Art Through the Ages 1: The Western Perspective

by Helen Gardner, Christin J. Mamiya, Richard G. Tansey

This new alternative, GARDNER'S WESTERN ART THROUGH THE AGES, offers instructors and students a brief, strictly Western approach to art history and retains all of the hallmark features of the market-leading Eleventh Edition in a concise 23-chapter format (also available in a two-volume split). Unique to books with a Western Art focus, the authors retain the chapter on Islam, providing students with insightful coverage of the Islamic tradition's impact on Western culture and art history. Featuring an outstanding art program with more color photos than any comparable art history survey textbook, the authors focus on the context and function of the role of art.

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

1056 pages, Hardcover

First published May 22, 1980

About the author

Helen Gardner (1878–1946) was an American art historian and educator. Her Art Through the Ages remains a standard text for American art history classes.

Gardner was born in Manchester, New Hampshire and attended school in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. In 1901 she graduated with a degree in classics from the University of Chicago. After an interval as a teacher, she returned to the same university to study art history, and received a master's degree in 1918. In 1920 she began lecturing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she would spend the rest of her career, with the exception of short appointments at UCLA and the University of Chicago.

Her major work, Art Through the Ages, was the first single-volume textbook to cover the entire range of art history from a global perspective. Frequently revised, it remains a standard textbook at American schools and universities. In 1932 she also published Understanding the Arts, an art appreciation text directed toward educators.

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.