The Colossal: From Ancient Greece to Giacometti gathers instances of the colossal throughout history; from the obelisks of Egypt to the Colossus of Rhodes; and the Roman Colosseum to the gigantic heads of the Olmecs and the imposing stone statues of Easter Island. It sets out a vision of the colossal that encompasses both the colossal in scale and another overlooked sense of the colossal: the archaic Greek kolossos (a ritual effigy) and its modern equivalents; in which the colossal stands as a double or substitute linking the ancient world to the twentieth-century world of the European surrealists. In this original account of the colossal in culture; Mason takes a bold; multidisciplinary approach that will appeal to all those with an interest in the history and theory of the visual. The Colossal argues that the artist who understood; and directly tapped into; this alternative sense of the colossal with greatest import was Alberto Giacometti; most notably in his enigmatic work lsquo;The Cubersquo;; which articulates themes of death and mourning in ways rarely seen since the art of Archaic Greece. Each example of the colossal is presented in a temporal and cultural framework encompassing historical and archaeological evidence. From the monolithic sculptures of long-dead civilizations to Giacomettirsquo;s imposing and unsettling heads Masonrsquo;s fascinating book traces new; unexplored threads through visual history.
2013-05-24 2013-05-24File Name: B00D1XYF54
Review
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful. A deeper than most understandingBy Shalom FreedmanNettler is a first- rate scholar and his understanding of the complex relation between Jews and Arabs is deeper than most.