Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The Invention of Art: A Cultural History

The Invention of Art: A Cultural History

by L. E. Shiner

"A lucid book . . . it should be a must-read for anyone active in the arts."-Marc Spiegler, Chicago Tribune Books With The Invention of Art , Larry Shiner challenges our conventional understandings of art and asks us to reconsider its history entirely, arguing that the category of fine art is a modern invention—that the lines drawn between art and craft resulted from key social transformations in Europe during... (more)

Beyond Vision: Essays on the Perception of Art

Beyond Vision: Essays on the Perception of Art

by Pavel Florensky

Beyond Vision is the first English-language collection of essays on art by Pavel Florensky (1882–1937), Russian philosopher, priest, linguist, scientist, mathematician – and art historian. In addition to seven essays by Florensky, the book includes a biographical introduction and an examination of Florensky’s contribution as an art historian by Nicoletta Misler. Beyond Vision reveals Florensky’s fundamental... (more)

Meaning in the Visual Arts

by Erwin Panofsky

Since its original publication, Erwin Panofsky's Meaning in the Visual Arts has been standard reading for students of art history. It is both an introduction to the study of art and, for those with more specialized interests, a profound discussion of art and life in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Panofsky's historical technique reveals an abundance of detail, detail he skillfully relates to the life and work... (more)

The Everlasting Man

by G. K. Chesterton

"I read Chesterton's Everlasting Man and for the first time saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense..." -C.S. Lewis in Surprised by Joy "G. K. Chesterton routinely ignites more ideas per page than any Christian author of the twentieth century, with the possible exception of C. S. Lewis. Chesterton sometimes overstates, often maddens, and invariably provokes... (more)

The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers

The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers

The Mind's Eye focuses on the relationships among art, theology, exegesis, and literature--issues long central to the study of medieval art, yet ripe for reconsideration. Essays by leading scholars from many fields examine the illustration of theological commentaries, the use of images to expound or disseminate doctrine, the role of images within theological discourse, the development of doctrine in response to... (more)

Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architecture, Urbanism, and the Sacred

Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architecture, Urbanism, and the Sacred

by Philip Bess

“The city comes into existence . . . for the sake of the good life.” So wrote Aristotle nearly 2,400 years ago, articulating an idea that prevailed throughout most of Western culture and the world until the environmental consequences of the Industrial Revolution called into question the goodness of traditional urban life. Urban history ever since—from England’s early-nineteenth-century hygiene laws to... (more)

Panofsky and the Foundations of Art History

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Tags: art historical methodology