Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2017 -

In this lovingly prepared volume, Fraser (Univ. of South Florida) examines significant 18th- and 19th-century Mediterranean travel narratives that meshed the Ottoman world and the West--from the well-known, often-reproduced, lavish tomes of Etienne-Francois duc de Choiseul, Antoine IgnaceMelling, and Jules Dupre to the intimate sketchbooks of Eugene Delacroix, including works from Europe and elsewhere that spoke from and of the Ottoman Empire. Fraser's multidisciplinary readings open up rich and compelling stories that link production and illustration, authorship, position, and ideologies of empire and nation in flux. This book obviously speaks to scholars of art history and imperial history and to students of books and printing, yet the complex tapestries unraveled and rewoven in each chapter speak as well to questions of national identity, anti-imperialism, artistic autonomy, and originality and borrowing. Fraser's careful and systematic analyses of illustrations and texts in multiple contexts across disciplinary debates should not only speak to specialists but also interest and teach others for whom these travel books may be an introduction to the borderlands and crossings of Mediterranean empires to records one can still read--after centuries of distance--as lessons in global exchange.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Of all Michelangelo's sculptural ensembles, the most ambitious and elaborate was the tomb planned for Pope Julius II. Begun in 1505, the tomb was essentially doomed from the start because of its grand scale, volatile patron, and overly ambitious artist--a situation that led Ascanio Condivi, Michelangelo's contemporaneous biographer (Vita di Michelagnolo [sic] Buonarroti, 1553), to famously refer to the project as "the tragedy of the tomb." The sculpture was intended for St. Peter's, but it was eventually installed (in 1545) in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli as a shadow of its original design. Some of the sculptures, however, are spectacular, including the remarkable figure of Moses in Rome and the so-called slaves in the Accademia Gallery (Florence) and the Louvre (Paris). These figures leave one wondering what could have been. A restoration campaign in Rome (conducted from 1998 to 2003), which included unprecedented photography, resulted in this comprehensive volume, first published in Italian in 2014. Frommel was chief consultant on the restoration, and the other contributors to the volume are leading authorities on Michelangelo. With insightful interpretive essays, catalogue entries for related works, a massive assemblage of documents, and invaluable photographs, this is as close to a definitive overview of the tomb as could presently exist.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

The craft of portraiture was brought to fruition in the hands of Roman artisans. Although profoundly influenced by their Greek forerunners, the Romans perfected veristic renderings of likeness in stone and bronze, setting standards by which sculpted representations of individuals continue to be measured to this day. Zanker (research scholar of Greek and Roman art, Metropolitan Museum of Art), a foremost specialist in the field, provides a comprehensive, insightful treatment of Roman portraits at the Met, the first such presentation of the collection as a whole. More than a lavishly illustrated catalogue of masterworks acquired since the institution's inception in 1870, the volume serves as a veritable treatise on ancient portraiture. The 103 entries are divided into six chapters (Roman copies of Greek portraits; imperial, male, and female portraits; portraiture in relief; and "disputed portraits"), preceded by an introductory essay, "On the History of Ancient Portraiture." Throughout, the erudition is balanced by accessibility and complemented by exceptional color photographs, including multiple views of each piece and relevant comparanda. Scholarly apparatus include a chronology of emperors appearing in the catalog, a map with ancient sites mentioned in the text, and a concordance of pieces.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

This is really two books in one: a biography of an Issei Japanese artist who spent much of his life in Seattle and an examination of the US government's incarceration--at the time of the US entry into WW II--of individuals of Japanese descent living along the West Coast. Fujii (1891-1964) was among those incarcerated, and he recorded his experiences in an illustrated diary. A brief foreword by historian Roger Daniels provides an overview of Fujii's life. In the first two chapters, Johns examines Fujii's life through the 1930s. The rest of the book focuses on the diary. A selection of 112 drawings (from the 249 Fujii did) are included, along with English translations of Fujii's simple, brief comments. The drawings are realistic pen-and-ink images on what is now aged paper. The volume appears in the "Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies." What makes this book compelling is its examination of an artist and his work during a shameful period in US history. The presentation is direct, without cant or moralizing. This book will be valuable in numerous disciplines, not just art history. An exhibition history of the artist is included.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

What a marvelous, incredible achievement! This is the first survey of the too-long-neglected illuminated manuscripts from Renaissance Italy. Long considered a "minor" art by modern scholars devoted to panel painting and sculpture, manuscripts show similar inventiveness and quality and patronage at the highest level. The book opens with a study of 15th- and 16th-century manuscripts by region and city followed by wonderful chapters on, among much else, the illumination of printed books, the book trade, and types of manuscripts. Beautifully and clearly written, the book is both accessible and a great contribution to scholarship. Roughly 2,000 manuscripts (mentioned or reproduced) are indexed, a number that indicates the staggering erudition of Alexander (emer., Institute of Fine Arts), one the greatest experts on medieval manuscript illumination of his generation. Illustrated in gorgeous color, the book is a joy to examine on every page. Two examples: a magnificent manuscript of Homer made for the humanist Francesco Filelfo in Milan c. 1440 has a stunning opening page with Agamemnon and Achilles; another Greek Homer printed at Florence in 1488 features a painted portrait of Piero de' Medici, certainly by a major painter, on an inserted leaf.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.

Exploring the works of more than 50 artists, this beautifully illustrated book employs a thematic and chronological format to celebrate figurative painting in the 20th century. This is not a survey but instead a selection of highlights, curated by writer and artist Timothy Hyman. Drawing on his own careful observation, Hyman reappraises the place of figuration during a century often thought of as dominated by conceptual art and abstraction, and he enriches his discussion with excerpts from writings by the artists themselves. Hyman responds to specific modernist trends and movements in the book's five chapters ("After Cubism: Reinventing the Language of Representation"; "After Expressionism: 'The New Thingness'"; "First-Person Painting"; Beyond the Formalist Canon: Visionaries, Dreamers, Oustiders"; and "After Abstract Expressionism: Towards a New History Painting"), examining subjects ranging from works by Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse, through the murals of Diego Rivera and Benode Behari Mukerjee, to the paintings of Georg Baselitz, William Kentridge, and Anselm Kiefer. Hyman's sensitively written text provides a compelling commentary as he guides the reader from work to work, not just revisiting the story of 20th-century art but creating a passionate argument for the endurance and innovation still alive within the figurative tradition.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

The study of Venetian drawings has come into its own in recent years, fiercely combating the Vasari-orchestrated discounting of Venetian disegno. Whereas the Florentines focused on hard and crisp drawing, largely in the service of the nude male figure, the Venetians developed an impressive range of drawing modes, from densely packed work capturing processional scenes to melting renditions of landscapes and portrait heads. Moving away from vexing issues of attribution, Whistler (curator of European art, Ashmolean Museum, Univ. of Oxford, UK) is interested in identifying common threads in the making and collecting of drawings in Venice, as seen from the 16th through the 18th centuries. Discussions of individual drawings are folded into chapters that detail workshop practices and the collecting of these drawings both at home and abroad. The author takes up innovations coming out of the Titian and Tintoretto workshops, and she offers a comprehensive, groundbreaking discussion of the widespread collecting and display of Venetian drawings by patrons all over Europe. With its wealth of new information and its highlighting of superb examples of the craft, this book will be the gold standard for the study of Venetian drawings for years to come.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.