A history of ideas and images in Italian art

by James Hall

This reference looks at art history form the point of view of the subject matter of works of art. The questions the author asks are what? and why?, rather than how?. The book shows the social customs, beliefs and aspirations that often formed the context in which works of art were conceived.

Genres: Art

415 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1983

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
See this thread for more information.

1918-2007

James A. Hall is listed here under James (two spaces) Hall

Reviews

[白宇轩]

A hidden and unfortunately forgotten gem for lovers of art history. So many of the questions that had accumulated in my mind over years of visiting churches, museums, ancient ruins, etc. all found an explanation in this incredible volume. There are countless histories of art out there, most of them doing more or less the same thing, i.e. listing the trends, schools and movements we are all familiar with, and the key technical or stylistic features associated with them. But only this book does something quite different, which is investigating how the same themes and subjects have been adopted and repurposed over and over again in different ages and by different cultures, each time carrying with them different meanings, associated with different ideologies, religions or political agendas. One prominent example is the image of Christ. We usually tend to imagine Jesus as a man with long beard and long hair, but it turns out this representation is relatively recent (it derives from the way imperial officials were depicted in the Byzantine empire, i.e. as Greek wise men with very long beards). Jesus was represented in a very different way at the time of the early Christians: in the ancient Christian catacombs of Rome, in particular, he is shown as a beardless youth, holding a lyre in his hands. This is an image of Jesus with which we are unfamiliar nowadays, but that traces back to the ancient Jewish representations of King David. His image, in turn, seems to have been inspired from even earlier depictions of Orpheus, who is known in ancient Greek legends as a legendary musician. This is just one of countless examples: others would include the equally well-known image of the Virgin holding the Child, St. Michael weighing the souls of the dead, etc. etc. All in all a very instructive read and one that will help immensely anyone who is curious of understanding how all of these symbols came about.