344 pages, hardback, 300 x 240 mm, 290 colour illustrations
PRICE: £40.00
ISBN: 978 1 907372 19 3
The Unesco World Heritage site of Lalibela in Ethiopia is one of the most extraordinary places in the world. It contains eleven churches, all of them hewn from the native rock in imitation of buildings. However, Lalibela and the Ethiopian kingdom remained unknown in the West until the account of the first Portugese embassy to Ethiopia was published in the 16th century. Read more
In the winter of 1586, Hakob Jughayets'i, one of Armenia's most celebrated illuminators, completed work on a Gospel Book with an extensive and extraordinary programme of narrative miniatures and marginal figures. More
Detailed biographies describe the lives of twelve collectors of tribal art in Britain, active between 1770 and 1990. These men were rarely field collectors and only occasional travellers, but they were vigorous hunters, for whom the pursuit, handling and possession of such objects was what mattered. More
Remembering Forward presents works by nine of the most prominent Australian Aboriginal artists: Paddy Bedford, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Queenie McKenzie, Dorothy Napangardi, Rover Thomas, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri and Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula. More
Twenty-five years after Captain Cook, the London Missionary Society sent its first representatives to the South Seas. Their goal was to eradicate heathenism and idolatry, but unwittingly, they became agents for the preservation of Polynesian culture through their diligent recording of language and religious practices. They even preserved a number of religious artifacts, which they sent back to England for exhibition in the Mission Museum in London. This book focuses on these artifacts, the idols that avoided the flames. More
Illuminator, painter, scribe, clerk, teacher, doctor of theology, restorer and binder, Mesrop was one of the greatest Armenian artists of his and following generations. He was prolific, working for at least forty-two years in Sos (New Julfa) from 1608 to 1651. This book will be the first serious study of the 46 of his manuscripts that have survived. The focus of the book, however, is The Four Gospels, one of the few manuscripts painted entirely by Mesrop’s hand and one of the most extensively illuminated in his oeuvre. More
The unique character of Ethiopian art is the legacy of its situation high in the mountains on the Horn of Africa. Though remote and often isolated it evolved a tradition, going back to the fourth century AD, in response to contacts with Byzantine, European and Islamic cultures. More
The ancient kingdoms of the Cameroon Grassfields are famous for their splendid artworks – thrones ornamented with precious European beads, wooden figures sculptured by unknown masters, enormous drums, finely carved jewellery made from ivory and brass, as well as fabulous masks. This exhibition catalogue presents 150 impressive masterpieces from the courts of the Grassfield kingdoms. More
Ethiopia has often attracted attention because of its unique position as an ancient Christian culture far into Africa. Many people have been fascinated by the brilliant colours and childlike directness of recent traditional Ethiopian art. Little attention, however, has been given to the great periods that this culture has witnessed in the past. The 15th century saw a magnificent flowering of painting… More
Around 1800, an anonymous engraver in Sharanakula, a small temple place on the southern coast of Orissa, illustrated a palm-leaf anthology of love poems. The one hundred Sanskrit quatrains, which are said to be the work of the 7th-century poet Amaru, describe the behaviour of enamoured couples, their longing for each other, the lovers’ anxieties, their ecstatic joy as well as their doubts and sorrows. More