ANCIENT EGYPT: The New Kingdom & the Amarna Period; CLASSICAL GREECE: The Elgin Marbles of the Parthenon

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These first two volumes of the comprehensive new Acanthus History of Sculpture are authoritative and beautifully illustrated books which should satisfy a wide reading public. The text is interestingly written and will appeal to the general public as well as to students of art. The photography is superbly sensitive and displays remarkably both the form and the surface qualities and textures of the sculptures. The illustrations are powerful and dramatic. In fact, the reader who has not seen the subjects himself is sometimes mislead as to the actual sizes of the originals. This fact, however, is carefully noted in well written descriptive analyses accompanying each example...Of the two books, Ancient Egypt may have more interest for the art student because in selecting the masterpieces to illustrate the so-called Amarna Period, the author has included works which are varied in subject matter and materials... The text and illustrations for Classical Greece, on the other hand, are confined to the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon. The same impressive excellence is shown but the fact that they are relatively familiar to the reader lessons their impact.....A conspicuous merit of both volumes is that they concentrate on a comparatively brief time span in history. This avoids the superficiality which always inheres when too great a period of time is covered. The reader, in this case, is able to get some sense of the depth and quality of the periods. A bargain at this price.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: New York Graphic Society

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1961

Categories: NONFICTION