Susan Woodford – författare

Looking at pictures can be a delightful, exciting or moving experience, but some pictures – and these are often the most rewarding – require some explanation before they can be fully understood. Delving into the origins, designs and themes of over 100 pictures from different periods and places, this book illuminates the art of looking at – and talking about – pictures. Woodford shows how you can read a picture by examining the formal and stylistic devices used by an artist, and explores popular themes and subject matters, and the relationship of pictures to the societies that produced them. The book is supplemented by a glossary of key terms, ranging from art movements and technical terms to religious and classical terminology, to give readers all the information they need at their fingertips.

For more than 2,000 years the art of Greece and Rome has lain at the heart of western civilization. This book recaptures the excitement of the artists who first created it. It traces the daring innovations of those who, defying traditional wisdom, explored new ideas; it describes the valiant struggles of sculptors and painters to portray – for the first time – both the complexities of the human form and the richness of human emotions. So much has been destroyed by the ravages of time that Greek and Roman art seems to consist only of impressive ruins and broken fragments. Yet the creative achievements of the Greeks and their legacy, as adapted by the Romans, have never lost their power.

An introduction to the History of the Parthenon: How the Parthenon came to be built, how the Greeks worshipped their Gods and Goddesses and the history of Parthenon from the 5th century BC until the present day.

Myths inspired Greek and Roman artists to rise to the challenge of conveying flowing narratives in static form. This book describes the different ways painters, sculptors and other artists explored and exploited the dense forest of myth. It explains how formulas were devised for certain stories; how these could be adapted, developed and even transferred to other contexts; how one myth could be distinguished from another - or confused with it; how myths related to daily life or political propaganda; and the influence of evolving tastes. Written in a lively and accessible style, fully illustrated with examples drawn from a wide range of media, Images of Myths in Classical Antiquity provides fresh and stimulating insights into the representation of myths in Greek and Roman art.

British Museum Pattern books reproduce in intricate line drawings the rich variety of patterns and designs which decorate art and artefacts in the British Museum and beyond. In this edition, which takes the most striking and intriguing designs from the collection, the great diversity of artistic styles from around the globe is illustrated. The designs are arranged by culture and a concise introduction briefly discusses the historical background of each culture and its designs. Useful information is provided in the notes on the materials, techniques and sources of each design. Featuring patterns from Ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome; Africa and Oceania alongside Early Celtic, Islamic and Medieval art and including designs taken from sculpture, pottery, metalwork, textiles and jewellery and much more, this book is a wonderful visual reference and an invaluable source of ideas and inspiration. The Authors; Eva Wilson began work as a potter in Denmark and then became draughtsman to the Archaeological Department of the University of Lund, Sweden. Since 1955 she has worked as a freelance illustrator of specialist and popular books on art and archaeology. Rebecca Jewell formerly worked at the Museum of Mankind, London, and at the Commonwealth Institute, London. She is now a freelance illustrator. Susan Bird worked as the illustrator in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum – a post she occupied for twenty years. She now works as a freelance illustrator, ceramicist and painter. Ian Stead is an Iron-Age specialist in the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities at the British Museum, and author of Celtic Art. Karen Hughes is an illustrator working in the Department of Prehistoric and Romano- British Antiquities at the British Museum.

The myths of the Trojan War captured the imagination not only of Greek and Roman authors - Homer, Euripides, Virgil, Ovid and many others - but also of countless Greek and Roman painters and sculptors. By perceptively analysing a variety of representations, Susan Woodford assesses the creative solutions found by individual artists to problems posed by the narrative; by comparing verbal and pictorial treatments of telling episodes, she demonstrates the liberating flexibility of Greek mythology.

The four centuries between the composition of the Homeric epics and the conquests of Alexander the Great witnessed an immensely creative period in Greek art, one full of experimentation and innovation. But time has taken its toll; damaged statues have lost their colour and wall paintings have been totally destroyed. And yet sympathetic study of surviving sculpture and of drawing on vases can give extraordinary insight into and appreciation of these once brilliant works This book, designed originally for students, introduces the reader to Greek sculpture and vase painting in the critical period from the eighth to the fourth centuries BC. The works discussed are generously illustrated and lucidly analysed to give a vivid picture of the splendor of Greek art. The up-dated second edition includes a new chapter examining art in Greek society, a timeline to help relate artistic development to historical events, an explanation of how dates BC are arrived at, a brief overview of Greek temple plans and a further reading list of recent books.This clear, approachable and rigorous introduction makes the beauty of Greek art more readily accessible and comprehensible, balancing description with interpretation and illustration, and is an invaluable tool to help develop insight, appreciation and comprehension.