First published in 1985, this ground-breaking book surveys the development of Cycladic sculpture produced by unidentified artists who worked in the Aegean islands forty-five hundred years ago. Illustrated with numerous objects from American collections—with particular emphasis on some two dozen pieces in the Getty Museum—this volume surveys the typological development of Early Cycladic sculpture and identifies, where possible, the work of individual sculptors. Newly revised and updated, this book is a concise introduction to the field.

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the first modern, public museums of art—civic, state, or national—appeared throughout Europe, setting a standard for the nature of such institutions that has made its influence felt to the present day. Although the emergence of these museums was an international development, their shared history has not been systematically explored until now. Taking up that project, this volume includes chapters on fifteen of the earliest and still major examples, from the Capitoline Museum in Rome, opened in 1734, to the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, opened in 1836. These essays consider a number of issues, such as the nature, display, and growth of the museums’ collections and the role of the institutions in educating the public. The introductory chapters by art historian Carole Paul, the volume’s editor, lay out the relationship among the various museums and discuss their evolution from private noble and royal collections to public institutions. In concert, the accounts of the individual museums give a comprehensive overview, providing a basis for understanding how the collective emergence of public art museums is indicative of the cultural, social, and political shifts that mark the transformation from the early-modern to the modern world. The fourteen distinguished contributors to the book include Robert G. W. Anderson, former director of the British Museum in London; Paula Findlen, Ubaldo Pierotti Professor of Italian History at Stanford University; Thomas Gaehtgens, director of the Getty Research Institute; and Andrew McClellan, dean of academic affairs and professor of art history at Tufts University. Show more Show less

This volume provides the first comprehensive analysis and chronology of the earliest known stone sculptures from the north Indian city of Mathura, dating prior to the famous Kushan period. It includes numerous new attributions of objects based primarily on epigraphic and visual analysis. The sculptures attributable to these pre-Kushan periods reveal new evidence for the reasons behind the emergence of the anthropomorphic image of the Buddha at Mathura, the predominance of a heterodox sect of Jainism, and the proliferation of cults of nature divinities. This book provides a wealth of reference material useful for historians of early Indian art, religion, and epigraphy. The book is illustrated with over three hundred photographs, and it includes epigraphic appendices with complete transcriptions and updated translations.

Annotation "Personal Styles in Early Cycladic Sculpture represents the culmination of thirty-five years of study. Pat Getz-Gentle offers here much new material and many fresh insights into a tradition, rooted in the Neolithic period, that spanned most of the third millennium B.C. She begins with a review of this tradition, placing particular emphasis on the stages leading to the reclining figure with folded arms that is the unique and quintessential icon of the early Bronze Age culture at the center of the Aegean. She then focuses on the styles of fifteen sculptors, several of whom are identified and discussed for the first time in this volume. By introducing little-known pieces attributable to these sculptors, she illuminates various phases of their artistic development."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

David Smith is giving his life for his art—literally. Thanks to a deal with Death, the young sculptor gets his childhood wish: to sculpt anything he can imagine with his bare hands. But now that he only has 200 days to live, deciding what to create is harder than he thought, and discovering the love of his life at the 11th hour isn't making it any easier! This is a story of desire taken to the edge of reason and beyond; of the frantic, clumsy dance steps of young love; and a gorgeous, street-level portrait of the world's greatest city. It's about the small, warm, human moments of everyday life...and the great surging forces that lie just under the surface. Scott McCloud wrote the book on how comics work; now he vaults into great fiction with a breathtaking, funny, and unforgettable new work.

This book introduces a new impetus to the discussion of the relationship between touch and sculpture by setting up a dialogue between art historians and individuals who are working in disciplines beyond art history. The collection brings together a diverse set of approaches, with essays tackling subjects from prehistoric figurines to the work of contemporary artists, from pre-modern ideas about the physiology of touch to tactile interaction in the museum, and from the phenomenology of touch in philosophy to the findings of scientific study.