 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Views & Reviews by Nan Meek
|
Horses and art seem to me to be the perfect combination: horses are art in my mind, nature’s art manifest in equine form. Think of the beauty of a horse running free, or a dressage horse passaging down centerline or a herd of horses just grazing in the field. It’s no wonder that artists through the centuries have chosen the horse as their subject. Horses: History, Myth, Art This Harvard University Press book is by Catherine Johns, a retired curator of Romano-British collections at the British Museum. She brings a scholar’s knowledge and an artist’s eye to this exploration of the horse in art from ancient times to our modern world; with beautiful examples of the incredible relationship between horses and humans that have been captured by artists through time. From the equine’s domestication through their lives in agriculture, warfare, transportation, ceremony and sport, as well as their roles in mythology and symbolism, the author shows the horse’s role in giving humans the ability to travel farther and faster, and to transform the world through their power and grace. Color illustrations of British Museum collection pieces include sculptures, paintings, coins, jewelry and gems that reflect the importance of the horse to civilizations world-wide throughout time. To page through Horses: History, Myth, Art is to travel back in time and around the world with artists whose reverence for the horse is reflected in their art. We are the lucky ones who get to share it for a moment through the pages of this incredible book. 30,000 Years of the Horse Actually, the full title of Tamsin Pickeral’s book is The Horse: 30,000 Years of the Horse in Art, and it is an absolutely gorgeous journey through time. As a writer, the author combines her knowledge of horses and art to illuminate the history of the horse from the earliest prehistoric cave paintings to the sport horses of today. This book has been called “a visual feast” and “a joy to read” and I can see why! Beautiful reproductions and a vast array of equine subjects delight the eye on every page, from cave wall paintings to ancient Chinese sculpture to Roman terra cotta, and from Michelangelo’s drawings to Renaissance tapestry to “Cowboy and Indian” art. The Horse: 30,000 Years of the Horse in Art is a beautiful reflection of the horse’s role in history, and even more. It provides a wonderful history of civilization as seen through the eyes of artists who, like us, love horses. It’s a beautiful education. The Horse in Art From Yale University Press, we have The Horse in Art by John Baskett, a new and updated edition of a once out-of-print classic. Particularly interesting are the biographies of the artists featured in The Horse in Art. It has been described as an “indispensable guide to the changing cultural perspectives, artistic styles and symbolic interpretations associated with its timeless and much-loved subject” and as such, it’s a great history lesson in itself. If history classes used books such as this to teach general history, it might make the classroom a more interesting place! The gorgeous reproductions, and the text that describes not only the artwork but the culture in which it was created, bring history to life in a way that anyone can absorb and enjoy … particularly anyone who loves horses. One of my favorite pieces of art, the Bayeaux Tapestry, is featured among many other examples of art through the ages. Just a small sampling of the artists featured in The Horse in Art include Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens, George Stubbs and Frederic Remington—all representative of their time in history and their choice of subject, and well worth studying even for the most modern of present-day artists and aspiring artists. Stubbs & the Horse By Malcolm Warner, Robin Blake, Lance Mayer and Gay Myers, Stubbs and the Horse, was a catalog of a highly-regarded exhibition that traversed the country a few years past. George Stubbs is regarded by many as the ultimate painter of horses, and anyone who pages through the 200 images in Stubbs and the Horse will have a difficult time disagreeing. From the 1760s to the 1790s, Stubbs painted commissions of their favorite horses for British aristocrats, and he painted his subjects based on incredibly accurate anatomy. Stubbs had spent years dissecting equine cadavers to educate himself on equine anatomy, and he subsequently based his equestrian paintings on a deep knowledge of his subjects unmatched by any previous (and perhaps subsequent) artist. In the authors’ essays, they point out that with George Stubbs’ works, the horse began to appear more lifelike, with more individual conformation, markings and personality, compared to a previously more stylized representation. Studying Stubbs work for background, placement and detail, even more information can be gleaned about the times in which these horses lived, raced and hunted. With different views on Stubbs and his work, the authors provide a variety of information and perspectives that make this glimpse into a pivotal period in equine art history truly wonderful. Happy Reading, Happy Riding Whether you add any of these books to your bookshelf, or peruse them at your local library, I hope you’ll visit their pages to discover how artists through the ages have viewed the horse. Enjoy the horses in these pages, as well as your own favorite equine. Happy reading and happy riding!
|
