Ingrid Drake Rowland

Mario Pereira

Noriko Matsubara

David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art

Rowland

Craig Hanson

Allie Terry

A scholar's desk, a warlord's castle, a pope's altar, the mouth of a volcano: in the minds of early modern Europeans, all evoked memories of ancient times, from Egyptian pharaohs to Roman emperors. The essays in this catalog explore the influence of antiquity on a broad spectrum of artistic production in Europe, from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. They include investigations of proto-scientific imagery, Ovidian myth, allegorical devices, the papal banquet, and the growing importance of Greece to understandings of the ancient world. Together, these essays reveal much about the continual remaking of the antique in the visual culture of Europe.

The Place of the Antique in Early Modern Europe

Nicholas Penny

National Gallery of Art (U.S.)

Hollis Clayson

Peter W. Parshall

Hammer Museum

Christiane Hertel

For many today, the art of the late nineteenth century is equated with impressionism and post-impressionism. This book with its insightful essays and remarkable works of art presents us with an alternative account of the period. For collectors the experience of prints, drawings, and small sculptures was often a private affair, like taking a book down from the shelf for quiet enjoyment. Prints and drawings were kept aside, compiled in albums and portfolios, while medals and bronzes were often placed in the seclusion of the library. In short, such works of art were not typically a part of one's day-to-day environment in the manner of a framed object hung on a wall. Rather, they were subject to purposeful study on chosen occasions. From the beginning this element of discreteness allowed for degrees of experiment, leading artists to some times recherche, sometimes enigmatic, and often melancholy subjects that indulged the solitary circumstances of their reception. By explicating a range of highly engaging, often mysterious and beautiful objects, The Darker Side of Light evokes the shadowed interiors and private introspections that compose a far less familiar history of late nineteenth century art.

Arts of Privacy, 1850-1900

The Darker Side of Light

Martin Kippenberger

A selection of hotel stationery designed by Kippenberger.

No Drawing, No Cry

David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art

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