Understanding Art: A Reference Guide to Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque Periods (Volumes 1, 2)

The seven "business novels" translated in this collection represent a genre in Japan, "keizai-shosetsu", that is extremely popular among Japanese businessmen, their wives, students, and other professionals. It is aimed at students and business counterparts in the West.

Grade 7 Up-This profusely illustrated set surveys Western art from the 11th to the 17th centuries. Each of the four main sections (Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque) is introduced by a historical overview followed by separate chapters on each period's architecture, sculpture, and painting. The section on Gothic art includes an additional chapter on applied arts. While many resources cover these periods, the value here is the lucid and authoritative analysis of key concepts and the inclusion of numerous black-and-white captioned diagrams that outline design elements found in the accompanying full-color photographs. Thus, a photograph of a ceiling fresco in Mantua is presented with an explanation of the display of perspective in Renaissance painting. The attractive layout features narrow columns of text offset by captioned sidebars and plentiful full and half-page illustrations. Unfortunately, the book is marred by an occasional out-of-focus, dated photo with poor color rendition. Nevertheless, the work proves true to its name, being a useful and friendly guide for students.
Mary Ann Carcich, Suffolk County Community College Library, Riverhead, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This brief, less than comprehensive, college-level survey is written in an awkward style (most likely owing to a poor translation from the Italian), with long and meandering sentences and spelling errors that dot the text. Sentences like the following result: "Thus Italy, while still at the forefront of artistic development in Europe at the beginning of the Baroque period, by the end it had lost its artistic supremacy, which had passed to France, where it was to remain." The introduction states (ungramatically) the book's purpose and structure: "Designed to help the reader understand the connection between technology, design, and style, each work is analyzed to identify the distinctive characteristics and details that place it within a given period." The short glossary is a good addition, although it is not quite in alphabetical order and does not include pertinent words such as frieze, pediment, or volute. The diagrams are simplistic yet helpful. The "Further Reading" section is surprisingly substantial. Although there are many colorful images, the volumes contain many blurry, magenta, and outdated photographs, which are distracting. Stick with standards like Frederick Hartt's Art (Prentice-Hall, 1997), H.W. Janson's History of Art (Abrams, 1997), or Gardner's Art Through the Ages (Harcourt, 1995). Not recommended.
-Jennifer L.S. Moldwin, Detroit Inst. of Arts
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.