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

Beard, Mary

ISBN 10: 1631494406 / ISBN 13: 9781631494406

Published by Liveright, 2018

About this Item

Crease/bruise to cover and pages.

Seller Inventory # WW-HCD-G-1631494406

Bibliographic Details

• Title: How Do We Look: The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization
• Publisher: Liveright
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1631494406
• ISBN 13: 9781631494406
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

From prehistoric Mexico to modern Istanbul, Mary Beard looks beyond the familiar canon of Western imagery to explore the history of art, religion, and humanity.

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. 92 illustrations

About the Author

Mary Beard is the author of the best-selling The Fires of Vesuvius and the National Book Critics Circle Award–nominated Confronting the Classics and SPQR. A popular blogger and television personality, Beard is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. She lives in England.