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The painted panels made for use in Byzantine and Orthodox churches and for prayers at home are perhaps the most effective and enduring form of religious art ever developed, and also perhaps one of the most mysterious. The peaceful, clear imagery found within them can be appreciated on both a religious and a secular level. This book will look at icons in the context of the history of Christianity and examine all aspects of the production and power of this distinctive art form. Based on an analysis of British Museum examples that have been carefully studied by restorers, Robin Cormack explains how icons were made, framed and displayed. He explores their subject matter, showing how scenes can be identified and how the iconography developed over the centuries and examining the role of portraiture. Icons is illustrated mainly with Cretan, Greek and Russian examples from the British Museum, which holds Britain's foremost collection of icons.

Cats were first domesticated - or, more likely, noticed a warm fireside and chose to domesticate themselves - many thousands of years ago. Over the centuries they have performed a useful role as pest controllers, but much more as friends and companions of humans. This delightful illustrated anthology includes a selection of the many poems, anecdotes and quotations about cats, which have been written over the centuries.

Each striking image in this beautiful anthology is matched with a poem about the same species. Some were composed by our best-loved writers – including Shakespeare, Chaucer and Tennyson – and others have been selected from less familiar or even anonymous voices around the world. The endless variety of birds, their freedom of sky, land and water, and especially their song have also inspired writers through the ages.

Surviving Desires: Making and Selling Jewellery in the American Southwest

The real and imagined legacy of the ancient Celts has shaped modern identities across the British Isles and retains a powerful hold over the popular imagination. Furthermore, Celtic art is one of Europes great artistic traditions, with the skills of Celtic craftspeople standing alongside the best of the ancient and medieval worlds. But who were the Celts? Recent research and new archaeological discoveries are continuing to transform our understanding of the idea of the Celts a subject involving much controversy and academic debate since the late 1990s. Drawing on the latest scholarship, the authors explore how the Celts have been defined differently from ancient times to the modern day, by people with different perspectives and agendas. They look, too, at what is meant by Celtic art, from its origins c.500 BC in western Europe, through its transformations and revivals in the Roman, Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, to its rediscovery in Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are over 250 remarkable objects that have been selected from the collections of the British Museum, the National Museums of Scotland and other key European museums to richly illustrate the narrative and highlight the artistic accomplishments of craftspeople through the centuries. Here are iconic, intricately decorated masterpieces as well as less well-known fixtures and fittings; items of warfare and adornment; the ceremonial and the utilitarian.

The first millennium in Egypt saw a transition from an ancient pantheon of pagan gods to the one God of the three Abrahamic faiths. Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities were established in succession and peacefully co-existed for long periods of time periodically interrupted by conflict and violence, each faith responding to pre-existing traditions by either rejecting earlier artistic ideas or by adapting and assimilating them. Due to its arid climate, Egypt preserves a unique range and abundance of evidence providing insights into the emergence and establishment of new religions, their relationship to each other and the pagan past. Over 300 objects have been specially selected for this publication, drawing on the significant collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the British Museum and reflecting the rich cultural diversity of the Nile Valley from the first to the twelfth century AD. Through beautiful works of art, including jewellery, painted panels, textiles, sculpture, calligraphy, manuscripts, glass and ceramics, we gain a better understanding of the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people in this important period in Egyptian history. The book also reveals the different types of sacred buildings - synagogue, church, and mosque - and explains their architectural history and dissemination in Egypt.

Edward Burne-Jones, member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is renowned for his beautiful but usually melancholy evocations of a mythical, literary, ancient or medieval world, as well as his life-long friendship with William Morris. It will surprise many therefore to discover that he was a talented caricaturist and comic sketch artist. This charming book reveals a man brimming with imagination, a keen eye and impish sense of humour who took delight in drawing to amuse and entertain. His witty but affectionate caricatures of friends and family feature familiar faces, such as Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, while his self-caricatures are endearingly self-deprecating. Accompanying these are enchanting sketches he created to illustrate letters and entertain children, and an introduction discussing the life and work of the artist in wider context. Beautifully illustrated with rarely published pieces from the large collection at the British Museum, this book provides an insight into another side of Burne-Jones and illuminates the personality and relationships of one of the most beloved English romantic painters.

The British Museum holds one of the finest collections of Chinese prints outside Asia, with particular strength in the modern period. Its wide range includes examples dating back to the invention of printing in China through its development, both technically and aesthetically, over more than a millennium, from the 8th to the 20th century. This book features 100 of the most iconic and important examples from the British Museums collection, all illustrated with color photographs taken specially for this publication. Many have never before been published. The accompanying text explains the important features of each print, including techniques, aesthetic principles and cultural context, to open up this fascinating subject to a wider audience. The introduction gives a concise survey of the subject, explaining how revolutionary the invention of printing in China was and how its influence spread worldwide. Contributions from three international experts give context for the major sections. The unique range and scope of the British Museums collection offer the material for a stunning overview which provides a long overdue introduction to the Chinese printmakers art.

Over the course of the Edo period (1600-1868), an extraordinarily large quantity of paintings, prints and illustrated books with sexual and erotic themes was produced in Japan. As urban culture expanded rapidly during the seventeenth century, erotic material was a major genre of woodblock print production. These constitute some of the finest examples of art-printing in Japan, employing deluxe materials and special printing effects. This book looks at pictures by some of the most renown artists, such as Kitagawa Utamaro and Katsushika Hokusai, who produced erotic imagery as a standard part of their work. When creating erotica, artists often played on sexual situations in everyday life: a wife catches her husband having sex with a maid, mice start copulating in imitation of humans. Erotic encounters in Edo-period woodblock prints reflect multiple perspectives male, female, heterosexual and homosexual. Japanese erotic art is also notable for its tone of humour, much more so than in Western representations of sex. There was also frequent recourse to satire and parody, often in defiance of contemporary censorship and sumptuary regulations.

'Lavishly illustrated and extremely comprehensive ...a bargain' - Antiques Magazine . 'The evolution of pottery ...is fascinating, and this book does it justice' - The Good Book Guide . 'An epic tale ...a book to buy and to treasure' - Crafts Magazine . This is the definitive British Museum reference book reissued with a beautiful new jacket design and pbk-with-flaps cover. This is the classic, comprehensive, colour survey of ceramic art and production worldwide, from prehistory to the present day. It offers a mine of information for students and anyone interested in pottery. Pottery is one of the earliest and most widespread of human activities and its history can be traced back to the Stone Age. This comprehensive account begins with the earliest civilizations of the Near and Middle East and follows the production of pottery chronologically around the globe. The final chapters analyse the development of ceramics as a medium of personal expression by artist and studio potters from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. The breathtaking wealth of illustrations drawn from major collections all over the world includes examples of all the major styles, materials and forms from all periods. Emmanuel Cooper is an internationally renowned potter, writer, critic and broadcaster and is editor of the highly respected and influential magazine Ceramic Review . He has written widely on both modern and historical ceramics. Since 1999, he has been Visiting Professor of Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art and is a member of the Arts Council of Great Britain.

Reflections: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa brings together an extraordinary collection of work from the British Museum for the first time. The contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa is rich and vibrant. Whether living in their countries of birth or in diaspora, the featured artists are part of the globalised world of art. Here we see artists responding to and making work about their present, histories, traditions and cultures, reflecting on a part of the world that has experienced extraordinary change in living memory. The British Museum has been acquiring the work of Middle Eastern and North African artists since the 1980s, and the collection - principally works on paper - is one of the most extensive in the public sphere. Collected within the context of a museum of history, the works offer insights into the nature of civil societies, the complex politics of the region, and cultural traditions in their broadest sense, from the relationship with Islamic art, to the deep engagement with literature. The introduction to the book by curator Venetia Porter explores the history of the collection and the works included. The essential framework for understanding the politics and context within which the artists are working is provided by Charles Tripp's essay. The works are grouped into seven chapters, each beginning with a short introduction. The authors explore the selection within themes such as faith, abstraction and the female gaze.