Gardener, Louise. Art Through the Ages (9th ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace, 1991.
This book is the most complete reference book on art history that I've read. This book covers everything. What I like most about it is that it also covers art of the Far East and Mesoamerica. The author gives a thorough history of Greek culture and its origins in a long introduction. I thought this was more helpful and informative than the other books I've read so far. Although, I have studied most of the Greek art described in this book before, I still found the descriptions interesting and helpful to my study.
I believe the author makes an error in not emphasizing the importance
of the Egyptian influence on the Archaic Greek figure in art. There
are no comparisons of the two cultures in the art of representing the
figure. She briefly describes the early Greek kouros figures as, "reminding
us of Egyptian statues." There is an obvious direct influence that
should be explained.
Most of my study has focused on the sculpture of Greece, but there are
fantastic artworks to be found in the pottery of the Geometric and Archaic
periods. The lines used to represent the figure on Archaic pottery are
free flowing and continuous contours. This reminds me of Rodin's drawings,
which are also mostly pure contour lines. For Greek artists, which are
striving for naturalism, the contour drawings of the figure seem flat
to me. I would have expected the Greek artist to imitate nature with
chiaroscuro and modeled form in their drawings. This is the same reaction
I had when seeing Rodin's drawings.
The figures on Geometric pottery are not as linear as those on archaic pottery. These figures are massed in with broad brush strokes that follow a stylized format and are also very rigid in their appearance. The lines that form these figures are not as free-flowing as the archaic figures. I found this technique interesting because it is very forceful and direct. This technique is also similar to what is taught in drawing classes, called mass drawing. The artist takes the side of a piece of lead or charcoal, and "blocks in" the major planes of the figure with it.
This book is filled with a wealth of knowledge and will always be a reference for me. I've had a copy of it now for two years and have referred to it often for information on art and artists of the past. The photography clearly represents the text well and is of good quality. It is the most well-rounded book on art history that I've seen so far, along with Janson's History of Art.