The Lure of Gold 9780789209009

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Автор: Dr. Hans Gert Bachmann
Название: The Lure of Gold (Соблазн золота:художественная и культурная история)
Издательство: Abbeville Press
Классификация:
Декоративные искусства и ремесла
Ювелирные украшения и их изготовление
ISBN: 0789209004
ISBN-13(EAN): 9780789209009
ISBN: 0-7892-0900-4
ISBN-13(EAN): 978-0-7892-0900-9
Обложка/Формат: Hardback
Страницы: 280
Вес: 2.319 кг.
Дата издания: 01.11.2006
Язык: ENG
Иллюстрации: 260 illustrations, 240 in full color
Размер: 30.78 x 26.72 x 3.38 cm
Читательская аудитория: General (us: trade)
Подзаголовок: An artistic and cultural history
Рейтинг:
Поставляется из: США
Описание: The dazzlingly illustrated story of how the worlds most beautiful element has influenced the art, economy, and society of every civilization. When Hesiod, the Greek poet of the eighth century B.C., recounted the history of the world as he understood it, he described the legendary first generation of mortal men, who lived in peace and ease, as the people of gold. Nearly three millennia later, we still refer to a particularly happy or prosperous era as a golden age. The reason Hesiods metaphor translates so perfectly into our own idiom is that the mystique of gold, the quintessential precious metal, is truly universal. The very scarcity of gold accounts for part of its allure and much of its monetary value: the total volume of gold ever mined, from prehistory to the present day, would probably fit inside a cube with sides just twenty yards (18 m) long.

Yet golds incredible material properties also contribute to its appeal. Gold does not corrode, so it never loses its brilliant luster, and it can be chased, embossed, punched, drawn into wires, hammered foil-thin, and shaped in countless other ways. This engaging book reveals that the ways in which gold, in turn, has shaped humanity are no less numerous.

Since prehistory, for example, artisans have fashioned gold into ritual objects and high-status ornaments; beginning in the sixth century B.C., gold served as currency; and even in the modern era it has encouraged wars of conquest and triggered frantic gold rushes. Each chapter is devoted to one historical epoch, explaining how people of that time mined and refined gold, and how they used it for cultural and economic purposes. Two hundred gorgeous color photographs illustrate golden objets dart as diverse as the funerary masks of Tutankhamen; intricate Celtic jewelry; a figurine of El Dorado, a pre-Columbian chief said to ritualistically cover his entire body in gold dust; bejeweled medieval reliquaries and crucifixes; and even Gustav Klimts gold-drenched canvas The Kiss.

With its authoritative yet lively text and these arresting illustrations, The Lure of Gold sets, as it were, the gold standard for books on material culture.

Дополнительное описание: Format: 11.812 X 10.25
Illustrations: 260 illustrations, 240 in full color
Subtitle: An Artistic and Cultural History
Subject: Antiques & Collectibles / Silver, Gold & Other Metals
Subject: History / Civilization