Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Volume I, Chapters 1-18

by Fred S. Kleiner, Christin J. Mamiya

The market-leading text for the art history survey course, GARDNER'S ART THROUGH THE AGES has served as a comprehensive and thoughtfully crafted guide to the defining phases of the world's artistic tradition. With this book in hand, thousands of students have watched the story of art unfold in its full historical, social, religious, economic, and cultural context, and thus deepened their understanding of art, architecture, painting, and sculpture. By virtue of its comprehensive coverage, strong emphasis on context, and rich, accurate art reproductions, GARDNER'S ART THROUGH THE AGES has earned and sustained a reputation of excellence and authority. So much so, that in 2001, the Text and Academic Authors Association awarded both the McGuffey and the "Texty" Book Prizes to the Eleventh Edition of the text. It is the first art history book to win either award and the only title ever to win both prizes in one year. The Twelfth Edition maintains and exceeds the richness of the Gardner legacy with updated research and scholarship and an even more beautiful art program featuring more color images than any other art history book available. The Twelfth Edition features such enhancements as more color photographs, a stunning new design, and the most current research and scholarship. What's more, the expanded ancillary package that accompanies GARDNER'S ART THROUGH THE AGES, features a wealth of tools to enhance your students' experience in the course. With each new copy of the book, students receive a copy of the ArtStudy 2.0 CD-ROM--an interactive electronic study aid that fully integrates with the Twelfth Edition and includes hundreds of high-quality digital images, plus maps, quizzes, and more.

Genres: Art, History, Art History, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Reference, School

560 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 1980

Reviews

[Christin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A textbook I actually read! And was actually readable. It helped that Kleiner was my professor and his humor was evident in the writing, even though he had to leave some of the naughtier bits out.

"Double-barreled super-stud of a centaur."

[Foxtower · Rating 3 out of 5]

A later version of my Art History textbook. Thank goodness I don't have to read this one! (I refer to the pictures) While comprehensive in Gardners view of Art history there were no women... what?

Like any interpretation of ART, I think that only the photos tell a kind of truth.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only college textbook I've ever kept.

[Celeste · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this textbook and the class that I bought it for. I wasn't anticipating liking art history as much as I did. I will definitely be hanging onto this book for a very, very long time and have no intention of selling it back.
This is an older edition of the book but, depending on your instructor, I definitely think that you can get by with just buying this edition, especially if your school library has a copy of whatever edition is being used in your class available. Although this edition has one less chapter than the most recent editions, I found that I was able to make it through just fine in the class that I was taking. I would definitely do some research into the class that you're taking and the professor's teaching style before deciding to buy this edition instead of the most recent one, though. If you do decide to buy this edition, you can find it for about $5 at a lot of used bookstores. I've found that it was a much better choice than buying the most recent edition for $120.

[Jessi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I can't claim to have read every single word of this. I went through it with my kids as an Art Survey sort of class. It's pretty great, though. I love the pictures and explanations.

One thing that bothered me was in the Americas chapter. They talked up a certain type of pottery so much and then didn't show any pictures of it. Nothing major, but it still miffed me.

[Deziree Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading chapters 1-18 in this textbook. Such an enjoyment for my ARTS 1303 course. With visual illustrations and detailed representations of historical art, someone is surely able to find themselves sucked into a whole new world.

[Belle Meade School]

709

[Laurie Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great art book to study the ancients that we used in our Classical Rhetoric homeschool history studies.

[Erwin Laird · Rating 5 out of 5]

May have been the only textbook I read from start to finish.

[Foxtower · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an updated version of the college art history textbook I used back in the seventies... thank goodness I didn't have to read this one! While this and volume two provide ample photos of art work thoughout history, what lacking is that its a history that lacks women artists!

[Allison]

This is my textbook for Art History 101.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the best textbooks I've used. It's easy to read and full of useful information. Perfect for an introduction to Art History.

[Merry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for class with Dr. Diane Goode - great professor!

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good instruction book. Very good projects to enable you to draw.