Madonnas: From Medieval to Modern - Hardcover

Belan, Kyra

9781859957936: Madonnas: From Medieval to Modern

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1859957935 ISBN 13: 9781859957936

Publisher: Parkstone Press, 2001

During the Renaissance, Italian painters would traditionally depict the wives of their patrons as Madonnas. The artists would often overstate the beauty of their models, rendering them more beautiful than they actually were.

The contemporary representation of the Mother of Christ, however, tended to remain unchanged. Images expressive of the joy at her son's birth and the pain of grieving for her son do not differ greatly from artist to artist. With the passing of time, Mary gradually lost some of her spiritual characteristics and became more humane, more accessible to human sentiments. The path, which led artists from portraying the sacred to the profane, is discussed by the author: a study of women through the changing image of the Virgin Mary, over the past two thousand years, and which is still very evident today.

Containing more than 200 illustrations, this book explores an exciting new way of understanding representations of the most frequently painted Christian female.

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About the Author:

Author, artist and art historian, Dr. Kyra Belan received her B.F.A. at Arizona State University and her M.F.A. at Florida State University, both degrees in Visual Arts. Her Ed.D. from Florida International University is in Art History and Higher Education. Dr. BelAn has had over forty solo exhibitions and over eighty group exhibitions in museums and galleries across the nation and abroad. Her work is in numerous private and public collections, including The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; The Latin American Art Museum, Miami, FL; Broward Art in Public Places, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; and Metro-Dade Art in Public Places, Miami, FL. Dr. Belan has also received numerous honors and awards, including Florida Arts CouncilAs Individual Artist Fellowship, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Grant, Outstanding Artist of the Southeast, Who is Who in American Art, and International Woman of the Year from Biographical Institute, Cambridge, England. She is currently an Otto M. Burkhardt Endowed Chair and a professor of art and art history at Broward Community College, Pembroke Pines, FL.

From Library Journal:

As a religious and cultural icon, the Madonna has inspired almost 2000 years of imagery and symbolism. Displayed here are over 200 illustrations of the Virgin, imparting rich color to the book with their large scale and full detail. In her discussion of themes depicted in the artwork, artist and author Bel n (art and art history, Broward Community Univ.; Lucid Future) explores issues concerning goddess worship and the perceived threat felt by a patriarchal church. She occasionally steps up onto a feminist soapbox, basing her discussions on personal perceptions rather than historical evidence. Lack of a detailed index further limits this work's value as research material, and very loose chronological order, without strong thematic organization, makes this a browsing book with the happy occurrence of information. While there is more history and interpretation to this book than Jacqueline Orsini's similar Mary: Images of the Holy Mother (Chronicle, 2000), the research student will need to look elsewhere for theological and scholarly discussion of the topic. For larger public libraries. Karen Ellis, Nicholson Memorial Lib. Syst., Garland, TX
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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