How Do We Look: The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization

by Mary Beard

Overview

From prehistoric Mexico to modern Istanbul, Mary Beard looks beyond the familiar canon of Western imagery to explore the history of art, religion, and humanity.

Conceived as a gorgeously illustrated accompaniment to “How Do We Look” and “The Eye of Faith,” the famed Civilisations shows on PBS, renowned classicist Mary Beard has created this elegant volume on how we have looked at art. Focusing in Part I on the Olmec heads of early Mesoamerica, the colossal statues of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, and the nudes of classical Greece, Beard explores the power, hierarchy, and gender politics of the art of the ancient world, and explains how it came to define the so-called civilized world. In Part II, Beard chronicles some of the most breathtaking religious imagery ever made—whether at Angkor Wat, Ravenna, Venice, or in the art of Jewish and Islamic calligraphers— to show how all religions, ancient and modern, have faced irreconcilable problems in trying to picture the divine. With this classic volume, Beard redefines the Western-and male-centric legacies of Ernst Gombrich and Kenneth Clark.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631494406
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	212,521
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Mary Beard is the author of the best-selling The Fires of Vesuvius and the National Book Critics Circle Award–nominated Confronting the Classics and SPQR. A popular blogger and television personality, Beard is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. She lives in England.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A History of Looking 11

Part 1 The Body in Question

Prologue: Heads and Bodies 19

A Singing Statue 23

Greek Bodies 33

The Look of Loss: From Greece to Rome 41

The Emperor of China and the Power of Images 53

Supersizing a Pharaoh 61

The Greek Revolution 69

The Stain on the Thigh 85

The Revolution's Legacy 91

The Olmec Wrestler 103

Editorial Reviews

06/11/2018
Beard (Women & Power: A Manifesto) examines how people historically have interpreted art in this disjointed two-part narrative. Part one looks at depictions of the body in ancient art from around the world, including an enormous 3,000- year-old stone head that sits in a jungle in Mexico and ancient Chinese emperor Qin’s tomb in China. In Greece, the sculpted, well-toned male body in statuary and painted pottery images of women performing domestic tasks convey a message about ideal living, which Beard likens to advertisements of the 1950s. Part two focuses on depictions of the divine in art as they appear in the Hindu temple at Angkor Wat in Cambodia; cave art at Ajanta, India; a mosaic of Jesus at the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy; the Sancaklar Mosque in Istanbul; and elaborately illustrated Jewish Bibles that have sparked “human controversy and conflict, peril and risk.” Beard’s clear and often witty prose is on full display and, as usual, her book is filled with historical detail, but the two sections fail to come together. There are enough intriguing morsels to satisfy longtime fans of Beard, but the book as a whole feels underdeveloped. Illus. and photos. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"The title of the book—How Do We Look—could also refer to the physical quality of the book itself. Its design, use, and style harken back to the concise, entertaining, well-made, solid little books popular a few years ago. In that, Beard again explores a means of perceptions (and a practical meaning of educating)… If your summer vacation proved a disappointment, make this little book your consolation."

Robert S. Davis

"Slim yet insightful.... Beard expands her view beyond western Europe to offer an admirable survey of cultures from Egypt to China, Judaism to Christianity, centuries past to the modern era, all while emphasizing the significance of the viewer over the artist.... As Beard emphasizes the power of the context in which we look at and interpret art, she ultimately suggests that civilization itself is a leap of faith. Beard is having fun in this joyfully accessible primer, backed with a robust appendix, for all interested in a new perspective on religion, art, and history."

Katharine Uhrich

"Readers will be grateful to have wise, witty Beard as guide and companion... Beard is charming and insightful piece by piece."

San Francisco Chronicle

★ 2018-06-18
The renowned classicist delivers another tantalizing morsel of analysis, this time on "art, and our reactions to it, over thousands of years and across thousands of miles."In this "inevitably and unashamedly selective book," Beard (Classics/Cambridge Univ.; Women & Power: A Manifesto, 2017, etc.) reviews the very purpose of art: who made it, who viewed it, and how we see it. From 3,000-year-old Olmec heads through the iconoclasts and Christian and Islamic portrayals of God, she traces historic conflicts over images of man and gods. The Egyptian memorial of a young woman named Phrasikleia (circa 550 B.C.E.) engages viewers in the way that future Greek and Roman statues would. But there are also images "not designed to be seen at all"—e.g. the terra-cotta warrior complex of China's first emperor, which "adds up to the biggest tableau of sculpture made anywhere on our planet, ever." The power of those portrayed, like Ramesses II, is achieved by their outsized presence, but to illustrate a central point, the author notes that images of power are only as strong as viewers allow. Throughout the book, the wealth of illustrations clearly reflects Beard's analyses. In the 18th century, art historian and archaeologist J.J. Winckelmann argued that "you could trace the rise and fall of civilization through the rise and fall of the representation of the human body." Winckelmann set the standard to judge other cultures in his assessment of the ultimate symbol of classical style, the Apollo Belvedere. But Beard's ideas about the images of gods are even more fascinating, especially with regard to the Ajanta Cave drawings in India, which force viewers to actively interpret their complexity, searching for truth and faith in the darkness. Even more thought-provoking is the Islamic use of calligraphy, more symbolic than practical, bridging the gap between art and the written word.Yet another triumph for Beard: a joy to read, too short for certain, packed with lessons quickly absorbed.

Kirkus Reviews