Ikonen

Taschen Basic Genre

by Eva Haustein-Bartsch

This historical survey covers some one-and-a-half millennia of Christian imagery and includes descriptions of selected masterpieces.The icons in this book come from the Icon Museum in Recklinghausen, which possesses the most extensive and highest-quality icon collection outside the Orthodox world. Icons do not depict "details" of the earthly world, but rather an unearthly reality. In accordance with their sacred function, the painters had to keep to venerable traditions. All the same, the art of icon painting is characterized by an impressive variety of themes and formal variations.This historical survey covers some one-and-a-half millennia and includes descriptions of selected masterpieces, providing a graphic introduction to this fascinating world of images. While the book's historical introduction traces the history of icon painting back to late Antiquity and the early Byzantine period, the examples in the picture section start with a 14th century Russian example ("The Dormition of the Mother of God") and extend from the exquisite 15th century Byzantine icon "St Luke Paints the Mother of God" across the centuries to one from Transylvania (Romania) dating from 1887.Each book in TASCHEN's "Basic Genre Series" features: a detailed introduction with approximately 35 photographs, plus a timeline of the most important events (political, cultural, scientific, etc. ) that took place during the time period; and a selection of the most important works of the epoch; each is presented on a 2-page spread with a full-page image and, on the facing page, a description/interpretation of the work and brief biography of the artist as well as additional information such as a reference work, portrait of the artist, and/or citations.

Genres: Art, History, Art History

Unknown Binding

First published November 1, 2008

Reviews

[Wu Shih · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il libro non sarebbe neppure male, interessante in una prima storia dell'Icona, del resto non particolarmente approfondita, belle le rappresentazioni e l'analisi iconografica. Ma si tratta di pubblicità per il Museo di Recklinghausen: vengono analizzate solo le opere di tale collezione, limitando quindi un'analisi che sarebbe dovuta essere ben più articolata.

[Ari Fisher · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book will inform and provide good quality images of a collection of icons in one specific museum as well as provide you with a somewhat interesting but brief historical discussion of iconography at the beginning of the book. If you are like me and interested in understanding iconography and Christianity and why the images consist of what they do on a deeper symbolic level, unfortunately there is nothing in this book for you.

[Alexandra Tobor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gut zu lesendes und billiges Buch, das dem interessierten Schnupperfreund als unsystematische Rundschau über den Gegenstand gereichen sollte. Die Bildbeispiele stammen alle aus dem Recklinghausener Ikonen-Museum, was nicht weiter stört, im Gegenteil, man hat gleich den Ausstellungskatalog dazu. Positiv, dass die Bildbeschreibungen gg. langweiligen kunsthistorischen Daten und Fakten recht viel Platz einnehmen.