"Windows on the World" essays on the arts of Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, and Native America appear throughout the text. While the major focus of the text is on Western art, these essays are placed strategically to allow students to make connections between artworks and art movements at points where cultures meet and influence one another.
Art history methodologies are treated in Chapter One and in five illustrated boxed case studies in chapters 3, 8, 13, 19, and 21. These demonstrate how the same work of art can be interpreted several ways, depending on one's methodological emphasis. Methodologies discussed include formalism, biography and autobiography, iconography and iconology, psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, and semiotics. Specific works, such as the Egyptian Statue of Menkaure, The Arnolfini Portrait, and Ingres' Napoleon on His Imperial Throne are examined from a variety of perspectives to illustrate this concept.
A high level of scholarship couched in a strong narrative approach. Adams speaks to students in a voice they will understand, avoiding an encyclopedic approach in favor of dynamic introductions that are still based on solid research.
The text offers readers more than a chronology of art; it introduces political, economic, social, and personal concerns that influence the artists and inform their work, uniquely conveying the ideas, beliefs, and circumstances that inspire creativity.
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2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education