History of Beauty

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Small Coffee Table Art Based Book!
Review: Between the 400 or so photos, mostly of art work through the ages, and the text, with comments by philisophers (from Plato,thru Diderot,Hume, Kant, to the present day), artists, writers (notably Shakespeare,Goethe, Wilde among many others), this book seems to contain about everything regarding the idea and interpretation of beauty thru the ages. From Man , Woman (in the flesh and in clothing), to Kings and Queens, Madonnas and Messiahs, Art, Architecture, Nature, you name it, this is a fine read, worth at least several college credits on aesthetics and art. Not to mention a perennial browser, during those (hopefully many)quiet times, when the TV is off, and some thinking and relaxation,and even romance, are in the air!

Rating:
Summary: An historical view of what moves "the eye of the beholder".
Review: Dostoyevsky once observed that "beauty is the battlefield where God and the devil war for the soul of man". In History of Beauty Umberto Eco provides an historical context to how that battlefield has changed over the past 3000 years or so.

This is a sumptuous, unusually high quality coffee table book. While its over 400 photographs are extremely engaging, the introductions and essays Eco provides are absorbing and just as illuminating as the pictures. Eco lists himself as editor, but that is false modesty. His writing here is excellent, erudite and informative and provides a lot of food for thought as one peruses the visuals.

As is to be expected from Eco, his essays cite philosopher that run the gamut from Aristotle and Plato through to Xenophon (though I did not see any Dostoyevsky references though that dark soul was seemingly compulsive about the mesmerizing qualities of beauty) and thusly provide an all encompassing review of differing concepts of what is beautiful by both geographically and chronologically.

This is a rich, beautiful book that will please the dedicated reader as well as the casual surfer who might flip through it.

If you want to upgrade the ambiance of your coffee table, this would be an excellent choice.


Rating:
Summary: Thinking made clear
Review: Only Umberto Eco could write a book that defines beauty through the ages of western culture as this one does. He looks at the great contemporary writers for insight into the great contemprary artists. Umberto brings Plato to the front to explain early Greek art, and brings in Hume to explain humanist style. It is a classical book that should be used in colleges to not only introduce people to art but to thinking about art and words. The color plates are wonderful. What I wish is that the Italian CDrom was available in English. One can see from the style used that this book was a great interactive CDrom.

Reading Umberto's insights and looking at great art..what a wonderful way to spend a morning at starbucks!