This book is not only an aesthetic pleasure...The quality of the hundreds and hundreds of images is extremely persuasive, and the price very reasonable.The text is enjoyable to read, and stands out in its balanced dealing with all periods, and its courage to make artistic evaluations.

The foundations of Western sculpture were laid by the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. The sculpture of antiquity still influences sculptors and the techniques they use, just as it affects our dealings with art and the status we accord it.

However, scholars of the period (from the 8th century BC to the to 5th century AD) have hitherto neglected certain important links. By re-examining numerous contemporary traditions, the present publication takes a new look at how the works were created, the circumstances of their discovery, and the historical and political background. Remarkable details about the purpose of the works provide new insight into the relationship between client and commission. Placed thus in their total context, the works of antiquity are thereby clearly revealed as far more than "idealised representations of nature".

The masterpieces of antiquity rarely bear a signature, and indeed not a single work can be ascribed with certainty to quasi-mythical sculptors such as Myron, Polyclitus, Phidias and Praxiteles. All we have is innumerable copies. The emphasis of the account given here is therefore on the history of the art; the artists withdraw into the background.

A Cinderella among the arts during the transition from late antiquity to the Romanesque period,medieval sculpture (from the 5th to the Isth century)entered a golden age as the changing religious, political and social context conferred wholly new functions of representation on it. Henceforth, sculptural works acted as intermediaries between God and man. They served on the one hand as instruments for disseminating the teachings of the Church, while on the other reflecting the new view of mankind.

The artists of the time re-discovered the techniques of past eras, and created pieces made of painted wood, bronze and gold. Other contemporaneous works were made of stone, marble and alabaster that astonish in their bold innovativeness. One unique art form of the period, the sculptural decoration of church fagades, is of unsurpassed monumentality.Besides these public works, there were also commissions from high dignitaries of church and state for their splendid residences or their impressive monumental tombs, which the best-known artists were called on to erect.

The works of the time were long considered joint endeavours. Following very recent research, we have now been able to discover the identity of individual artists, and even possess more detailed information about their relationships with their patrons. We are consequently having to revise our view of the period as a whole.

As the decisive moments and most important works in the history of medieval sculpture are set forth before our eyes, we are made increasingly aware of the achievement of a fascinating age.

This volume contains over 1,000 illustrations,some in colour. It is the first volume of a two-part work covering sculpture from antiquity to the preRent.

Greek Art

 Philippe Bruneau

 General Introduction

 Background to the study of Greek sculpture

 Statuary and relief

 Art and craftsmanship

 How statues were used

The Archaic Period

 Small figures

 Large statues

 Architectural sculpture

 The sculpture of the Acropolis, Athens

The Classical Period

 "The invention of art" and the question of lost originals

 Five master sculptors

 Themes and styles of Classical statuary: realism and idealism

 Architectural sculpture

 The freestanding relief

 The art of the goldsmith

 Greek sculpture outside Greece

The Hellenistic and Imperial Periods

 Hellenistic sculpture

 The sanctuary at Delphi

 The development of the portrait

 Sculpture in the home

 The Imperial period

The Art of the Etruscans

 Mario Torelli

 The historical background to Etruscan art

 The birth of figurative art: from the geometric style to Daedalic sculpture

 The flowering of Ionian art of the Archaic period

 The "courtly" austerity of the oligarchies

 The late-Classical renaissance

 The Etruscan Hellenistic style in the Italic koine

 The process of Romanization

The Roman Worl

 Xavier Barral i Altet

 Introduction

The New Functions of Sculpture

 Architecture and sculpture

 Originals and copies

 Public sculpture and official propaganda

 Iconography

 The house and its decoration

Roman Realism

 The portrait and its development

 Sarcophagi and funerary sculpture

 The historical relief

 Religion and politics

Working with the Raw Material

 Patrons and sculptors

 The capital

 Materials and colour

 Bronze

 Silver and ceramics

The Development of Roman Sculpture

 The Republican era

 The Augustan myth

 Imperial art under the Flavians and Antonines

 Changes during the third century

Originality in the Provinces

 Mare Nostrum

 The Iberian peninsula

 Gaul and Germany

 The outlying regions

The Decline of Empire

 Art under Constantine

 The Christianized sarcophagus

 Constantinople

 Conclusion

 Picture Credits