Once slighted as mere copying from China, the arts of Japan are now seen as a unique alternation of advances and withdrawals. At times the islanders produced Chinese-style works of great beauty, unmatched on the continent. When they chose to be independent, their art differs at every level. Sculpture, and even more painting, are concrete, sensuous, and emotional, speaking direc...(展开全部)

Fifth Edition

Fifth Edition

Financial Times Asia editor David Pilling presents a fresh vision of Japan, drawing on his own deep experience, as well as observations from a cross section of Japanese citizenry, including novelist Haruki Murakami, former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, industrialists and bankers, activists and artists, teenagers and octogenarians. Through their voices, Pilling's Bending Adv...(展开全部)

Virtually all the masterpieces of Islamic art—the Alhambra, the Taj Mahal, and the Tahmasp Shahnama—were produced during the period from the Mongol conquests in the early thirteenth century to the advent of European colonial rule in the nineteenth. This beautiful book surveys the architecture and arts of the traditional Islamic lands during this era. Conceived as a sequel to Th...(展开全部)

Shunga, or "images of spring," are erotic polychrome engravings painted by the masters of the Japanese Ukiyo-e school during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The shunga served as illustrations for love novels, instructive albums for young wives, and even lucky charms for warriors. This book is the first to present a special collection of rare, previously unpublished prints...(展开全部)

Rewritten and updated to include the discoveries and new theories from the past decade and a half, this classic guide to the art of the ancient Maya is now illustrated in color throughout. World expert Mary Miller and her co-author Megan O’Neil take the reader through the visual world of the Maya, explaining how and why they created the paintings, sculpture, and monuments that ...(展开全部)

Buddhism is the single common thread uniting the Asian world, from India to South-East Asia and through Central Asia to China, Korea and Japan. To guide and inspire believers, innumerable symbols and images were made, beginning in India in the 3rd century BC. This phenomenally diverse tradition includes not only frescoes, relief carvings, colossal statues, silk embroideries and...(展开全部)