasting obsession with the natural world. Nature's Engraver won the National Arts Writers Award in 2007. Jenny Uglow is the author of, among others, A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration, which was shortlisted for the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize, Lunar Men and In These Times. 'The most perfect historian imaginable' Peter Ackroyd

Why did the male nude come to occupy such an important place in ancient Greek culture? Despite extended debate, the answer to this question remains obscure. In this book, Sarah Murray demonstrates that evidence from the Early Iron Age Aegean has much to add to the discussion. Her research shows that aesthetics and practices involving male nudity in the Aegean had a complicated origin in prehistory. Murray offers a close analysis of the earliest male nudes from the late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, which mostly take the form of small bronze votive figurines deposited in rural sanctuaries. Datable to the end of the second millennium BCE, these figurines, she argues, enlighten the ritual and material contexts in which nude athletics originated, complicating the rationalizing accounts present in the earliest textual evidence for such practices. Murray's book breaks new ground by reconstructing a scenario for the ritual and ideological origins of nudity in Greek art and culture.

The Book of the Tree is a celebration of trees in art featuring works by some of the world's leading artists, photographers and illustrators.

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way." William Blake

From stately old oaks to beautiful forests and woods, trees have provided a source of inspiration for artists throughout history.

This charming gift book presents a selection of some of the most beautiful artworks inspired by trees. Interspersed throughout the illustrations are short texts about the artists and their interest in particular trees, from Egon Shiele's delicate watercolours of chestnut trees, to Rousseau's exotic forests, Claire Cansick's vivid woodlands and Hockney's tree-lined groves.

The Book of the Tree presents a wonderful collection of arboreal art that revels in the enduring beauty of our trees, woodlands and forests. It is the perfect gift for art-lovers, tree-lovers and nature-lovers.

Notwithstanding the wealth of material published about St Clare of Assisi (1193-1253) in the context of medieval scholarship, and the wealth of visual material regarding her, there is a dearth of published scholarship concerning her cult in the early modern period. This work examines the representations of St Clare in the Italian visual tradition from the thirteenth century on, but especially between the fifteenth and the mid-seventeenth centuries, in the context of mendicant activity. Through an examination of such diverse visual images as prints, drawings, panels, sculptures, minor arts, and frescoes in relation to sermons of Franciscan preachers, starting in the thirteenth century but focusing primarily on the later tradition of early modernity, the book highlights the cult of women saints and its role in the reform movements of the Osservanza and the Catholic Reformation and in the face of Muslim-Christian encounter of the early modern era. Debby's analyses of the preaching of the times and iconographic examination of neglected artistic sources makes the book a significant contribution to research in art history, sermon studies, gender studies, and theology.

'Take a view', the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition, is the brainchild of Charlie Waite, one of today's most respected landscape photographers. Together with AA Publishing, he created this prestigious competition and award with a total prize fund exceeding GBP20,000, plus an eight-week exhibition at the National Theatre. Britain's heritage is celebrated by people around the world and entries are welcome from everyone, whether resident in the UK or simply visiting, as long as the image is from the British Isles. This book showcases the best pictures from amateur and professional photographers alike, from the sixth annual competition. Following the recent announcement by Take A View that that the winner of the Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards 2012, David Byrne, has been disqualified, a decision based on the extent of the digital manipulation techniques used in his entry, AA Publishing would like to reassure readers of their commitment to responsible and quality publishing. The book: Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 6, which contains the winning entries from the 2012 awards, was published by AA Publishing on October 31st in the best of faith. Prepared by the publishers long before the winners were announced to the public, the book is produced to the highest quality standards. Due to the book being printed and distributed before the decision to change the overall winner was made by the judges, the current version of the hardback book on sale contains the former winning image by David Byrne, while the newly announced winning image by Simon Butterfield appears on page 127. The next print run of the hardback copy of Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 6 will include Simon Butterfield's image at the start of the book, replacing David Byrne's disqualified image. The eBook version of the book has already been corrected to include the new winning image. AA Publishing have posted information on both Amazon and on the AA Publishing website to inform buyers of the changes to this year's awards that has affected the content of the book as well as alerting the companies who handle the distribution of the books.

For Kurt Jackson (b.1961), 'Painting the sea could become an obsession, an entire oeuvre in its own right, an endless life absorbing task.' And, as this book attests, Jackson's dedication to capturing its constant shape shifting - stillness to thundering force, shallows to mysterious depths - have brought forth paintings that communicate the sea's ebb and flow, its magic and elusiveness. Kurt Jackson's Sea captures the beauty of the artist's constantly evolving relationship with one of nature's most challenging subjects. Two hundred colour images complement Jackson's reflections on his interactions with inspirational coastal landscapes - largely experienced in his native Cornwall, but stretching way beyond the county too.

Chinese Religious Art is a broad survey of the origins and development of the various forms of artistic expression of Chinese religions. The study begins with an overview of ancient archaeology in order to identify nascent religious ideologies in various Neolithic Cultures and early Chinese historical eras including the Shang dynasty (1300-1050 BCE) and Zhou Dynasty(1000-221 BCE) up until the era of the First Emperor (221-210 BCE) Part Two treats Confucianism as a religious tradition examining its scriptures, images, temples and rituals. Adopted as the state ideology in the Han dynasty, Confucian ideas permeated society for over two thousand years. Filial piety, ethical behavior and other principles shaped the pictorial arts. Part Three considers the various schools of Daoist belief and their expression in art. The ideas of a utopian society and the pursuit of immortality characterize this religion from its earliest phase. Daoism has an elaborate pantheon and ritualistic art, as well as a secular tradition best expressed in monochrome ink painting. Part Four covers the development of Buddhist art beginning with its entry into China in the second century. Its monuments comprised largely of cave temples carved high in the mountains along the frontiers of China and large metropolitan temples provide evidence of its evolution including the adoption of savior cults of the Buddha of the Western Paradise, the Buddha of the Future, the rise of Ch an (Zen) and esoteric Buddhism. In their development, these various religious traditions interacted, sharing art, architecture, iconography and rituals. By the twelfth century a stage of syncretism merged all three traditions into a popular religion. All the religions are reviving after their extirpation during the Cultural Revolution. Using historical records and artistic evidence, much of which has not been published, this study examines their individual and shared manner of worshipping the divine forces."

The Religious Art of China is a broad survey of the origins and development of the various forms of artistic expression of Chinese religions. The study begins with an overview of ancient archaeology in order to identify nascent religious ideologies in various Neolithic Cultures and early Chinese historical eras including the Shang dynasty (1300-1050 BCE) and Zhou Dynasty(1000-221 BCE) up until the era of the First Emperor (221-210 BCE) Part Two treats Confucianism as a religious tradition examining its scriptures, images, temples and rituals. Adopted as the state ideology in the Han dynasty, Confucian ideas permeated society for over two thousand years. Filial piety, ethical behavior and other principles shaped the pictorial arts. Part Three considers the various schools of Daoist belief and their expression in art. The ideas of a utopian society and the pursuit of immortality characterize this religion from its earliest phase. Daoism has an elaborate pantheon and ritualistic art, as well as a secular tradition best expressed in monochrome ink painting. Part Four covers the development of Buddhist art beginning with its entry into China in the second century. Its monuments comprised largely of cave temples carved high in the mountains along the frontiers of China and large metropolitan temples provide evidence of its evolution including the adoption of savior cults of the Buddha of the Western Paradise, the Buddha of the Future, the rise of Ch an (Zen) and esoteric Buddhism. In their development, these various religious traditions interacted, sharing art, architecture, iconography and rituals. By the twelfth century a stage of syncretism merged all three traditions into a popular religion. All the religions are reviving after their extirpation during the Cultural Revolution. Using historical records and artistic evidence, much of which has not been published, this study examines their individual and shared manner of worshipping the divine forces.

Featuring the delightful and informative illustrations of artist Oana Befort and the inspiring expertise of conservation educator Maggie Reinbold, Drawing Wild Animals guides artists at all skill levels as they learn to draw-and learn about-a diverse array of mammals, amphibians, and reptiles from around the world. To feed your curiosity, you'll learn the characteristics, behaviors, and habitats of animals from categories like predators, burrowers, grazers, marsupials, frogs and toads, and lizards and snakes. To nurture the artist, you'll get more than 25 step-by-step instructions that show how to develop each animal from simple shapes into richly detailed drawings. Armed with a deeper understanding of animals, you'll be better able to capture their stunning beauty and enchanting attributes in your artwork. Some of the intriguing animals you'll encounter: Bengal tiger Yellow mongoose African bush elephant European hedgehog Black flying fox Ring-tailed lemur Blue poison frog Gold dust day gecko Russian tortoise With Drawing Wild Animals, you'll learn to see-and draw-animals in a whole new light!

Art, Religion, Amnesia addresses the relationship between art and religion in contemporary culture, directly challenging contemporary notions of art and religion as distinct social phenomena and explaining how such Western terms represent alternative and even antithetical modes of world-making. In this new book, Professor Preziosi offers a critique of the main thrust of writing in recent years on the subjects of art, religion, and their interconnections, outlining in detail a perspective which redefines the basic terms in which recent debates and discussions have been articulated both in the scholarly and popular literature, and in artistic, political and religious practice. Art, Religion and Amnesia proposes an alternative to the two conventional traditions of writing on the subject which have been devoted on the one hand to the 'spiritual' dimensions of artistry, and on the other hand to the (equally spurious) 'aesthetic' aspects of religion. The book interrogates the fundamental assumptions fuelling many current controversies over representation, idolatry, blasphemy, and political culture. Drawing on debates from Plato's proposal to banish representational art from his ideal city-state to the Danish cartoons of Mohamed, Preziosi argues that recent debates have echoed a number of very ancient controversies in political philosophy, theology, and art history over the problem of representation and its functions in individual and social life. This book is a unique re-evaluation of the essential indeterminacy of meaning-making, marking a radically new approach to understanding the inextricability of aesthetics and theology and will be of interest to students and researchers in art history, philosophy and religion and cultural theory.

Examining innovations in Mary Magdalene imagery in northern art 1430 to 1550, Penny Jolly explores how the saint's widespread popularity drew upon her ability to embody oppositions and embrace a range of paradoxical roles: sinner-prostitute and saint, erotic seductress and holy prophet. Analyzing paintings by Rogier van der Weyden, Quentin Massys, and others, Jolly investigates artists' and audiences' responses to increasing religious tensions, expanding art markets, and changing roles for women. Using cultural ideas concerning the gendered and pregnant body, Jolly reveals how dress confirms the Magdalene's multivalent nature. In some paintings, her gown's opening laces betray her wantonness yet simultaneously mark her as Christ's spiritually pregnant Bride; elsewhere 'undress' reconfirms her erotic nature while paradoxically marking her penitence; in still other works, exotic finery expresses her sanctity while celebrating Antwerp's textile industry. New image types arise, as when the saint appears as a lovesick musician playing a lute or as a melancholic contemplative, longing for Christ. Some depictions emphasize her intercessory role through innovative pictorial strategies that invite performative viewing or relate her to the mythological Pandora and Italian Renaissance Neoplatonism. Throughout, the Magdalene's ambiguities destabilize readings of her imagery while engaging audiences across a broad social and religious spectrum.

This book examines how African-American writers and visual artists interweave icon and inscription in order to re-present the black female body, traditionally rendered alien and inarticulate within Western discursive and visual systems. Brown considers how the writings of Toni Morrison, Gayl Jones, Paule Marshall, Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid, Andrea Lee, Gloria Naylor, and Martha Southgate are bound to such contemporary, postmodern visual artists as Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, Kara Walker, Betye Saar, and Faith Ringgold. While the artists and authors rely on radically different media-photos, collage, video, and assembled objects, as opposed to words and rhythm-both sets of intellectual activists insist on the primacy of the black aesthetic. Both assert artistic agency and cultural continuity in the face of the oppression, social transformation, and cultural multiplicity of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This book examines how African-American performative practices mediate the tension between the ostensibly de-racialized body politic and the hyper-racialized black, female body, reimagining the cultural and political ground that guides various articulations of American national belonging. Brown shows how and why black women writers and artists matter as agents of change, how and why the form and content of their works must be recognized and reconsidered in the increasingly frenzied arena of cultural production and political debate.

Barbarian babes brandishing blades Always a fun topic of discussion, but in the talented hands of painter Jose del Nido, that topic transcends mere eye candy and inspires actual shock and awe These are truly stunning portraits that celebrate the terrifying beauty of fighting females Sharpened steel never looked this good

The central contention of Christian faith is that in the incarnation the eternal Word or Logos of God himself has taken flesh, so becoming for us the image of the invisible God. Our humanity itself is lived out in a constant to-ing and fro-ing between materiality and immateriality. Imagination, language and literature each have a vital part to play in brokering this hypostatic union of matter and meaning within the human creature. Approaching different aspects of two distinct movements between the image and the word, in the incarnation and in the dynamics of human existence itself, Trevor Hart presents a clearer understanding of each and explores the juxtapositions with the other. Hart concludes that within the Trinitarian economy of creation and redemption these two occasions of 'flesh-taking' are inseparable and indivisible.

The central contention of Christian faith is that in the incarnation the eternal Word or Logos of God himself has taken flesh, so becoming for us the image of the invisible God. Our humanity itself is lived out in a constant to-ing and fro-ing between materiality and immateriality. Imagination, language and literature each have a vital part to play in brokering this hypostatic union of matter and meaning within the human creature. Approaching different aspects of two distinct movements between the image and the word, in the incarnation and in the dynamics of human existence itself, Trevor Hart presents a clearer understanding of each and explores the juxtapositions with the other. Hart concludes that within the Trinitarian economy of creation and redemption these two occasions of 'flesh-taking' are inseparable and indivisible.

The premise of this volume is that the ubiquity of lactation imagery in early modern visual culture and the discourse on breastfeeding in humanist, religious, medical, and literary writings is a distinct cultural phenomenon that deserves systematic study. Chapters by art historians, social and legal historians, historians of science, and literary scholars explore some of the ambiguities and contradictions surrounding the issue, and point to the need for further study, in particular in the realm of lactation imagery in the visual arts. This volume builds on existing scholarship on representations of the breast, the iconography of the Madonna Lactans, allegories of abundance, nature, and charity, women mystics' food-centered practices of devotion, the ubiquitous practice of wet-nursing, and medical theories of conception. It is informed by studies on queer kinship in early modern Europe, notions of sacred eroticism in pre-tridentine Catholicism, feminist investigations of breastfeeding as a sexual practice, and by anthropological and historical scholarship on milk exchange and ritual kinship in ancient Mediterranean and medieval Islamic societies. Proposing a variety of different methods and analytical frameworks within which to consider instances of lactation imagery, breastfeeding practices, and their textual references, this volume also offers tools to support further research on the topic.

Introduces readers to a more advanced level in icon development, exploring more complex imagery and skills Step-by-step instructions for painting icons, from original drawings through finished product Includes eight full-color plates of the author's original icons This is the sequel to the authors previous work, A Brush with God, for advanced beginners, intermediate, and advanced iconographers. It presents greater detail and instructions for creating entirely new icons. One major feature of the new book is the full-page sketches that artists can photocopy and use as the basis of their own icons, providing a unique and much-requested resource. Chapters and topics include: Introduction and contemporary reflections on iconography, spirituality, and technique. Highlighting folds on full-length figures, including black and white renderings of draped legs, arms, and torsos. Architectural and landscape renderings in Byzantine iconography, including background shadow and highlighting techniques, plus inverse perspective. Festal icons, involving multiple figures, landscapes, architecture, furniture, vegetation, and animals. Construction of heads, figures, and analysis of whole compositions, sacred geometry and proportion.

A beautifully designed organiser to keep all your information for contacts, co-workers, family and friends in one place. This stylish and elegantly designed address book has plenty of space to record names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses for everyone you need to stay in touch with. With colour-coded alphabetical sections, a silk ribbon marker and beautiful floral images throughout from the world-famous RHS Lindley Library, this decorative address book makes the perfect gift!

The Wisdom and Power of the Cross is the fifth and final entry in Richard Viladesau's well-regarded series on the theology of the cross, from the historical crucifixion of Jesus to the present day. Continuing his analysis of theological history through cultural contexts, this volume correlates theoretical approaches with artistic representations, showing the relation of theoretical to imaginative approaches. The Wisdom and Power of the Cross examines modern and contemporary thought and images, which look at the cross in the light of modern historical and scriptural studies, science, and the novelties of modern and post-modern art and music. Viladesau here considers how the passion of Christ has been thought about by theologians and portrayed by artists in the modern world. Contemporary art and music reveal the lasting power of traditional images of the passion, as well as new possibilities for expression. The Wisdom and Power of the Cross surveys both traditional approaches to soteriology and revisionist theologies that take up the challenge of the meaning of the cross today, in light of critical historical studies and modern science, providing new understandings of traditional concepts like "original sin" and "redemption". Through his in-depth exploration of the interweaving of aesthetic and conceptual theology, Viladesau once more deepens our understanding of the foremost symbol of Christianity and its role in salvation history.