Art: a World History.DK. 720p. illus. bibliog. index. c1997. 0-7894-8904-X. $40.00. JSA JSA - Japanese Standards Association. * Like double-rich chocolate truffles to the chocoholic choc·o·hol·ic n. A person who craves chocolate. [choc(olate) + (alc)oholic.] , this art history is a visual feast for the art lover. With more than 2,200 illustrations crammed into just under 700 pages of text, this ambitious tome seeks to combine "the art of the Old, New, and developing worlds into a continuous narrative, beginning with prehistory prehistory, period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to ," with an emphasis, however, on modern and contemporary art. How does this differ from the other popular art histories? It is at once more colorful, more jam-packed and more of a teaching tool. The DR volume lacks the maps that are in Gardner and the increasingly popular Stokstad, but offers excellent illustrated time lines for each chapter. Works are frequently analyzed in detail with six or seven small illustrations of a larger work marked separately to show line, space, color and form. The editors claim that the "overall structure is orderly--long essays interspersed with extended boxes of subsidiary information, detailed examination and dissection dissection /dis·sec·tion/ (di-sek´shun) 1. the act of dissecting. 2. a part or whole of an organism prepared by dissecting. of ... paintings, brief surveys of key personalities and works, and timelines...." Each page is as crowded as the editors' description. While it can be difficult to wend Wend Any member of a group of Slavic tribes that by the 5th century AD had settled in the area between the Oder and Elbe rivers in what is now eastern Germany. They occupied the eastern borders of the domain of the Franks and other Germanic peoples. one's way through a busy page of this lush volume, and a younger reader might need some guidance, sampling world art through this work is a stimulating experience. Patricia A. Moore, Brookline, MA |
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