History of Beauty by Umberto Eco, Alastair McEwen

From Barnes & Noble

Beauty, as Aubrey Beardsley once reminded William Butler Yeats, is difficult. Professor Umberto Eco agrees. Having probed the roots and tendrils of aesthetics for four decades, the Italian novelist and philosopher understands its complexities. In History of Beauty, he offers reponses to seemingly eternal questions: What is beauty? What is art? What is taste and fashion? Why do habitually associate ethics with aesthetics? A fascinating inquiry into a perennial topic.

From the Publisher

What is beauty? What is art? What is taste and fashion? Is beauty something to be observed coolly and rationally or is it something dangerously involving? So begins Umberto Eco's intriguing journey into the aesthetics of beauty, in which he explores the ever-changing concept of the beautiful from the ancient Greeks to today. While closely examining the development of the visual arts and drawing on works of literature from each era, Eco broadens his enquiries to consider a range of concepts, including the idea of love, the unattainable woman, natural inspiration versus numeric formulas, and the continuing importance of ugliness, cruelty, and even the demonic.

Professor Eco takes us from classical antiquity to the present day, dispelling many preconceptions along the way and concluding that the relevance of his research is urgent because we live in an age of great reverence for beauty, "an orgy of tolerance, the total syncretism and the absolute and unstoppable polytheism of Beauty."

In this, his first illustrated book, Professor Eco offers a layered approach that includes a running narrative, abundant examples of painting and sculpture, and excerpts from writers and philosophers of each age, plus comparative tables. A true road map to the idea of beauty for any reader who wishes to journey into this wonderful realm with Eco's nimble mind as guide.

Publishers Weekly

This inspired book begins, after a little throat-clearing, with 11 verso-recto "comparative tables"-sets of contact-sheet-like illustrations that trace representations of "Nude Venus" and "Nude Adonis" (clothed sets follow) as well as Madonna, Jesus, "Kings" and "Queens" over thousands of years, revealing with wonderful brevity the scope of the task Eco has set for the book. What follows is a dense, delectable tour through the history of art as it struggled to cope with beauty's many forms. The text, while rigorous in its inquiries, is heavy on abstractions, which get amplified by stiff translation: "In short, the question was how to retable the debate about the Classical antitheses of thought, in order to reelaborate them within the framework of a dynamic relationship." The selections, however, are breathtaking-300 color illustrations, from Praxiteles to Pollock-and they grant the text the freedom to delve into their complex mysteries. Eco's categories for doing so (e.g., "Poets and Impossible Loves") and his historical breadth in elaborating them are creative and impressive respectively. Long quotations ranging from Plotinus and Petrarch to Xenophon and Zola allow each era to speak for itself, while Eco links them with his own epoch-leaping connections. Seen in terms of a timeless debate on the form and meaning of beauty, masterpieces like Titian's Sacred and Profane Love or Cranach's Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey seem, if possible, even more immediate, and related to our own amorous profanities and thefts. (Dec.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Details from Seller

• ISBN: 0847826465
• Publisher: Rizzoli
• Pub. Date: December 2004
• Condition:

Comments from the Seller: Brand new item. Over 6 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: R20091031024323H

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents