Janson's History of Art: The Western TraditionFor courses in the History of Art.
Rewritten and reorganized, this new edition weaves together the most recent scholarship, the most current thinking in art history, and the most innovative online supplements, including digital art library. Experience the new Janson and re-experience the history of art.
Long established as the classic and seminal introduction to art of the Western world, the Eighth Edition of Janson's History of Art is groundbreaking. When Harry Abrams first published the History of Art in 1962, John F. Kennedy occupied the White House, and Andy Warhol was an emerging artist. Janson offered his readers a strong focus on Western art, an important consideration of technique and style, and a clear point of view. The History of Art, said Janson, was not just a stringing together of historically significant objects, but the writing of a story about their interconnections, a history of styles and of stylistic change. Janson's text focused on the visual and technical characteristics of the objects he discussed, often in extraordinarily eloquent language. Janson's History of Art helped to establish the canon of art history for many generations of scholars.
The new Eighth Edition, although revised to remain current with new discoveries and scholarship, continues to follow Janson's lead in important ways: It is limited to the Western tradition, with a chapter on Islamic art and its relationship to Western art. It keeps the focus of the discussion on the object, its manufacture, and its visual character. It considers the contribution of the artist as an important part of the analysis. This edition maintains an organization along the lines established by Janson, with separate chapters on the Northern European Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance, the High Renaissance, and Baroque art, with stylistic divisions for key periods of the modern era. Also embedded in this edition is the narrative of how art has changed over time in the cultures that Europe has claimed as its patrimony. |
From inside the book
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... patrons throughout Europe indulged a taste for objects made of sumptu- ous materials with elegant forms , based on the Gothic style . The latter had been born in France and was linked with the powerful French monarchy , so its latest ...
... patrons on a more socially equal level , but the person buying the work of art still had a great deal to say about the finished product . In gifts made to churches , patrons might want their portraits painted into the work of art or ...
... patrons who com- missioned this small number of gifted and ambitious men to make works of art for them . This period saw the coming together of demanding patrons - rulers , popes , princes - and innovative artists . Patrons competed for ...