This is the first study in any language to trace the emergence of the art historical interest in icon painting in the nineteenth century with its evident impact on the course of Russian modernism in the twentieth century. Given the surge in popularity of the Russian avant-garde, a book devoted to the gradual awareness of the artistic value of icons and their effect on Russian aesthetics is timely. The discoveries, the false starts, the incompetence, the interaction of dilettantes and academics, the meddling of tsars and church officials, all make for a fascinating tale of growing cultural awarenss. It is a story that prepares the ground for the explosioin of Russian cultural creativity and acceptability in the early twentieth century.

SEX IN ART: POROGRAPHY AND PLEASURE IN THE HISTORY OF ART

A comprehensive and detailed survey of erotic art from ancient times to the modern era.

All of the major erotic artists of the Western tradition are analyzed (Egon Schiele, Hans Bellmer, Thomas Rowlandson, Pablo Picasso, Titian, Jean Baptiste Dominique Ingres, Felicien Rops, Leonardo da Vinci, Edgar Degas, and Eric Gill).

Other chapters include erotica in ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, Oriental erotic art (Taoist and Tantric art from China, Japan and India), gender and eroticism in Renaissance art, and the sensuality of sculpture. Each chapter contains illustrations. A discussion of the complex relationship between art and pornography provides the central critical axis for this challenging book. Each of the major views on erotica and porn are examined, from each political persuasion and argument. There are also chapters on censorship, on feminism, and the relation of erotic art to erotic literature.

There are individual sections on many of the key erotic artists, such as Michelangelo Buonaroti, Leonardo da Vinci, Eric Gill, Gustave Moreau, the Surrealists, Jasper Johns, Constantin Brancusi, Egon Schiele, and Gustav Klimt.

Fully illustrated. This new edition contains many new illustrations (some of which are rare), an updated and revised text, a new introduction and bibliography.

ISBN 9781861713933. 464 pages. www.crmoon.com

In The Imagined and Real Jerusalem in Art and Architecture specialists in various fields of art history, from Early Christian times to the present, articulate a variety of cultural, religious and political implications of the visualization of Jerusalem. This collection of essays calls attention to two axes emerging from the study of Jerusalem in art: on the one hand, the volatile contemporary situation, and on the other hand, the abiding chain of meanings that history imparts to the city. From a contemporary perspective and within a broad historical context, the book discusses in depth a series of Western artworks, artefacts, and buildings providing new insights into memory processes and mechanisms of representation of Jerusalem.

Edinburgh: An Architectural Portrait features an inspiring portfolio of imagery created over a ten-year period by the photographer and visual artist James Reid. Documenting the City of Edinburgh using digital, analogue and polaroid formats, the book captures the city's main conservation areas, with an emphasis on key architects, listed buildings and distinct aspects of the cityscape. Presented as a beautiful collection of black-and-white images, along with a handful of colour works, the book's digital images are a mixture of full-frame capture and large-scale composite pieces, along with a selection of 35mm analogue single-frame photography. These include panoramic views as well as more intimate perspectives, made possible by Reid's unique access to the city's various buildings and structures of note. The book also features essays by five established Edinburgh-based artists - Aly Gordon (painter), Bruce Hare (artist and architect), Marianne Magnin (artist and curator), Merlin Ramos (painter) and Henry Stevens (artist and architect) - each of whom offers a personally informed response to the city and how its architecture, art and history inform, influence and impact on them. The resulting publication is a unique visual mapping of the city's most architecturally significant areas that will appeal to not only architects, artists and academics, but also residence of and visitors to one of the world's most architecturally rich capitals of culture.

Charlie Akers has spent his entire life following others, making few decisions, and generally having little input into his future. He wakes up one day in prison and, as usual, has no inkling how he got there. Since he has been charged with suspected robbery and murder, it appears that parole is a long shot, if it is an option at all.

The facts surrounding his capture have left him totally puzzled. He was knocked unconscious at the scene of the crime and could not remember anything about the actual event or the circumstances leading up to it. Is he guilty or innocent? Even he does not really know the answer to that question

A trial time has been set by the District Attorney. Charlie's defense attorney is struggling to gather the correct information in order to prepare a reasonable defense for him. His battle with his situation, his help from friends, and the gaps in his relationship with his best friend from his youth will keep him in suspense for a long time.

How much worse can it get than being assigned to death row and you don't know how you got there?

Author portraits are the most common type of figural illustration in Greek manuscripts. The vast majority of them depict the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Being readily comparable to one another, such images illustrate the stylistic development of Byzantine painting. In addition, they often contain details which throw light on elements of Byzantine material culture such as writing utensils, lamps, domestic furniture, etc. This corpus offers catalogue descriptions of all evangelist portraits that survived from the Middle Byzantine period, i.e. from the mid-ninth to mid-thirteenth century. Items are arranged in roughly chronological order and are grouped according to common compositional types: readers will thus be able to trace iconographic similarities by going through a series of adjacent entries and to distinguish period styles by browsing through larger blocks of entries. The book thus provides, in effect, a selective survey of middle-Byzantine painting. A surprisingly large number of Byzantine evangelists portraits remain unpublished: seventy-five of the miniatures reproduced in this volume have never appeared in print before.

Teaching writing is not for the faint of heart, but it can be a tremendous gift to teachers and students. Students often approach writing courses with trepidation because they think of writing as a mystical and opaque process. Teachers often approach these same courses with dread because of the enormous workload and the often-unpolished skills of new writers. This approachable composition textbook for beginning writers contends that writing can be a better experience for everyone when taught as an empathetic and respectful conversation. In a time in which discourse is not always civil and language is not always tended carefully, a conversation-based writing approach emphasizes intention and care. Written by a teacher with more than fifteen years of experience in the college writing classroom, Composition as Conversation explores what happens when the art of conversation meets the art of writing. Heather Hoover shows how seven virtues--including curiosity, attentiveness, relatability, open-mindedness, and generosity--inform the writing process and can help students become more effective writers. She invites writers of all skill levels to make meaningful contributions with their writing. This short, accessible, and instructive book offers a reflective method for college-level writing and will also work well in classical school, high school, and homeschool contexts. It demystifies the writing process and helps students understand why their writing matters. It will energize teachers of writing as they encourage their students to become careful readers and observers, intentional listeners, and empathetic arguers. The book also provides helpful sample assignments.

This book proposes that though Hell seems a God-forsaken place, every scene, character and major image in Dante's Divine Comedy - Hell, Purgatory and Paradise - is associated with one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as it were lurking in the shadows. Thus every one of the hundred cantos has a 'dedication' to a Person, and the cantos form overarching groups which are also so dedicated, making the whole poem like a vast symbolic cathedral, where every action has a secret divine dimension. These presences make it very doubtful that Dante really thinks God tortures people for eternity For readers who may be unfamiliar with Dante, the author has made a translation, abridged, in prose and verse, thus hoping to provide an introduction to Dante for those who do not know him and a new way of reading him for those who do. "The result of decades of reflection on Dante and the Trinity, Dante's Hidden God offers a fresh and challenging vision of the 'Commedia'. Offered as an invitation to read Dante, this inventive presentation of Dante's masterpiece will intrigue readers and gives an accessible account of Paul Priest's highly original ideas about the 'sacrato poema'." Dr Matthew Treherne, Senior Lecturer in Italian, University of Leeds