Medieval Art: 4th-14th Century (Trade Version)

In a highly readable, consistently illuminating tour over the main roads and byways of medieval art, Snyder, a Bryn Mawr professor of art history, tracks the turn to spirituality from Early Christian basilicas filled with celestial symbolism through the flowering of Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic styles. Familiar signposts are highlightedSan Marco Cathedral in Venice, the Bayeux Tapestry, the Book of Kells, Chartres, Giotto's frescoesbut so are less well-known treasures including Coptic Egyptian apse paintings, cryptic murals in Roman catacombs, 11th century Anglo-Saxon churches, painted icons in a Mount Sinai monastery. An opinionated and rewarding guide, Snyder gauges the 9th century renaissance in the arts against Charlemagne's conscious revival of the ancient state, and later finds echoes of the Middle Ages in Giotto's naturalism. Seventy-three stunning color plates and 615 black-and-white illustrations make this a beautiful book. (Mar.)