How Do We Look: The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781631494406)

Conceived as a gorgeously illustrated accompaniment to "How Do We Look" and "The Eye of Faith," the famed Civilisations shows on PBS, renowned classicist Mary Beard has created this elegant volume on how we have looked at art. Focusing in Part I on the Olmec heads of early Mesoamerica, the colossal statues of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, and the nudes of classical Greece, Beard explores the power, hierarchy, and gender politics of the art of the ancient world, and explains how it came to define the so-called civilized world. In Part II, Beard chronicles some of the most breathtaking religious imagery ever made--whether at Angkor Wat, Ravenna, Venice, or in the art of Jewish and Islamic calligraphers-- to show how all religions, ancient and modern, have faced irreconcilable problems in trying to picture the divine. With this classic volume, Beard redefines the Western-and male-centric legacies of Ernst Gombrich and Kenneth Clark.

Author: Mary Beard
ISBN-10: 1631494406
ISBN-13: 9781631494406
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Language: English
Published: 09/04/2018
Pages: 240
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 04/01/2018 pg. 44
Publishers Weekly 06/11/2018
Library Journal 07/01/2018 pg. 80
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2018 pg. 56
Booklist 08/01/2018 pg. 14
Kirkus Reviews Fall Preview 08/15/2018 pg. 25