Nature and Its Symbols (A Guide to Imagery) [Paperback]

Lucia Impelluso (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Guide to Imagery | Publication Date: December 1, 2004

Nature and Its Symbols is the fifth volume in the series A Guide to Imagery, reference guides whose goal is to explain the symbols used in art. This volume includes chapters on plants, flowers, fruits, and animals of the earth, air, and water, as well as fantastical creatures such as centaurs, griffons, and dragons. The vivid illustrations, which include paintings and tapestries from some of the world's premier museums, are accompanied by texts that offer a careful analysis of the artists' depictions of the natural world. Each entry discusses the symbolic significance of the particular plant, fruit, or animal portrayed, its mythic or literary origins, and the episodes or individuals associated with it. These salient points are also called out in summary form within each entry, making the information easily accessible. The reader discovers, for example, that the iris can represent Jesus or the purity of the Virgin Mary as well as the kings of France or the city of Florence. The monkey, which can be symbolic of the devil, heresy, or bad temper, is also associated with the three wise men who travelled to Bethlehem to pay homage to the infant Jesus.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following up on four previous titles explaining mythological and biblical iconography in paintings, the latest in the Getty's superb series does not disappoint. The myriad plants, flowers, fruits, animals (land, flying and aquatic) and "Creatures of the Imagination" that appear in medieval and Renaissance painting all have symbolic meanings; Impelluso devotes chapters to each of those categories, further dividing them by object: everything from quinces, myrtle and hyacinth to snakes, grasshoppers, sphinxes and harpies get their due. Impelluso (Gods and Heroes in Art) identifies their prominent appearances in various masterworks and explains their varying significances. Most of the reproductions are centered on the page, with small blocks of text surrounding them, with unobtrusive lines connecting the text to the actual objects it describes. It works beautifully, making the often ignored, busy backgrounds of many less-discussed works—like Lucas Cranach the Elder's The Virgin Under the Apple Tree and Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine—come alive with meaning.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Impelluso's delectable visual dictionary neatly explicates the symbolic and even magical meanings inherent in depictions of the natural world in traditional Western art, images that constitute a lost language just like the allusions De Rynck reveals. In order to reclaim this forgotten knowledge so that even when viewing a "simple still life" readers will understand that "every single fruit, flower, or animal is charged with a specific, characteristic significance," Impelluso organizes her guide into sections on plants, flowers, fruits, land animals, flying animals, aquatic animals, and creatures of the imagination. The meanings associated with, say, the rose, or the orange, the horse, the parrot, the dolphin, or the unicorn, are briskly elucidated, and premier examples are highlighted in 400 astutely chosen masterworks, each crisply reproduced and enhanced by concise and often surprising explanatory notes. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: J. Paul Getty Museum (December 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892367725
• ISBN-13: 978-0892367726
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book on art !, February 22, 2006

By 

Valery Marachevsky (St.Petersburg, Russia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nature and Its Symbols (A Guide to Imagery) (Paperback)

In "Guide to imagery series" books I found the books on art
that give an exceptionally clear presentation of the subject.
I bought 6 books ("Nature and Its Symbols" among them)
and I really found what I was searching for. You can study Old and
New Testament as well as ancient mythology reading these books,
understand the role of different details, symbols drawn on each picture. Inside each book there is a short description of the specific topic followed by full-colour reproductions of the pictures on this topic from different museums all over the world with detailed explanations to each picture. It was amazing to find and understand the meaning of different pictures I saw in art galleries in St.Petersburg, Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Venice, Naples and other places. Really a great selection of art works is presented in each of these books. I strongly recommend all these books to everybody who wants to understand the meaning of the pictures and get a nice art collection at home.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nature & Its Symbols - Excellent Artists' Reference, April 28, 2009

By 

Cookie B (Brighton, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nature and Its Symbols (A Guide to Imagery) (Paperback)

As a student of realism and the Masters, I found this book to exceed my expectations as a reference guide on symbolism in Art. Even if one is not an artist, they will find it very engaging and of high educational value relative to how history shaped Art from the Great Masters to art today.

4.0 out of 5 stars Nature adn Its Symbols "A Guide to Imagery), June 30, 2011

By 

Michelle - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nature and Its Symbols (A Guide to Imagery) (Paperback)

The photographs in this book are rich in colour. The language is easy to understand and the infomation is thorough. A great reference book. Also an interesting coffee table book.