Facts On File Encyclopedia Of Art ( 5 vol. set). This item is unavailable.Facts On File Encyclopedia Of Art ( 5 vol. set)

Entries cover the history of art, from the earliest cave paintings to works of contemporary art.

Grade 10 Up-A chronological survey of Eastern and Western art beginning with Paleolithic times and continuing through the 20th century. Chapters focus on both cultures and movements. Australian Art and South African Art include information often not found in other texts. Female representation is poor. Mary Cassatt isn-™t mentioned at all, and Frida Kahlo-™s name only appears in a list of exhibition participants. Throughout the set, boxed and illustrated spreads offer information on a range of specific paintings, artifacts, artists, topics, or sites, e.g., Engraved Gems and Classical Coins, The Tyi Wara Mask, Calligraphy in Islamic Art, and The Houses of Frank Lloyd Wright. Each chapter ends with a brief bibliography. The layout is clean, with white space framing the illustrations and strict columns of text. Black-and-white photographs and full-color reproductions are abundant, often two to a page. There are many sharp photos and quality reproductions, but some reproductions are faded, or so small that detail is lost. A fairly extensive, illustrated glossary and a cumulative index are found in volume five. The index lists works by the artist-™s name or location rather than title, which may frustrate some readers. While libraries owning other general surveys may not find this an essential purchase, it is a good source of information for advanced students.-Heather E. Miller, Homewood Public Library, AL
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*Starred Review* This fine set is a companion to Facts On File's Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists. Both sets are revisions of 1983 titles. That general editor Sir Lawrence Gowing died in 1991 should prove no more problematic than the fact that Helen Gardner and H. W. Janson, authors of classic and regularly updated art histories, died in 1946 and 1982, respectively.

Facts On File Encyclopedia of Art is published outside North America as Britannica Encyclopedia of Art. Its 54 signed sections survey, in roughly chronological order, Paleolithic through contemporary art. Standard and lesser-studied divisions in the European lineage, such as Classical Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Viking, Ottonian, Byzantine, Gothic, Baroque, Impressionist, and Dada and Surrealist art, are engagingly covered by contributors as distinguished as John Boardman, Elizabeth Cowling, and Sam Hunter. Updating of sections appears to be largely in the form of signed essays a few paragraphs to several pages in length following the original essay. Also impressively covered are non-European traditions including African, Oceanic, Indian, Southeast Asian, Chinese and Korean, Japanese, Islamic, pre-Columbian, Latin American, Australian, South African, and modern American art. There is a dearth of information on pre-twentieth-century American art-not even an index reference to John Singleton Copley or Albert Bierstadt.

Each section is handsomely illustrated, predominantly in color. As in Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists, there is a pleasing mix of the well-known image, such as van Gogh's sunflowers, and the unfamiliar, such as a Mexican bark painting or a selection of Turkish carpets. Captions generally describe the artwork, the name of its maker (if known) or culture of origin, and its location; less regularly indicated are dates and dimensions. Embedded in most essays are one or two signed and well-illustrated gallery studies (of several related works, such as Mochica effigy vases) or close studies (of a single work, such as the Egbert Codex). Preceding the first essay is a two-page chronology of art history. A glossary identical to that in the companion set and a thorough index conclude volume 5.

Highly recommended, especially in combination with the companion set, for libraries serving readers at the high-school level and above. Craig Bunch
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