This book focuses on the aesthetic, symbolic, and cultural concepts of radiance and beauty in stained glass in modern art; global exchanges between stained-glass artists in Europe and the Americas; and the transformation of stained glass from religious decoration to secular material culture. Unique features of the book include its geographic breadth, encompassing England, France, Italy, USA, and Mexico, and its inclusion of American female glassmakers. Essays consider how stained glass became an art form during this time, and show how the narrative for the figurative design drew from the Bible, mythology, history, literature, and the symbolism of the time, including popular culture such as ecology and materiality. Written for students and the general public interested in the humanities, literature, history, art history, and new media and popular culture, this book examines the visual beauty and symbolism of stained-glass windows in Europe and American cultures during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – the modern era.

A guide to spectacular ceilings around the globe that have been graced by the brushes of great artists including Michelangelo, Marc Chagall and Cy Twombly. From the lotus flowers of the Senso-ji Temple in Japan, to the religious iconography that adorns places of worship from Vienna to Istanbul, all the way to Chihuly’s glass flora suspended from the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas—this book takes you on a tour of the extraordinary artworks that demand an alternative viewpoint. Art historian Catherine McCormack guides you through the stories behind the artworks—their conception, execution, and the artists that visualized them. In many cases, these works make bold but controlled political, religious or cultural statements, revealing much about the society and times in which they were created. Divided by these social themes into four sections—Religion, Culture, Power and Politics—and pictured from various viewpoints in glorious color photography, tour the astounding ceilings of these and more remarkable locations: Vatican Palace, Rome, Italy Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, UK Louvre Museum, Paris, France Dali Theatre-Museum, Figueres, Catalonia Museum of the Revolution, Havana, Cuba Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA Four eight-page foldout sections showcase some of the world’s most spectacular ceilings in exquisite detail. First and foremost, this is a visual feast, but also a desirable art book that challenges you to seek out fine art in more unusual places and question the statements they may be making. “Deepens our perspective of 40 of the most artistic, fascinating and iconic ceilings around the world.” —Forbes

In Light as Experience and Imagination from Medieval to Modern Times, David S. Herrstrom synthesizes and interprets the experience of light as revealed in a wide range of art and literature from medieval to modern times. The true subject of the book is making sense of the individual’s relationship with light, rather than the investigation of light’s essential nature, while telling the story of light “seducing” individuals from the Middle Ages to our modern times. Consequently, it is not concerned with the “progress” of scientific inquiries into the physical properties and behavior of light (optical science), but rather with subjective reactions as reflected in art, architecture, and literature. Instead of its evolution, this book celebrates the complexity of our relation to light’s character. No individual experience of light being “truer” than any other.

Originally published in 1961. A constant influence on human action is that of proprieties, personal and social. These attitudes and traditions defining what is proper are largely logical in origin, but chance has a way of upsetting them. Even theory, which is part of human action, is subject to this influence. Dr. Hammond takes a novel approach to this philosophical theme. His topics of discussion include perception, the role of symbols in poetry and science, the definition of good and good use in language, space and the motion of the earth, the psychology of love, attitudes toward gambling, and a defense of horse racing. This unorthodox approach results in an exceptionally imaginative and thought-provoking book as well as a strong defense of deontology.

Light pervades the world, and when it is not light, darkness emerges and is combated by electric illumination. Despite this globally shared human experience in which spaces appear radically different depending on time, season, and weather, social science investigation on the subject is meager. From Light to Dark fills this gap, focusing on our interaction with daylight, illumination, and darkness. Tim Edensor begins by examining the effects of daylight on our perception of landscape, drawing on artworks, particular landscapes, and architectural practice. He then considers the ways in which illumination is often contested and can be used to express power, looking at how capitalist, class, ethnic, military, and state power use lighting to reinforce their authority over space. Edensor also considers light artists such as Olafur Eliasson and festivals of illumination before turning a critical eye to the supposedly dangerous, sinister associations of darkness. In examining the modern city as a space of fantasy through electric illumination, he studies how we are seeking—and should seek—new forms of darkness in reaction to the perpetual glow of urban lighting. Highly original and absorbingly written, From Light to Dark analyzes a vast array of artistic interventions, diverse spaces, and lighting technologies to explore these most basic human experiences.

This unique series of paintings takes the viewer on a graphic, visionary journey through the physical, metaphysical, and spiritual anatomy of the self. From anatomically correct rendering of the body systems, Grey moves to the spiritual/energetic systems with such images as "Universal Mind Lattice," envisioning the sacred and esoteric symbolism of the body and the forces that define its living field of energy. Includes essays on the significance of Grey's work by Ken Wilber, the eminent transpersonal psychologist, and by the noted New York art critic, Carlo McCormick.

Colored marble turned the massive structures of ancient Rome into gleaming facades and formed the multicolored sculptures that decorated buildings and monuments--sights now largely lost to us. Radiance in Stone seeks to restore our vision of this precious medium. Created for the first exhibition devoted to the use of colored marble in ancient sculpture, at Emory University Museum, this stunning catalog includes sculpted works and examples of colored marble quarried throughout Asia Minor, Greece, North Africa, and Italy. Three extensive scholarly essays, by Maxwell L. Anderson, Antonio Giuliano, and Leila Nista, survey the history of colored marble in Italy, and guest contributors provide detailed essays to accompany each of the brilliant color photographs of colored marble artifacts. Samples of eighteen colored marbles at the end of the catalog render the magnificence of the stone and of the works of art created from it.

What is Christian art? - Early Christianity - Early churches of Italy - Christian Oriet - Coptic churches - Early Byzantine art - Byzantium and the Iconic tradition - Islam and Christian art - Carolingian and Ottoman Empires - Anglo-Saxon art and Benedictine reform - Pilgrims, Crusaders and European art - Gothic - Italian Gothic - Italian city-states - Italian High Renaissance - Northern Renaissance - Reformation - Protestantism and the Catholic Counter-Reformation - Age of Enlightenment - Mysticism and Romanticism - Faith and origins of North American art - Industrial innovation - Art for a new age - Modernity - Impact of Second World War - Innovation and tradition.