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What ties western art together? This extended essay attempts to distill some of the basic ideas with which artists and observers of their art have grappled, ideas worthy of ongoing consideration and debate. The fostering of visual creativity as it has morphed from ancient Greece to the present day, the political and economic forces underpinning the commissioning and displacement of art, and the ways in which contemporary art relates to past periods of art history (and in particular, the Renaissance), are among the topics broached. Architecture, drawings, prints, films, painting, sculpture, and decorative arts from Europe and the US are considered and examined, often including nonstandard examples, occasionally including ones from the immediate surroundings of the author (who is based in New England). Although this book is primarily geared to those who would like a brief introduction to some basic aspects of a visual tradition spanning thousands of years, students of aesthetics might also discover useful benchmarks in this concise overview. The author places the emphasis on how art has been used and loved (or sometimes despised or ignored) more than on which works should be most famous.
About the author
Professor at the University of New Hampshire, Patricia Emison is the author, most recently, of 'Moving Pictures and Renaissance Art History' (Amsterdam University Press), 2021, as well as 'The Italian Renaissance and Cultural Memory' (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 'The Shaping of Art History: Meditations on a Discipline' (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008), and 'Creating the "Divine" Artist from Dante to Michelangelo' (Brill, 2004). She has also written articles, catalogue entries, and chapters on topics ranging from Renaissance prints to aura in the digital age. She has long taught both an interdisciplinary humanities survey and an art history survey, as well as a course on writings about the history of art, all to undergraduates, and this book is based on that experience.
