Customer Reviews

The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture

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In The Arts of Intimacy, Dodds, Menocal, and Balbale document and analyze the collision/fusion of Muslim, Christian (indigenous Mozarabic and Roman), and Jewish cultures in the architecture, literature, decorative arts, and linguistics of medieval Spain. They focus on Toledo, which, as a city on the border between the Christian and Muslim worlds, was a microcosm of the evolution taking place all over the peninsula.

This is a terrific book, beautiful to look at (almost but not quite a coffee-table book), well-organized, nicely-written, and full of wondrous detail and provocative thinking. For those interested in learning more about this subject, the 57-page annotated bibliography "Sources and Readings" is alone worth the price of the book.

If you are one of those who thought Menocal's The Ornament of the World presented a simplistic, utopian view of the period, this book is the antidote. The detail is lavish in support of the theses and there is no attempt to gloss over the many ugly lapses of La Convivencia.

If anything, The Arts of Intimacy argues against any simplistic or reductionist approach to the development of Iberian culture. Esthetic influences were as fluid and multidimensional as political alliances, and in many cases religion turns out to be the least useful tool of explanation.

Get the book. Look at the photographs. Read the poems. Absorb and reflect on the hundreds of examples of cross-cultural influence. I promise you a worthwhile journey.

Been eagerly awaiting this and am glad to see it in print. It is rich in its interdisciplinary breadth, the evocative descriptions of places and explanations of society, and the complex ways that it traverses the ethnicities, religions, and politics of medieval Spain. Excellent text for classes in medieval art, literary, and cultural history, but also highly recommended for enthusiasts of al-Andalus and Spain. For example, this would be a great book to read prior to traveling to Spain.

Given that the press has excerpted positive comments from what in fact was a rather negative review published in Art Bulletin, I would suggest that readers who are interested in my very real reservations about the theoretical premises upon which this book is founded to consult that review (Art Bulletin, XCI/3 [2009], 369-373).

This is a very important book for anybody interested in this topic. Don't miss out! It's a gorgeous book written by true authorities in this field.