New Book Availabel for Sale:
THE MOTHER GODDESS IN ITALIAN RENAISSANCE ART
By Dr. Edith Balas, Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University, 2002. 214 p.
ISBN - 088748381X
Includes bibliographic references and index.
Book Jacket:
"Although much has been written over the years about the ancient mystery
religions and their influence on the intellectual life of the
Renaissance, scholars have neglected their role in art. This is a
serious omission in the case of one of the most popular cultic deities,
the Mother Goddess, whose colorful myths and exotic rites, described in
fascinating detail by classical authors, became a rich source of imagery
for Renaissance writers, antiquarians, and artists. She was especially
important to the Neoplatonist philosophers of the period, for whom she
embodied the idea of love as the great universal bond and conveyor of
divine influences to the mortal realm.
In this ground-breaking study, Edith Balas draws upon a wide range of
humanistic learning to examine the significance of the Mother Goddess
and her cult in the works of such major figures as Botticelli, Mantegna,
Michelangelo, Titian, and Raphael, as well in those of a host of lesser
artists.... Dr. Balas not only provides additional keys to solving the
often dauntingly complex riddles posed by many Quattrocento and
Cinquecento images -- images originally intended to be understood only
by a learned elite -- but also furnishes scholars with a valuable
methodological model for analyzing the presence and meaning of other
ancient religious cults in Renaissance art."
Book Jacket:
"The author has been Professor of Art History at Carnegie Mellon
University for the past 25 years, as well as Research Associate at the
University of Pittsburgh. In addition to more than 20 articles in
American and European journals, her publications include BRANCUSI AND
THE ROMANIAN FOLK TRADITION (1987); MICHELANGELO'S MEDICI CHAPEL: A NEW
INTERPRETATION (American Philosophical Society, 1995); JOSEPH CSAKY, A
PIONEER OF MODERN SCULPTURE (American Philosophical Society, 1998), and
THE HOLOCAUST IN THE PAINTING OF VALENTIN LUSTIG (Carnegie Mellon
University Press, 2002). Dr. Balas has curated a number of exhibitions,
the most recent of which, at the University of Pittsburgh, featured the
work of Valentin Lustig and the German graphic artist Kathe Kollwitz."
"Edith Balas's learned discussion of the Mother Goddess imagery in the
Renaissance is an important reminder of the longevity and persvasiveness
of age-old myths in European culture and will expand the narrowly framed
meaning traditionally imposed on the notion of antique revival." John
Paoletti
"Edith Balas has an unending ability to see familiar things in utterly
new and cogent ways." David Summers
--
Ray Anne Lockard, Head Librarian
Frick Fine Arts Library
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Voice: 412-648-2411
Fax: 412-648-7568
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
"A book should be a ball of light in one's hands."
Ezra Pound
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