Imago Hominis: Studies in the Language of Art.

From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Slightly rubbed and partly bleached jacket, overall very good and clean. / Leicht beriebener und teils verblichener Umschlag, insgesamt sehr gut und sauber. - The renowned Israeli art historian MOSHE BARASCH has selected seventeen of his articles and lectures written over the past decade for inclusion in the present volume, Imago Hominis: Studies in the Language of Art. A new essay linking the themes explored in the book serves as the Introduction. The studies here presented deal with the image of the human figure (imago hominis) in the history of European art from antiquity through the twentieth century. The author shows that the image of man, far from being a mere reflection of nature, is the product of his own cultural traditions and religious vision. In all cultures artists and viewers of art have projected onto representations of the human figure their hidden thoughts and emotions, thereby making it a vessel of symbolic images. The studies seek to demonstrate how cultural and religious attitudes and beliefs are revealed in our individual artistic motifs. This book is built around three broad subjects: the human face, the human body, and a specific example of man in one of his social roles. The first part examines Greek masks as articulations of character and states of mind, and traces the afterlife of their physiognomic patterns in European art and aesthetic history. In the second part, on the human figure as a ��pathos formula,� movements and gestures are analyzed for the manner in which they express the �language� of art. The third part looks at images of the ruler as found in various art forms ranging from late antique mosaics to equestrian monuments of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. - MOSHE BARASCH is Jack Cotton Professor of Art History at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he founded the art history department. He has been a visiting professor at a number of North American and European universities, including Yale, Cornell, and New York universities and the Free University of Berlin. He has published widely in many languages. Among his several books in English are Modern Theories of Art I: From Winckelmann to Baudelaire, Icon: Studies in the History of an Idea, and Theories of Art: From Plato to Winckelmann, all published by New York University Press. ISBN 9780814712313