Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; Distribution General; Cleveland Museum of Art; Distributed by Abrams
Published: February 1, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9780940717916
Subjects: Design - Decorative; Art / Design / Decorative; Art; Art & Art Instruction
Description: "In the middle of the first middle of the first millennium the political landscape of Europe was a lawless wasteland where widely scattered monasteries sheltered what remained of classical culture as well as the seeds of what would become the lofty achievements of medieval art, scholasticism, and humanism. In these sanctuaries and in towns fortified against constant warfare, precious objects, carefully wrought by hand, were made to glorify God and celebrate the pleasures of life at court. A thousand years of aesthetic culture, from the austere spirituality of the Byzantine Icon of the Virgin to the exalted frivolity of the French Table Fountain, is presented in this book, in pages filled with golden caskets set with jewels, tiny paintings in sacred books, and saints and angels in marble and gold"--Book jacket.