In this authoritative book, the first of its kind in English, Christopher S. Wood tracks the evolution of the historical study of art from the late middle ages through the rise of the modern scholarly discipline of art history. Synthesizing and assessing a vast array of writings, episodes, and personalities, this original and accessible account of the development of art-historical thinking will appeal to readers both inside and outside the discipline. Combining erudition with clarity, this book makes a landmark contribution to the understanding of art history.
Awards and Recognition
- Shortlisted for the Apollo Awards Book of the Year, Apollo Magazine
Christopher S. Wood is a professor at New York University. His books include Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape and Forgery, Replica, Fiction: Temporalities of German Renaissance Art.
"In a complex and overall highly original and learned set of narratives unfolding chronologically (1400鈥�1960), Wood weaves together a series of subplots: relativism versus presentism, form versus content, chronologies of forms versus shapes of time, idealism versus realism, and the de- and re-enchantment of art. . . . As Wood鈥檚 rewriting of the discipline鈥檚 history according to the categories of relativism and presentism indicate, he is laying out a philosophy of history. Drawing on Friedrich Nietzsche, Hayden White, and Michel Foucault鈥檚 categories of history writing, he also traces a history of art history鈥檚 historical models, starting with the annalistic, or 'roll-call art history'. . . . A robust discussion of the substantive issues he raises is both merited and called for."鈥擡vonne Levy, Art Bulletin
鈥淲ood鈥檚 ambitious survey whisks us through centuries of multivalent theorizing and advocating by artists, poets, connoisseurs, philosophers, and, eventually, people calling themselves 鈥榓rt historians.鈥� 鈥濃�擲usan Tallman, New York Review of Books
鈥淎 brilliant overview. . . . The amount of carefully considered information packed into this compact volume is breathtaking. . . . A much-needed contribution at a time when the discipline badly needs an appreciative, even-handed view of the past.鈥濃�擠ebra Pincus, Choice
鈥淥wing to its extraordinary range and original insights, it is destined to become the standard work for many years to come.鈥濃�擲am Rose, Apollo Magazine
鈥淎 tour de force. I can鈥檛 think of another book that even comes close to this one in the way it encourages art historians to understand their own disciplinary history.鈥濃�擬ichael Ann Holly, author of The Melancholy Art
