Browse Recent Book Reviews

In Prato: Architecture, Piety, and Political Identity in a Tuscan City-State, Alick McLean presents the disclaimer that medieval Prato should be considered ordinary, at least when compared to its famous neighbors, Florence or Siena. However, by the end of this fascinating, finely researched book, the reader is left feeling that the architectural and urban design (and, ultimately, visual culture) of this Tuscan commune is, simply, extra-ordinary. McLean’s book is a diachronic exploration of the city and architecture of Prato in relation to social, political, and cultural developments, largely from its origin in the Carolingian era until its demise in… Full Review

Giovanni Boldini in Impressionist Paris, which accompanies the eponymous exhibition at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, provides an English-speaking audience an essential framework with which to place this scarcely known artist. The catalogue, written by Sarah Lees with contributions from Richard Kendall and Barbara Guidi, distinguishes itself from typical studies of Boldini (1842–1931) by examining and illustrating the full range of his work stylistically and thematically. Its format, organized largely by genre, is vividly supported by dozens of color plates, and illustrates Boldini’s explorations both in relation to his French environment after 1871 and his earlier Italian… Full Review

Even before Francisco Pizarro set foot in South America, the people, wealth, natural resources, and social organization of the prehispanic Andes were already being documented in text. The earliest known document of this kind, the Sámano account, was copied into the Spanish royal record by Juan de Sámano around 1528. By recounting the first European explorations in the region, the Sámano account established a tradition of recording and collating information about the Andes in written documents, a practice that continues today in projects like Joanne Pillsbury’s Guide to Documentary Sources for Andean Studies, 1530–1900. In the three volumes… Full Review

Pika Ghosh’s Temple to Love: Architecture and Devotion in Seventeenth-Century Bengal breaks new ground in its exploration of Hindu temple architecture. This deeply researched, well-argued work considers a radically new form of temple design that was first consolidated in mid-seventeenth century Vishnupur, capital of the Malla dynasty of western Bengal. Ghosh weaves together histories of architecture, religion, culture, and sacred poetic literature to explore the genesis and early development of the temple form proclaimed by its patrons navaratna ratnam—in her translation, “new bejeweled temple”—in an inscription on the mid-seventeenth-century Shyam Ray Temple at Vishnupur. Ghosh concentrates on the formative… Full Review

In The Pygmalion Effect Victor Stoichita makes the astonishing claim that there is a libidinal component to mimetic production. Western art history—taken here to be a history of mimesis, of copies—has a dark, disavowed, erotic heart: the simulacrum. The simulacrum differs from the copy in that it is magical rather than mimetic, invites touch rather than merely looking, and is autonomous rather than merely derived from a model; Pygmalion’s statue is its founding myth. Arguing that “the simulacrum was not completely banished by Platonism” (3), Stoichita explores the “reverberations” (5) of the Pygmalion myth through Western art, paying close attention… Full Review

The modest title of Matthew Reeve’s book Thirteenth-Century Wall Painting of Salisbury Cathedral: Art, Liturgy and Reform only hints at the rich investigation contained therein. Salisbury Cathedral furnishes an unusual instance in which the building itself was constructed on a virgin site in one long campaign (ca. 1220–58), and where there is extensive evidence of the structure’s painted program. Moreover, the details of the celebration of the liturgy within this space are known since it was made to house the newly minted Sarum Rite, written at Salisbury perhaps by the bishop who inaugurated the cathedral-building program, Richard Poore (r. 1217–28)… Full Review

One of Spain’s most intriguing monuments is the royal monastery church of San Isidore in Léon. It is well known for its extensive cycles of capitals, its Romanesque portals, and above all the paintings in the so-called Pantheon de los Reyes at the west end of the church. Previous scholars have usually held the Infanta Urraca (d. 1101), sister of King Alfonso VI, responsible for the rebuilding of the church, or have considered the Infanta Sancha (d. 1159) as the patron of the building. The latter view is based on the evidence provided by a dedicatory relief in the… Full Review

Poet, urban chronicler, and queer dandy about town, Salvador Novo helped give modernism in Mexico its shape while never quite fitting in. A consummate insider-outsider, he found perches in the government and at various publications throughout his career, though he never stayed for very long. In the 1920s and 1930s, Novo was a member of the Contemporáneos literary circle, which was known for its high-meets-low tastes and cosmopolitan orientation. He published prodigiously—“promiscuously” according to his critics who advocated a folkloric cultural nationalism—with writings ranging from the cunning to tongue-in-cheek. Many of his stories circulated in the new illustrated magazines that… Full Review

The publisher of The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance describes it as “a landmark survey and analysis of Italian Renaissance architecture by an internationally renowned expert in the field.” The claims are true: the author is a scholar and teacher of respected and possibly unchallenged authority in the field. But the impressive tome is perhaps more a landmark in the sense of being the last monument in a tradition than wholly a volume for the future. Christoph Luitpold Frommel writes from a formidable vantage point, Rome, where he has spent decades in meticulous and groundbreaking research, documented in his vast… Full Review

This useful collection of previously published essays appears in a series of course readers in museum studies edited by Simon Knell. The goal of this particular anthology is to illuminate the impact of digital media on museum exhibitions and on the conserving of digital artifacts in museums. Knell’s explanation of the general goals of the series ends with a citation from Michel Foucault as a guide to each volume's efforts to update museum studies curricula. With that directive, it is inevitable that the series will have to navigate between the most mundane practical concerns, in this case how to run… Full Review