A groundbreaking reevaluation of paleolithic art through the lens of modernism, from the acclaimed historian of art and architecture In The Beginnings of Art, Sigfried Giedion, best known as a historian of architecture, shifts his attention to art and its very origins. Breaking with an earlier, materialistic approach, he explores paleolithic art by bringing abstraction, transparency, and simultaneity into play as modern art has revealed them anew. Focusing on the dual concepts of constancy and change, he examines paleolithic paintings, engravings, and sculpture, as well as modern art and recent examples of “primitive art.” He argues that the two keys to the meaning of prehistoric art are the symbol, portraying reality before reality exists, and the animal as humankind’s superior in the unified primordial world in which both human and animal were embedded. The result is a highly original and important study of prehistoric art.

An original account of ancient Egyptian and Sumerian architecture from the acclaimed architectural historian In The Beginnings of Architecture, Sigfried Giedion examines the architecture of ancient Egypt and Sumer. These early builders expressed an attitude of immense force when they confronted their structures with open sky. Giedion argues that it was during these periods that the problem of constancy and change flared up with an intensity unknown in any other period of history, and resolved eventually into the first architectural space conception, the automatic, psychic recording of the visual environment.

Drawing on Jungian psychology to show why Egypt has been so important in the history of Western civilisation, Michael Rice explains the majesty and enduring appeal of Egyptian civilization. Jung claimed that there exist certain psychological drives dormant in our shared unconscious: these are the archetypes. From the omnipotent god to the idea of the nation state, the formulation of most of these archetypes is owed to ancient Egypt. Michael Rice sets out to recover the sense of wonder that the Egyptians themselves felt as they contemplated the world in which they lived, and the way they expressed that wonder in the religion, art and literature. He traces the story of Egyptian civilization from its emergence in the third millennium BC to its transformation following the Macedonian conquest in 30 BC.