Between the postwar years and the 1980s in Britain, and in particular in London, a number of figurative painters simultaneously reinvented the way in which life is represented in art. Focusing on the
Visitors to museums or ancient Roman sites are often confronted with Latin texts inscribed on objects or buildings from classical antiquity. To the uninitiated such Latin inscriptions can appear daunt
Theodore Rousseau (1812–1867), arguably the most important French landscape artist of the mid-nineteenth century and a leader of the so-called Barbizon School, occupies a crucial moment of transition
In 2008, the Berlin Antikensammlung initiated a project with the J. Paul Getty Museum to conserve a group of ancient funerary vases from southern Italy. Monumental in scale and richly decorated, these
Metadata provides a means of indexing, accessing, preserving, and discovering digital resources. The volume of digital information available over electronic networks has created a pressing need for st
During Qing dynasty China, Italian artists were hired through Jesuit missionaries by the imperial workshops in Beijing. InThe Shining Inheritance: Italian Painters at the Qing Court, 1699–1812, Marco
Futurist Painting Sculpture (Plastic Dynamism), a truly radical book by Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916), claimed a central position in artistic debates of the 1910s and 1920s, exerting a powerful influen
The Mogao grottoes in northwestern China, located near the town of Dunhuang on the fabled Silk Road, constitute one of the world’s most significant sites of Buddhist art. Preserved in some five hundre
The Roman Empire had a rich and multifaceted visual culture, which was often variegated due to the sprawling geography of its provinces. In this remarkable work of scholarship, a group of internationa
The mosaics in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum span the second through the sixth centuries AD and reveal the diversity of compositions found throughout the Roman Empire during this period.
The legacy of Robert Mapplethorpe (1946 –1989) is rich and complicated, triggering controversy, polarizing critics, and providing inspiration for many artists who followed him. Mapplethorpe, one of th
Celebrated photographer Robert Mapplethorpe challenged the limits of censorship and conformity, combining technical and formal mastery with unexpected, often provocative content that secured his place
Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr. (1921–1987) amassed an extraordinary collection of 26,000 photographs between 1973 and 1984, recognizing that photography was an undervalued art form on which he might have a pr
Step back in time to seventeenth-century Paris with Therese, a talented young girl who lives and works at the Gobelins Manufactory, where Europe’s greatest artisans make tapestries and luxury objects
In the 1960s, a group of Los Angeles artists fashioned a body of work that has come to be known as the “LA Look” or West Coast Minimalism. Its distinct aesthetic is characterized by clean lines, simpl
Daily religious devotion in the Greek and Roman worlds centered on the family and the home. Besides official worship in rural sacred areas and at temples in towns, the ancients kept household shrines
Robert Lebel, French art critic and collector, was instrumental in rendering Marcel Duchamp’s often hermetic life, art, and ideas accessible to a wider public across Europe and the United States, prin
Due to the technological advances of the nineteenth century, an abundance of black drawing media exploded onto the market. Charcoal, conte crayon, and fabricated black chalks and crayons; fixatives; v
In the ancient world, terracotta sculpture was ubiquitous. Readily available and economical—unlike stone suitable for carving—clay allowed artisans to craft figures of remarkable variety and expressiv
Memory studies — one of the most vibrant research fields of the present day — brings together such diverse disciplines as art and archaeology, history, religion, literature, sociology, media studies,
One of the finest works from the golden era of Flemish manuscript illumination, the Getty’s copy of theRomance of Gillion de Trazegnies tells of the adventures of a medieval nobleman. Part travelogue,
The whimsical imagery of four tapestries in the permanent collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum and currently on display at the Getty Center is perplexing. Created in France at the Beauvais manufacto
Meticulously woven by hand with wool, silk, and gilt-metal thread, the tapestry collection of the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, represents the highest achievements of the art form. Intended to enhanc
A maverick in the history of photography, Ishiuchi Miyako (b. 1947) burst onto the scene in Tokyo during the mid-1970s, at a time when men dominated the field in Japan. Working prodigiously over the l
The Edible Monument considers the elaborate architecture, sculpture, and floats made of food that were designed for court and civic celebrations in early modern Europe. These include popular festivals
Qing Encounters: Artistic Exchanges between China and the West examines how the contact between China and Europe in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries transformed the arts on both sides of
Paul Cezanne (1839–1906) was one of the most influential artists of his day, producing work derived from “the most acute sensibility at grips with the most searching rationality” according to his frie
In the decades since its initial publication in German in 1978, Polychrome Sculpture has come to be widely regarded as a watershed text on the making and meaning of European medieval and Baroque paint
In contrast to other histories of ancient art that typically privilege well-preserved works of ceramics or stone,Luxus offers an integrated contextual analysis of artifacts fashioned from a wide varie
The Mogao grottoes in China, situated near the town of Dunhuang on the fabled Silk Road, constitute one of the world’s most significant sites of Buddhist art. The hundreds of caves carved into rock cl
Lawrence Alloway (1926–1990) was a key figure in the development of modern art in Europe and America from the 1950s to the 1980s. He is credited with coining the term pop art and with championing conc
The great Renaissance artist Andrea del Sarto (1486–1530) rivals Leonardo da Vinci as one of history’s most accomplished draftsmen. Moving beyond the graceful elegance of his contemporaries, such as R
Once considered the golden age of French printmaking, Louis XIV’s reign saw Paris become a powerhouse of print production. During this time, the king aimed to make fine and decorative arts into signs
Offers an overview of the Getty's collections and provides a history of the museum and its founder. This volume features treasures of the ancient world and medieval manuscripts, impressionist painting
From the invention of photography up through the internet age, animals have been a frequent subject of the camera’s lens, from portraits of beloved pets and exotic creatures to the documentation of hu
Principles of Art History by Heinrich Wolfflin (1864–1945), a revolutionary attempt to construct a science of art through the study of the development of style, has been a foundational work of formali
Known for their stunning displays of artistry and technique, Italian illuminated manuscripts have long been coveted by collectors around the world. The J. Paul Getty Museum holds the most recently for
Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets that were used to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet. From late antiquity through the early middle ages, peo
Cuneiform script on clay tablets is, as far as we know, the oldest form of writing in the world. The resilience of clay has permitted these records to survive for thousands of years, providing a fasci
From 1946 to 1973, Whitney Rowland Smith and his partner, Wayne Williams, designed more than 800 projects, from residential, commercial, and public buildings to housing tracts, multi-use complexes, an
