Readings in Art History, Volume 1

Rating:
Summary: I have never seen an anthology on ANY topic as well chosen
Review: I had the good fortune to buy this book several years ago at a used book store before I had any exposure to the field of art history. It was my mistake not to read it thoroughly when I first got it; as I became more familiar with the art covered in this volume as well as the secondary literature, I realized that it contains some of the best essays written by some of the best minds to have worked on the problems of art history. Among the exceptional essays collected in this volume: Otto Demus on Byzantine mosaics, Katzenellenbogen on the Romanesque tympanum at Vezelay, Panofsky on Jan van Eyck, Millard Meiss on Sienese painting, Beazley on Greek art, Rhys Carpenter on classical architecture. These are masterpieces of art history, judged by the amount of information they compress and their continued relevance in a field where so much of what's written ages poorly if at all.