Ars Sacra: Christian Art and Architecture of the Western World from the Very Beginning Up Until Today

by Rolf Toman

Ars Sacra is an unique tribute to 2000 years of Christian art, architecture and spirituality. This glorious tome takes the reader on a tour through seventeen centuries of sacral art, architecture, and culture, from the late antiquity to the middle ages, renaissance, baroque, art nouveau to works by contemporary artists such as Marc Chagall and Gerhard Richter.

Genres: Art, Art History, Religion, History

800 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

Originally, Rolf Toman wanted to become a teacher but he spent the years following his second state exam working as a publishing editor at a large international publishing house. From 1992 onwards, he worked as an independent publisher for various international publishing houses. Publications on art history epochs were at the center of his work.

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful photos of sacred art and architecture from the Middle Ages to the modern day. The English translation of the text is so clunky that it is all but unreadable. This is more of a book to look at than to read anyway and as such it is an incredibly enjoyable book of art.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARS Sacra is one Massive book encompassing over 2,000 years in 800 pages showing the Beauty and Glory of God's Church,the eras are split into sections covering every style from the beginning to current.Some of the artifacts shown are extremely rare besides beautiful,some are odd curiosities.From Structures to artifacts and Crucifixes.Even something as peculiar as a Comb! To do a review of the book's contents,photography and subjects would not do the book proper justice.If there are any faults perhaps it is the translation into English from German,some eras are done by different authors,since it is compiled by regions/subjects/etcera.I would have like to see More Non-Secular commentary from Clergy/Fellow Catholics.Regardless,the book is THE BOOK of all books on THE ART itself of Christian ART and indeed what a great contribution to Western Civilization,To the World.This book is a treasure for this Catholic I Love it!

[Dwayne Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

At almost twenty pounds and a foot by a foot-and-a-half, it's less coffee table book than coffee table. What do you get? Gorgeous original photography of Western Christianity's greatest works of art and architecture, printed with care on huge, glossy pages. Pour a glass of wine, put on Pergolesi, and enjoy. Just prepare yourself for the sucker punch of post-WW1 cultural collapse at the end. (Docked a star for the bizarrely unreadable text, translated from the German. This one's mostly a picture book, kiddos.)

[Ana Isaac]

An incredible book with High quality but if you are looking for more deep information you should get a supplementary one.

[AskHistorians]

Originally written in German and rather terribly translated, but the text is completely inconsequential anyway - this is just a feast for your eyes. It covers a visual history of Christian art from ~800CE to the present in 800 glorious full-colour pages, including lots of detail and close-up shots.