Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture [Paperback]

Richard Krautheimer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1986

The appreciation of early Christian and Byzantine Art as a sublime expression of religious thought and feeling is a comparatively modern phenomenon. Byzantine art is both static and dynamic: static in the sense that once an image was established it was felt that no improvement was necessary; dynamic in the sense that there was never one style and these styles or modes were constantly changing. The story is not only complex in its unravelling but ranges widely over various media: mosaic, wall painting and painted panels, sculpture in marble and ivory, manuscript illumination, gold, silver, and precious stones, jewellery, silk and rich vestments. This is an account by a medieval art-historian.

Product Details

• Paperback: 553 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; 4th edition (February 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300052960
• ISBN-13: 978-0300052961
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,115,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an English handbook of Byzantine painting, October 26, 2009

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Massimo Bernabo' "Massimo" (Florence, Italy) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Early Christian and Byzantine Art (The Pelican History of Art) (Library Binding)

John Beckwith was one of the most prominent students of Byzantine art around the mid 20th century. First, he wrote a comprehensive history of early Christian and Byzantine art in English, which appeared in 1970 as a volume of the Pelikan History of Art. Till now, Beckwith's handbook must be considered as a landmark in the field, the one summary which provides us with a general outlook of the development of Byzantine art from the 4th century up to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, with its 211 pages and 304 b/w illustrations. There is no similar handbook in English, but Krautheimer's Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture, whereas as for painting one should turn to the Italian translation (the one made in a Western language) of V. Lazarev's history of Byzantine painting in Russian (Storia della pittura bizantina, 1967).