How Do We Look: The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization

Conceived as a gorgeously illustrated accompaniment to “How Do We Look” and “The Eye of Faith,” the famed Civilisations shows on PBS, renowned classicist Mary Beard has created this elegant volume on how we have looked at art. Focusing in Part I on the Olmec heads of early Mesoamerica, the colossal statues of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, and the nudes of classical Greece, Beard explores the power, hierarchy, and gender politics of the art of the ancient world, and explains how it came to define the so-called civilized world. In Part II, Beard chronicles some of the most breathtaking religious imagery ever made–whether at Angkor Wat, Ravenna, Venice, or in the art of Jewish and Islamic calligraphers– to show how all religions, ancient and modern, have faced irreconcilable problems in trying to picture the divine. With this classic volume, Beard redefines the Western-and male-centric legacies of Ernst Gombrich and Kenneth Clark.

Author: Mary Beard
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Published: 09/04/2018
Pages: 240
Weight: 1.3lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781631494406
Language: English