Product Description

New revised and expanded edition!

"The story of painting is one that is immensely rich in meaning, yet its value is all too often hidden from us by the complexities of its historians. We must forget the densities of 'history' and simply surrender to the wonder of the story." -Sister Wendy Beckett Internationally renowned art historian Sister Wendy Beckett brings her knowledge, her deep love of art, and her luminous insights to The Story of Painting- making a difficult subject accessible and stimulating to all. The Story of Painting features more than 450 masterpieces- all faithfully reproduced in rich, full color- chronicling the developments and movements in the history of painting over the past 800 years, from Gothic to Renaissance, Romanticism to Impressionism, Post-Impressionism to Modernism. Each movement is introduced by visual timelines to provide an instant overview of the significant artists and paintings of the era. This enhanced and expanded edition of The Story of Painting has almost doubled in size. It expands the existing 400 pages to 736, focusing on the approximately 450 paintings with facing pages of details for almost 200 of them. This classic art book presents the masterpieces in two ways: as the original painting appeared and, on double spread pages, as enlarged close-ups of the paintings' most pertinent details. Now the reader can study a painting as though standing in front of it in a museum, seeing the powerful effect of the whole and then studying the minutest details of brushstrokes, textures, quality of lines, and overlays of color.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #164243 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 736 pages

Amazon.com Review
For those who've enjoyed the original, the good news is that the new edition of The Story of Painting has grown by more than 300 pages of photographs--magnified close-ups of details from nearly half the 450 paintings in the book. Fauvist paint strokes become mighty slabs; sparkling light on a Dutch still life is revealed as a series of tiny dots; the cheeks of a young man in an Italian Renaissance portrait betray a touch of five o'clock shadow. This kind of close looking is seductive, and it's an important part of Sister Wendy's direct, unpretentious approach to art.

As a history of painting, Sister Wendy's book has its strong points (works with religious or spiritual themes and those that lend themselves to psychological interpretation) as well as its lapses (a very skimpy discussion of Cubism and inadequate treatment of works from the late 20th century). Even the title is a bit of a misnomer. The painting in question is purely Western; there is nothing here about Indian or Persian miniatures, or the great tradition of Chinese landscapes.

But what Sister Wendy alone offers are vivid, personal interpretations that come from a deep well of emotional sympathy with works of art. Who else would notice the way the bagpiper in The Wedding Feast by Pieter Breughel "stares at the porridge with the longing of the truly hungry"? Who else would point out how Venus--the "older woman" pleading with "virile" Adonis not to go off to war in Titian's "Venus and Adonis"--shows us "her superb back and buttocks, beguilingly rounded, full of promise." Rather than portraying Western art as the dutiful production of "masterpieces," she revels in the physicality of paint and the variety of human experience these works represent. --Cathy Curtis

From School Library Journal
YA-Sister Wendy, well known in Britain for her BBC series on art history, has produced this exhaustive overview of Western painting. Nearly every development from the Lascaux Cave painters up to the "maze of contemporary artistic experience" is represented, although the main emphasis is placed on the last 800 years. The material is presented in chronological order, and grouped into chapters by trends or movements. A typical chapter includes several of the period's leaders, a few of their most famous works, and supporting material arranged in attractive, eye-catching displays. Over 400 beautiful, full-color reproductions appear; they are often augmented with closeups of particular sections and highlighted portions. Vignettes about the artists' lives, their favorite subjects, and their patrons enliven each selection. Politics, religious beliefs, and other factors that influence the painters are briefly summarized. Insights into art production, special techniques, symbolism, and samples of parallel trends in sculpture, architecture, and in later years, photography, broaden the scope of the book. The writing style is straightforward but lively, neither talking down to readers nor resorting to arcane art-speak. YAs interested in a beginner's course on art history will find this book satisfying.
Carolyn E. Gecan, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
There is no denying that this book will receive a certain amount of attention, some of it humorous, because of its author. There is also no denying that she is doing wonderful, intelligent, and witty things for the appreciation of art. Sister Wendy has become something of a celebrity with her television series, Sister Wendy's Odyssey and Sister Wendy's Grand Tour. Her book is an ambitious overview of painting through the ages. Major movements in painting of the last 800 years are introduced with time lines and sumptuous illustrations. The author features 30 of what she considers to be the world's most famous paintings for in-depth analysis, using short essays and innovative layouts of enlarged details. While her work doesn't attempt the high seriousness of H.W. Janson's History of Art (Abrams, 1991. 4th ed.), it is an irresistible volume. Highly recommended for public libraries.
Daniel J. Lombardo, Jones Lib., Amherst, Mass.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

This book is a must for all interested in european painting.
I first read this book when I was enrolled in an art history class in college. The text book we had for the class was informative, but many of the works we studied in detail were not pictured in the text. Sister Wendy covered each of those major works with great care. Her photos and close-ups were, almost work for work, the exact paintings and close-ups we had discussed in the class. I ended up reading more from Sister Wendy than from the text, because she gave wonderful synopses of key points, and included more photos. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is curious about painting. It will improve your future museum visits just by flipping through the pages

Nun of that, now...
How bizarre...

...and yet, how wonderful. Who would have ever thought that a nun going through the museum would have (a) been interesting, (b) been publishable, (c) been television-worthy, or (d) been within the realm of credible imaginings? And yet, here is the proof, on my coffee table. Sister Wendy's smiling face, next to a scowling Vincent, greets me each day with my morning cocoa.

This is a book to be savoured. It cannot, like the morning cocoa, be rushed and enjoyed. This must take time. Not because the text is dense or confusing--indeed, it is not. It is lively, witty, historical, accessible, all that one could want in a book on art.

But, mostly, it is exquisitely visual in layout. Everything is photographed and reproduced in stunning colour and low-gloss format to make the pages vibrant and durable yet easily seen. Care has gone into the production of this volume. None of the art is reduced to black and white, but rather presented in glorious colour. With over 800 images in under 400 pages, this is a feast for the eyes. Each page is dominated by art, not text. That makes for slow moving, like reading a museum..

Sister Wendy Beckett takes us on an historical tour of painting (in the European theatre of history), beginning with prehistoric cave-art and drawings, leading up to modern and post-modern artists.

She takes representative pieces, such as the Bosch painting of Death and the Miser to illustrate points of colour, detail, composition, and story. Some paintings have complex stories (such as this one), others have simple composition (such as the `innocently disadvantaged' Mona Lisa) which give endless speculation as to the meaning.

Sister Wendy explores each era of artistic history, listed below in broad categories (there are several subcategories of each), giving history and philosophy as well as major and representative minor works, explaining in detail at least one or two works for each, concentrating on painting, but also bringing in as relevant sculpture, stained glass, architecture, and other artistic media.

+ Art of the Ancient World
+ Gothic Painting
+ Italian Renaissance
+ Northern Renaissance
+ Baroque and Rococo
+ Neoclassicism and Romanticism
+ The Age of Impressionism
+ Post-Impressionism
+ The Twentieth Century

Sister Wendy does an admirable job at not concentrating exclusively on religious and Christian art (for being a nun), however, given the history of art in Europe, this is a major theme in its own right.

The Epilogue, says Sister Wendy, 'is both an afterword and a foreword: hundreds and thousands of artists come after the disappearance of the `story line' into the maze of contemporary artistic experience and these same artists may of course, be the forerunners of a new story.' In concluding her volume, she highlights the paintings of Robert Natkin, Joan Mitchell and Albert Herbert, the art of each she hopes will endure.

Sister Wendy's signature style + Lush artwork = Great Book
The expanded version of "The Story of Painting" features an exponentially larger selection of artwork and commentary from Sister Wendy; both being a plus that benefits the reader.

This is not a dry, scholarly work, and I suspect the author would not desire it to be viewed that way anyway. What "The Story of Painting" brings to the reader is a very approachable style of writing and some of the most lush artwork you will see in any book on this subject. I was particularly surprised to see many works that I had never seen in any other book of this kind. Some were a revelation (like Tintorretto's "The Last Supper"), while others allowed - via the detailed closeups featured in the book - a closer inspection of brushstrokes and technique not normally covered in other historical painting overviews.

"The Story of Painting" begins with short section covering works before the medieval era, mostly Greek, Roman, and Etruscan, then kicks into high gear before ending with the 20th Century. This concluding section is one of the weaker parts of the book, but I think it can be argued that the latter half of that time period has not produced many of the glorious works featured in other parts of the book. Too much time deconstructing art and not enough making soul-stirring paintings, I suppose.

As with any Sister Wendy art book, you get the sage, grandmotherly insights into the works from a woman who deeply enjoys art. Other books impart a barrier between the works, the critical evaluation of them by the author, and the reader. Sister Wendy smashes that piece of artifice and seeks to draw people into the works themselves, not to critique them and simply move on to the next, but to give life to each work. She does this admirably, in my opinion. From time to time she does take more time to dissect a piece and look at it elements apart from the work as a whole, and in each evaluation she lends her knowledge of iconography and symbolism to help the reader fully understand the painter's intent. Very helpful. When compared with other art books, it becomes even more rare as it also might be one of the few books of its kind that would work well as a primer for parents sitting down with children to examine the works together.

Lastly, the book itself is classic Dorling Kindersley: bright, white, glossy paper; easy to read, well-spaced typesetting; beautiful and large illustrations; helpful sidebars; and just an overall feel of quality. It's quite hard to find fault with the book. And as an expanded version of the original, it works faultlessly. This hefty tome practically defines the phrase "coffee table book". At 736 pages in length, its sheer heft would make it a fine weapon against your least favorite sneering, art critic!

Highly recommended.