Old master drawings kept in storage, their access limited to a few, will now be made widely accessible in this new series which will eventually include all drawings in some 70 midwestern collections. The first volume introduces a corpus of the rarest of European drawings through the year 1500, a time when artists had just begun to value drawings as works of art. It presents 30 entries written by 12 scholars, each a specialist in the art of the period, and each with immediate access to the artwork itself. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The final stages of Egyptian religion from the Saite period until the rise of christianity are studied here by nearly a hundred scholars from all over the world. The book represents the state of the art on a fascinating period, when paganism in all its forms gradually yielded to monotheism. It combines philology and archaeology, with more than twenty contributions offering a presentation of unknown textual and iconographic material. Egyptian deities and temples are discussed both from the point of view of institutions and of personal religion. In the multicultural society of Graeco-Roman Egypt the relationship between native Egyptians and Greek culture is always at the center of the interest. Thanks to the indexes this will become a standard work of reference in the field of Egyptian religion. The volume is dedicated to Jan Quaegebeur and reflects his wide scope of interests and his impact upon present-day study of Egypt in the Graeco-Roman period.

The first major examination of Anthony van Dyck's work as a portraitist and an essential resource on this aspect of his illustrious career This landmark volume is a comprehensive survey of the portrait drawings, paintings, and prints of Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), one of the most celebrated portraitists of all time. His supremely elegant style and ability to convey a sense of a sitter's inner life made him a favored portraitist among high-ranking figures and royalty across Europe, as well as among his fellow artists and art enthusiasts. Showcasing the full range of Van Dyck's fascinating international career with more than 100 works, this catalogue celebrates the artist's versatility, inventiveness, and influential approach to portraiture. Works include preparatory drawings and oil sketches that shed light on Van Dyck's working process, prints that allowed his work to reach a wider audience, and grand painted portraits. Some of the masterpieces are drawn from the exceptional holdings of The Frick Collection, while other works are presented here for the first time. Also included are drawings by some of Van Dyck's contemporaries--including his teacher Peter Paul Rubens--that illuminate the lineage of his working method. With insightful contributions by a team of international scholars, this unparalleled study of Van Dyck offers a compelling case for the distinctiveness and importance of the artist's work.