The art of the body
Subtitle: antiquity and its legacy
By: Michael Squire
Series: Ancients and moderns series
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Published: 2011
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9781845119300; 9781845119317
Subjects: Classical influences; Modern Civilization; Human beings in art; Art and society; Classical Art; Psychological aspects
Description: "The art of the human body is arguably the most important and wide-ranging legacy bequeathed to us by Classical antiquity. Not only has it directed the course of western image-making, it has shaped our collective cultural imaginary - as ideal, antitype, and point of departure. This book is the first concerted attempt to grapple with that legacy: it explores the complex relationship between Graeco-Roman images of the body and subsequent western engagements with them, from the Byzantine icon to Venice Beach (and back again). Instead of approaching his material chronologically, Michael Squire faces up to its inherent modernity. Writing in a lively and accessible style, and supplementing his text with a rich array of pictures, he shows how Graeco-Roman images inhabit our world as if they were our own. The Art of the Body offers a series of comparative and thematic accounts, demonstrating the range of cultural ideas and anxieties that were explored through the figure of the body both in antiquity and in the various cultural landscapes that came afterwards. If we only strip down our aesthetic investment in the corpus of Graeco-Roman imagery, Squire argues, this material can shed light on both ancient and modern thinking. The result is a stimulating process of mutual illumination - and an exhilarating new approach to Classical art history."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-228) and index.