Gothic art : glorious visions /

Inspired teachers of medieval art still need a comparable "textbook" to supplement their guidance. This is such a book and, in its wake, manuals for undergraduates should never be the same. The diffusionist approach to Gothic art--outwards from St.-Denis and the ^Dle de-France--is here replaced with a nonlinear model constructed on a conceptual basis: the "visions" of the title are of space, time, God, nature, and the self, each occupying one chapter. Lest this description frighten conservative instructors, it must be said that Camille (Univ. of Chicago) offers insights in the best traditions of the discipline. He shows, for example, the diverse ways in which an altarpiece and a fresco were regarded, a distinction based on their setting, lighting, and composition. Stained glass, metalwork, seals, and book illumination are treated similarly, with almost every example supported by an excellent color illustration. Instead of trying to turn, say, math majors into little art historians and thus, ultimately, clones of the instructor, here, at last, is a book that shows students what is humanly important and different--both from its own past and from our present--about the Gothic era. A "must" acquisition for undergraduate libraries. Undergraduate; general. A. Cutler Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus

In this engagingly original introductory text to art and architecture of the Gothic period, Camille (art history, Univ. of Chicago) eschews a traditional formalistic and iconographic approach. He instead examines Gothic architecture in terms of its liturgical function as a grandiose reliquary to contain holy images and relics, as a sacred image itself, as a context for sculpture and other media, and in relation to an evolving concept of transcendent light. The critical urban context of the style and its relationships to rising monarchic power and shifting religious currents are also stressed. Out of these investigations arises a deeper comprehension of the subjective potency of religious imagery as manifested in communal, devotional, and liturgical contexts. While Camille attempts to come to grips with the essentials of the Gothic style, Partridge (art history, Univ. of California, Berkeley) is content to explore the unfolding of the Renaissance style within the boundaries of 15th- and 16th-century papal Rome. In a consideration that is sensitive to the perilous condition of the church, Partridge thoughtfully reconstructs crucial artistic responses to these challenges. Not only does he retrace the history of urbanistic refurbishment and reconfiguration of the papal city, he also underlines the practical and ideological intentions of these efforts. Individual building projects are also skillfully explored, and their relationships to the historical Roman context and their symbolic significances suggested. The consideration of frescoes offers important insight into the pictorial assertion of sacred and temporal power. These volumes are the latest additions to Abrams's "Perspectives" series, meant to examine significant periods and styles within broader social and historical contexts. While both authors make assertions that go beyond the possibilities of historical knowing, the richness of scholarship, perception, and thought that characterizes these efforts should gain them inclusion in all art libraries.-Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.