Treasury of Fantastic and Mythological Creatures: 1,087 Renderings from Historic Sources (Dover Pictorial Archive) [Paperback]

Richard Huber (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dover Pictorial Archive | Publication Date: October 1, 1981

Vast compilation of royalty-free images from many cultures and eras — from prehistoric rock paintings to works of Max Ernst, from the masks of black Africa to the gargoyles of Notre Dame.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (October 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486241742
• ISBN-13: 978-0486241746
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars well, it's a start, December 27, 2002

By 

Eric Wheeler (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Treasury of Fantastic and Mythological Creatures: 1,087 Renderings from Historic Sources (Dover Pictorial Archive) (Paperback)

On the one hand, the book does offer wide-ranging coverage. There isn't a region of the world that isn't covered to some extent.

On the other hand, the textual information provided is sparse and occasionally *wrong*, and some of the inclusions are questionable.

Each illustration has a one-sentence caption, varying considerably in detail provided. Some give you all the information you would need to find the source of the original illustration, some are a single word identifying the type of creature, others are somewhere in-between. It's unclear how much of this dearth of information is because of the reliance on secondary rather than original sources, and how much of it is because the author and/or his editor over-did the cutting.

Also, some of the captions are mis-assigned. Going through the book, I easily spotted several occasions where two of the illustrations on the same page were clearly given each other's captions. I only spotted this a few times but it begs the question, how many other such errors are there in the book that I didn't spot?

Finally, some of the illustrations included really don't belong. Details from Bosch paintings make sense, they're demons ("fantastical and mythological creatures") from hundreds of years ago ("from historic sources"). But there are some figures from modern art included that don't seem to belong, particularly a Picasso that's just an abstract rendering of a normal human.

It may well be more useful for its bibliography than for its content.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Depends on your purpose, November 18, 2005

By 

deLYSH (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Treasury of Fantastic and Mythological Creatures: 1,087 Renderings from Historic Sources (Dover Pictorial Archive) (Paperback)

Satisfaction with this purchase will very much depend on your purpose. It certainly does not have much text in the book to accompany the illustrations. Personally, I wasn't expecting any having purchased other Dover publications for artists and craftspeople. Which then left the illustrations. There is a diverse range here across different parts of the world. I was expecting different 'ages' rather than different 'locations'; only because some pictorial archives (especially costume ones) start with the oldest period and work forwards.

As someone looking for different animals and creatures for use in collage art, altered books and card making, this is a good book to add to my collection. There are certainly all manner of creatures contained within.

If you are looking for an informative archive through text, then this is certainly not the book for you. If like me, you are looking for a range of creatures; then this book has something to offer.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not so great, September 14, 2008

By 

Andrew J. Brozyna (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Treasury of Fantastic and Mythological Creatures: 1,087 Renderings from Historic Sources (Dover Pictorial Archive) (Paperback)

There are some nice renderings of 3-D objects (sculptures and masks), but why would the author choose to re-draw a 16th century engraving when the original is so wonderfully done?? All the images in this book are drawings by the author. I'm not too fond of the drawing style, and the captions aren't very useful.