The Art Atlas | 9780789209610 | Edited by John Onians

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From Part III, Art, War and Empire 500 BC - AD 600Drawing upon their ancestors cultural achievements in Fars province, the Sasanians are known for their luxurious court. They controlled the trade route between China and Rome, and manufactured cloth and silver vessels that were extensively traded. Sasanian mints, widely spaced but under central control, produced a mass of coins that were known from Europe to China.

From Part V, Art, Exploitation and Display 1500 - 1800The collection pictured in this painting, The Allegory of Sight (1617) by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, reflects the eminence of the South Netherlands as an art centre. When hostilities ceased in the early seventeenth century, money which had previously been used for warfare was now redirected to peacetime concerns, notably the arts and sciences. The Archdukes gave their enthusiastic support to these pursuits. In this painting, Flemish art predominates, but classical sculpture, scientific instruments and rarities are also well represented, evidence of the cultivated milieu of this Habsburg court.

From Part VII, Art, Ideas and Technology 1900 - 2000Aula Magna Auditorium, Carlos Raul Villenueva, Central University of Venezuela, Caracas, 1948-57. Alongside the work of Costa, Niemeyer and Reidy, this project is representative of South Americas groundbreaking modern architecture. Villanueva supported and encouraged the work of young Venezuelan abstract artists Jesus Soto and Alejandro Otero, inviting them to collaborate on the Universitys design. Other artists involved in the project included Alexander Calder, who designed the auditoriums acoustic clouds.

From Part VII, Art, Ideas and Technology 1900 - 2000page 310.

From Part II Art, Agriculture and Urbanization 5000-500 BCSquare bronze ding with a human face decoration, Late Shang period, c. 1200 BC. Bronze vessels were often involving sacrifices to the ancestors. The main motif is a human face, but with two horns and animal claws. The whole scheme is realistic, in a manner more typical of the south than of the metropolitan style in the capital city, Anyang (Yinxu).

From Part IV, Art, Religian and the Ruler 600 - 1500Diptych of the Madonna and Child, Apostles, St. George and Theodore by Fere Seyou(?). Tempera on gessoed wood, 44 x 31.5 cm (17 2/3 x 12 2/3 ins). Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This is one of the countless works commissioned as part of the emperor Zara Yoqobs mandatory cult of Mary.

From Part VI, Art, Industry and Science 1800 - 1900Portrait of Black Hawk, Indian chief, colour lithograph by George Catlin (1796-1872), National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. Travelling west from eastern cities in the US and Canada, artists such as Catlin, Bodmer and Kane sought to document the indigenous cultures of North America. Catlins Indian Gallery, from which this image of Black Hawk derives, was a collection of paintings and artifacts that toured North America and Europe, producing a record of native peoples that continues to impress vieweres with its interest in the humanity as well as the individuality of its subjects. Black Hawk was the leader of the Sauk and Fox tribes during the Black Hawk War of 1832, a struggle against white settlers encroaching on native lands in the states of Illinois and Wisconsin. This image demonstrates Catlins sensitivity to detail and personality as well as his interest in circulating his vision of North Americas First Peoples.

From Part VII, Art, Ideas and Technology 1900 - 2000The twentieth century was a period of intense socio-political change resulting in the map of Europe being redrawn many times over. Two world wars, the rise and fall of Fascism and the emergence, consolidation and eventual collapse of the worlds first communist state all contributed to mass changes in national and international identities and to dramatic shifts in practice in the visual arts.

The Art Atlas

Edited by John Onians
Size: 10 x 13 1/4"
Cloth, 352 pages
CD Included, over 300 color illustrations & 300 maps
Published 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7892-0961-0
In Stock
Available
$55.00

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An invaluable guide to world art from prehistory to the present, complete with over 600 maps and illustrations and a searchable CD.

"Through the innovative use of maps, The Art Atlas clearly illustrates that, at bottom, art is and always has been a global affair. Explores the relationship between art and local geography/culture in an excitingly new way. A must for every art classroom and library, a host of scholars make this a fine text for either art or social study class. Excellent reproductions; highly recommended. *****" -- Art Times

"Highly recommended. All libraries; all levels." -- Choice

"The searchable CD-ROM offers additional access beyond the already details index." -- Library Journal

The Art Atlas is the first work to present the art of the entire world from ancient to modern times through extensive use of specially commissioned maps. Covering painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as other arts and artifacts, the volume provides an entirely new vision of the history of the world’s art by showing how physical and political geography has shaped its developments.

Over 350 pages in scope, Atlas compares countries separated by thousands of miles and many centuries, demonstrating how the art of each is affected by opportunities and constraints dictated by location or culture. Here, for the first time, readers can appreciate the art of prehistoric Oceania and the Nile Valley of the Pharaohs alongside that of nineteenth-century Russia and the twentieth-century United States. In addition to showing where and when great artists lived and worked, Atlas explains how major styles developed and the ways in which art has been influenced by religion, trade, travel, war, and other historical factors. The volume also provides the first comprehensive picture of the impact of the natural world on the development of art, charting the sources of fibers for weaving, pigments for coloring, wood for carving, paper for printing, and stone for use in sculpture and architecture.

With its combination of enormous breadth and constant clarity of focus, abdundant illustrations and a user-friendly, searchable CD, Atlas provides exceptional insight into what unites art and what makes it so varied. Organized into seven chronological periods and including contributions from 68 internationally renowned art historians, The Art Atlas is an original, comprehensive and up-todate reference work that will be a benchmark for many years to come.

John Onians is Professor of Visual Arts at the School of World Art Studies and Museology at the University of East Anglia. He is the author of Art and Thought in the Hellenistic Age: The Greek World View, 350-50 BC (1979), Bearers of Meaning: The Classical Orders in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (1988) and editor of Sight and Insight: Essays on Art and Culture in Honour of E. H. Gombrich at 85 (1994). He was also the founding editor of the prestigious journal Art History.

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