Titles

"The traditional art forms of the Admiralty Islands occupy an important place in the art of the South Sea Islands. The originality of their oeuvre is manifested in monumental sculptures and magnificent wooden bowls and dishes as well as in small implements of virtuoso design. The works are decorated in a rich palette of red, black, brown and white tones that give severe, strongly contrasting visual effects. "[Featured here are] the artistically fashioned products...

"This monograph publishes for the first time a pothi or palm leaf manuscript of the Amarushataka from Orissa in the collection of the Rietberg Museum in Zurich. While the verses are, without doubt, some of the greatest in the annals of Sanskrit literature - they have been hailed throughout India as classics even up to the present day - is it the illustrations of this work that...

The museums of Japan feature rich collections and excellent exhibitions in world-class galleries. Yet they can be difficult to navigate without first-hand knowledge. The Art Lover's Guide to Japanese Museums acts as a personal guide, introducing readers to some of the most distictive and inspiring museums in the country. In depth information is given about each listed venue, including the story behind their creation. From magnificent traditional arts to fascinating artist's houses and from...

Over the course of the last 40 years, art historian Jonathan Brown has done more than anyone to reform our approach to the art of the Hispanic world between the age of El Greco and Velázquez and that of Goya. —This volume includes 19 essays by distinguished scholars on such subjects as El Greco's portraits, Ribera's 'Beggar Philosophers', Velázquez and the imperial court in Vienna, Goya's 'Red Boy', Picasso's "Dark Mirror", patronage of Italian Renaissance tombs in Spain, portraits for...

The Museum Rietberg in Zurich possesses an old and important collection of Southeast Asian sculpture, but until now it has never been fully documented and analysed. It includes stone statues from the Cham culture of Vietnam, examples of which can otherwise only be seen in the Cham Museum in Da Nang and the Musée Guimet in Paris; sculptures of the Khmer from Cambodia which are among the earliest artefacts of this culture collected in Europe; and statues from Thailand and...

On the far edge of the Christian world, often isolated or overwhelmed by Muslim cultures, the Armenians have produced a distinctive artistic tradition unlike any other. The collection in this book opens with objects from the great medieval periods in Greater Armenia and the Kingdom of Cilicia and later centuries are represented by paintings and books. The artists, including Ghazar, Arak'el of Gegham, Yovanes Gharietsi, Markos "The Illuminator," and Nagash Hovnat'nan, demonstrate to us how...

"Published a quarter-century ago, Dietrich Seckel's essay remains a vital contribution to a much-debated feature of Buddhist art, its aniconism, its aversion to depicting spiritual entities of the very highest order. Unlike Judaism, early Christianity, and Islam, he explains, the Buddhist faith has not condemned the representation of holy beings or living creatures. Nonetheless it believes...

The ancient kingdoms of the Cameroon Grassfields are famous for their splendid artworks—ornamented thrones, wooden figures, enormous drums, finely carved jewelry made from ivory and brass, and fabulous masks. This book presents 150 masterpieces from the courts of the Grassfield kingdoms. Historical photographs illustrate the magnificent life at the courts encountered by European visitors in the late 19th century. Additional field photographs taken...

Chinese Books

Court Painting at Udaipur

East Asian Books

The great Persian poet Firdausi's epic Shahnama, or 'Books of Kings', written at the turn of the eleventh century CE, is a seamless tapestry of historical and legendary material prominently featuring battles and individual struggles with fierce demons and enemy champions. The first known illustrations of the poem date to the early fourteenth century CE. The splendidly illustrated and illuminated late sixteenth-century Eckstein Shahnama (so called from a distinguished previous owner,...

Ethiopia has often attracted attention because of its unique position as an ancient Christian culture far into Africa. Many people have been fascinated by the brilliant colours and childlike directness of traditional Ethiopian art. Little attention has been given, however, to the great art periods the culture has witnessed in the past. The fifteenth century saw a magnificent flowering of painting in the highlands of central and northern Ethiopia – in paintings on panel and above all in manuscripts. This book...

Festivals and Ceremonies Observed by the Royal Family of Kotah

Twenty-five years after Captain Cook, the London Missionary Society sent its first representatives to the South Seas. Their goal was to eradicate heathenism and idolatry, but unwittingly, they became agents for the preservation of Polynesian culture through their diligent recording of language and religious practices. They even preserved a number of religious artifacts, which they sent back to England for exhibition in the Mission...

This book brings together the seminal group of paintings of London building sites by Frank Auerbach which are among the most profound responses made by any artist to the post-war urban landscape. These works chart the early development of Auerbach's remarkable approach to painting, for which he is celebrated as one of Britain's greatest living artists. Fascinated by the post-war rebuilding of London, Auerbach combed the city's numerous building...

This book is devoted to a monumental and superbly illuminated very large early fourteenth-century Mamluk Qur'an in muhaqqaq script. It constitutes the final part (Juz' 30) of a superb two-volume Qur'an of which the first volume is preserved in the National Museum in Damascus while the second volume, from which the present section originates, is widely dispersed. Remarkably, here the final part of the Qur'an is reunited with its magnificent and richly decorated double finispieces,...

Islamic Calligraphy

The selection consists of Qur'ans, illustrated Islamic manuscripts and scientific and religious manuscripts. All are handsomely illustrated and fully discussed. The manuscripts are from all parts of the Islamic world and represent the finest achievements of the form.

This book illustrates the collection of Japanese religious prints formed by Manly Palmer Hall, founder of the Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles. These prints represent the most systematically assembled part of his unique collection, arranged according to iconography.