Peter Brown set out to describe how many changes converged to produce a very distinctive period of European civilization from about 200 C.E.
Brown has a fluid, easygoing style that enhances the storytelling aspect of the historian's job without, however, compromising any erudition. It was this revival of Persian tastes and artistic traditions, rather than any original antipathy on the part of the Muslims, that smothered the Late Antique forms of representational art." Here Brown masterly intertwines art and architecture metaphorically into the historical continuum.Ģ00 pages is just a brief overview of the 600 years of Brown's concern (especially considering the copious photos), but an excellent bibliography allows further study. The late classical heads are already almost engulfed in the exuberant ornamentation that is derived directly from Persian models. The description of the photograph on page 199 of a hexagonal, floral relief ceiling rosette from Khirbat al-Mafjar is typical: "The triumph of the east. In The World of Late Antiquity, Peter Brown is as much an art historian as a historian generally speaking - and it is his continuous interjection and interpretation of relevant art that differentiates it.
0 kommentar(er)
