The exchange of art provides a vehicle for creative interaction between East and West, a process in which great civilizations preserve their own character while stimulating and enriching each other. Here scholar Michael Sullivan leads the reader through four centuries of exciting interaction between the artists of China and Japan and those of Western Europe. 24 color plates. 174 halftones.

THE EASTERN QUESTION is a clever, politically neutral, graphic exploration of geopolitics from the days of Alexander the Great and the Persians to today's headlines. In the 19th century, the term the 'Eastern Question' referred to the problem posed by the impending dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the fall of which in the second decade of the 20th engendered the modern 'muddle' of the Middle East in the 21st. In a larger sense the East has always been a question for the West, for the simple reason that's where the trouble comes from: Huns, Goths, Arabs, Mongols, Turks, Russians, Soviets--to now a less well-defined, 'non-linear,' and 'asymmetric' trouble. As the West declines relatively and the East rises, seemingly new questions are asked that are in fact old ones. The West's current issues with Ukraine, Crimea, ISIS, Israel, and Iran are present-day manifestations of geopolitical dynamics that have been active in the historical process from its beginning. In 108 elegant and whimsical maps and drawings, The Eastern Question looks at these dynamics through a geopolitical lens with a scope of three millennia. The drawings are historical political cartoons; the maps ground the reader in the geography of time and place. Painting with a broad brush, the author sketches in the story with short texts that explain the drawings as much as the drawings illustrate the texts. The Eastern Question portrays history as a drama with stock characters improvising their lines in a plot whose action has been determined by the dynamics of Desert & Sown, East & West, and Order & Fragmentation. The first half of the book is thematic, exploring these three dynamics. The second half focuses on one of the six characters, the Ottoman Empire -- of which the modern countries of the Middle East are mere fragments -- its rise, decline, and fall, which opened the Eastern Question--and the concurrent rise of the West to world domination, now being challenged by the rise of the East. With vast perspective and extensive view The Eastern Question seamlessly connects today's events to these unchanging geopolitical dynamics.

Provides a broad view of the history and current state of scholarship on the art of the ancient Near East This book covers the aesthetic traditions of Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia, and the Levant, from Neolithic times to the end of the Achaemenid Persian Empire around 330 BCE. It describes and examines the field from a variety of critical perspectives: across approaches and interpretive frameworks, key explanatory concepts, materials and selected media and formats, and zones of interaction. This important work also addresses both traditional and emerging categories of material, intellectual perspectives, and research priorities. The book covers geography and chronology, context and setting, medium and scale, while acknowledging the diversity of regional and cultural traditions and the uneven survival of evidence. Part One of the book considers the methodologies and approaches that the field has drawn on and refined. Part Two addresses terms and concepts critical to understanding the subjects and formal characteristics of the Near Eastern material record, including the intellectual frameworks within which monuments have been approached and interpreted. Part Three surveys the field’s most distinctive and characteristic genres, with special reference to Mesopotamian art and architecture. Part Four considers involvement with artistic traditions across a broader reach, examining connections with Egypt, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean. And finally, Part Five addresses intersections with the closely allied discipline of archaeology and the institutional stewardship of cultural heritage in the modern Middle East. Told from multiple perspectives, A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Art is an enlightening, must-have book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of ancient Near East art and Near East history as well as those interested in history and art history.

This text presents documents drawn from the artistic archives of Eastern and Central Europe during the second half of the 20th century.

This volume assembles more than 30 articles focusing on the visual, material, and environmental arts of the Ancient Near East. Specific case studies range temporally from the fourth millennium up to the Hellenistic period and geographically from Iran to the eastern Mediterranean. Contributions apply innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to archaeological evidence and critically examine the historiography of the discipline itself. Not intended to be comprehensive, the volume instead captures a cross-section of the field of Ancient Near Eastern art history as its stands in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The volume will be of value to scholars working in the Ancient Near East as well as others interested in newer art historical and anthropological approaches to visual culture.