5 comments about Michelangelo: The Vatican Frescoes.

1. I found this book to be a very beautiful presentation of Michelangelo's fresco's inside the Sistine Chapel. The pictures are very clear and the text is good, although the fact that it is written by non-native English speakers is apparent. Anyone wanting to remember their experience of viewing the Sistine Chapel in Rome will be pleased by buying this book. At least I was.



2. The image quality in this book is excellent. I have never been to Vatican. So it's hard to judge whether the color is right. I just try to use this book to study anatomy after Michelangelo. For some parts of frescoes, this book provides enlarged pictures. Some images show the frescoes before restoration, although not in detail. In general, it's a great reference book for my study.



3. Being an admirer of the magnificent Michelangelo I am very pleased to have acquired this book. The pictures are beautifully printed. By the end of the book I wish to revisit the Sistine Chapel to view those parts printed in the book which I have obviously missed with my naked eyes. The details of the restoration work is an added bonus. To get the most of this book, please read it together with "Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling" by Ross King. You will not regret the experience. Michelangelo's frescoes are simply sublime!



4. The photographs in this book are too good to be believed. I have never had an art book on the Sistine Chapel before that so moved me.
   It was obviously produced with great care -- the colors look perfect, the focus is perfect. I can't rave about this book enough. And so complete! You will know every nook and cranny of the Chapel when you finish this book.
   Well worth more than what you pay for it.



5. This is an absolutely superb book, largely because the reproductions of the frescoes are excellent and really capture the colors that you see when you visit the Chapel. I have found many art books disappointing, because they simply fail to capture the works they present. I first saw this book in an American bookstore after visiting the Sistine Chapel, and really thrilled to see if after looking at several other books where colors were much duller and the images simply not as sharp. In addition to its fine colors, the book provides many fine closeups of each individual section. The text is also very good, describing the subjects of the painting, the history behind the paintings, ansd also the recent restorstion. This is a must-have book!

2 comments about Goddesses of the Celestial Gallery.

1. I am really disappointed to see the poor edition of this book the images are not complete and they cut the buddhas over the head of the Goddesses, I have bought Celestial Gallery before and thought "Goddesses" will be of the same quality but it is very far from it.
   The editors must take care that all the paintings' details appear correctly.



2. it is an art piece that inspires, open our vision toward another dimension. It invites us to feel the Beauty within and around us..

5 comments about The Art of God.

1. We often do praise trips to places of special beauty, where we sing songs of praise and worship to the Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
   We go to the Grand Canyon, one example, but also to the lakes and other canyons in Arizona. I have often been to Oregon and experienced the beauty of the water falls and to Colorado to enjoy the Rocky Mountains.
   This book is a praise trip for the reader, each page is an experience of worship. How great is our God, who created such magnificent beauty for us to enjoy. How blessed I was to receive this book as a gift and I immediately bought copies for my family. May many enjoy the beauty of God's creation. We are to fill our hearts and minds with praise and this is a wonderful way to start!



2. The most visually beautiful book I know of, THE ART OF GOD is in appearance a nature photography book of the most glorious sort, but upon closer look it is so much more. Ergenbright pairs brilliant awe-inspiring photography with artfully presented text and scripture verses that precisely match each photo and combine to make the heart leap, the soul rejoice. Though written in the spirit of worship, whether intended or not, the beauty, range, selection, and presentation of the book end up also being an apologetic making a visual case for a Creator that's both an intelligent and artistic designer. The photos are arranged purposefully, with the story flowing seamlessly thru the categories Elements, Design, Environments, and Ebb & Flow. The adjective "stunning" often's used to mean just really beautiful, but with this book it's beauty really does stun or take a bit of breath away. THE ART OF GOD is wonderful for a gift or to put on one's own coffee table for visitors to enjoy. Truly an aesthetic and spiritual masterpiece (and a bargain too).



3. Eden may be lost, but Ergenbright's insightful eye for beauty proves that much of paradise is still to be found. Amazingly beautiful nature photographs of every element can be found in this book: skies, bodies of water, cliffs, and even lava flows present the viewer with beauty that only a Supreme God could create. Ergenbright's modest introduction in the beginning of the book and his Biblical passages leave no doubt in regards to his devotion to God as the true artist here, but Ergenbright's own artistic talents certainly cannot be overlooked! I'm a huge lover of beautiful art and Ergenbright's uplifting Christian messages greatly added to the peacefulness of his breathtaking images, luring me into a state of blissful lethargy. This book is truly a wonderful testament of nature's beauty and I recommend it even if you are not a Christian; everyone can appreciate the beauty here, no matter what faith they are.



4. Former agnostic and nature photographer Ric Ergenbright spreads before us a stunning visual feast of God's glory, as reflected in creation. Travel through gorgeous views of air, water, fire, forests, stones, and more. Not just a coffee table book, The Art of God provides a theology of creation as part of a two-fold design (the second part being the story of Christ played out through history). We can even learn about the complexity of creation, as in Ergenbright's discussion of how freshwater rain needs undrinkable seawater to send it on its journey.



5. The Art of God by ric Ergenbgight is my most favorite book after the Bible. Even people who do not know Jesus can appreciate the beauty found in this book through the outstanding nature scenes that were photographed all over the world. Mr. Ergenbright is truly gifted by God to bring to life in paper form all of these magnificent places.

5 comments about Sacred Doorways: A Beginner's Guide to Icons.

1. I really liked this book. It is very well written and had a nice way of putting complex ideas into really simple terms.I would say it is the perfect book to give to someone who is trying to find out what iconography is all about.



2. This book helped me to understand the importance of the icon in the Orthodox faith. There was an extensive overview of the history, meaning and technique involved with icons. I have ordered additional books about the Eastern Orthodox church as a result.



3. This is a book for history and art students. The text is very hard. If you are looking for a book with a lot of pictures....believe me buy other...



4. Linette Martin an Anglican artist has written a very good book for artists and a satisfactory book for those who are trying to understand icons from a religious perspective.
   
   This is a very detailed art book which explains how the icon artists approached their work. Ms. Martin ties the art techniques of icons with what she believes are the religious view point of the icon painters.
   
   If you are a searcher, one who is looking to convert to the Eastern Church, one who is trying to understand the mystical roles of icons in the religious life of Orthodox Christians, then this book will in my opinion not meet your needs.
   
   This is not an easy read. I would say that this book is more of an advanced guide to icons, not a beginner's book, for one who is just starting to investigate Orthodox Christianity.
   
   If you are an artist, trying to expand your knowledge of this religious art form, then I can highly recommend this work.



5. This is a really great introduction to what the symbols, colors, and items mean in iconography. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in iconography.

5 comments about Celestial Gallery.

1. I have a modest collection of new, good-quality Thangka ($150 to $400, up to 25"), but the quality of the Thangka displayed in this collection are beyond my price and size range. If you are considering buying a Thangka, get this book first to see how high the bar can go. No faded antiques here. For the most part the book's format is one page text, one page painting, but some intricate Thangka such as the "Wheel of Life" are broken down and explained in more detail.



2. I've owned this book for 7 years. I admit that I love the art --the mandalas are beautiful. Romio Shrestha is a good MANAGER of good artists (I've never seen him actually PAINT a mandala HIMSELF, and even he admits that the mandalas are painted by monks he has "commissioned.")
   
   And Ian Baker's text to this book is extraordinary.
   
   BUT -- and these are some BIG concerns:
   
   INACCURACY: The mandalas contain numerous inaccuracies in them, and do not reflect deity or yogic practices as accurately, precisely or in as much detail as do the works of many others who actually PRACTICE the Dharma (which Romio does not) -- day in and day out -- see, for example, thangkas painted by His Holiness the Dalai Lama's personal thangka artist in Dharamsala, or even more Western-accessible Andy Weber.
   
   AS IMPORTANTLY: I've met Romio Shrestha. He is a player, a wanna-be playboy, and a charlatan -- a cheap imitation of what non-discerning and gullible Westerners will believe a tantric master to be, or a self-appointed swamiji or yogi. When I met Romio the first time, he was at an international WOMEN's peace conference, lurking about, pretending to be a yogi or swami, chanting mantras and "casting spells" on sacred pendants -- all a pretext for the fact that he was stoned out of his gourd.
   
   All he was doing (I saw this, first-hand) was smoking pot in a hotel room designated for the media production team -- trying to pick up women!!!
   
   Romio tried to come on to me by chanting the Ganesha mantra while holding and offering to me a cheap fake silver Ganesh pendant. I recognized the pendant instantly as identical to the handfuls of pendants I had picked up on my many trips to India, dozens of years previously. The main problem for Romio was twofold: (1) I am intimately familiar with the Ganesh mantra -- Ganesh is one of my protector deities!; and (2) as a longtime practitioner of a Kriya Pranayam meditation practice, a longtime Tibetan Tantric practitioner (I keep my samaya), and with live-wire activated Kundalini, I am INTIMATELY familiar with energy player PRETENDERS.
   
   As soon as I chanted the Ganesha mantra back to him, Heart wide-open, staring him directly in the eyes the whole time -- he scurried away, like a cockroach does when the light is turned on.
   
   I bear Romio no ill will. Romio is, ultimately, pretty harmless to most people (except pretty young things, whom he will try to pick up by his pretense of being a "tantric master.") He's got trickster energy -- which can actually be quite fun, when it's recognized and acknowledged as such by the person who is the container for it (rather than some kind of "high teacher" egoic pretense). The bottom line is that he has NO genuine spiritual juice, NO genuine foundation in Tibetan tantric practices, and he is FAR from being a genuine spiritual master, of any kind.
   
   The art he helps bring into the world is beautiful. But his schtick? Kindly stated, it's mundane at best.
   
   Things are never as they seem . . . especially where spiritual materialism is concerned.
   
   Thanks for listening -- to my humble opinion, of course! :)



3. The near poster sized book of mandalas is truly perfect for the subject. Traditionally done in sand to mirror the transcient nature of life and beauty, this book is wonderful to behold. One can easily frame the individual plates but it's not merely a bound poster book. The text is nicely written and informative. The mandalas are really first rate, so intricate and detailed, that they transcend even beauty. It's surprisingly heavy (nice glossy paper) for a book that is the thickness of a children's book. Best displayed open to your favorite page.



4. What a beautiful, sacred and incredible collection of artwork. The book is absolutely stunning!



5. incredible stories and amazing pics...bigger than any 'coffee table' book we've ever owned!...a bargain at 1/2 the price

3 comments about Christian Symbols CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art).

1. Christian Symbols CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art)
   comes up short, ordinary holiday symbols for children is not included



2. I have not used this set much yet but that is because my current project requires color and this set is all black and white. It is, however, a nice set.
   
   The quality of the images is good. They people who organized them seemed to have some basic knowledge of the traditional iconography. The art comes with a book that has all the images making it easier to find what you are looking for. All in all, it is well planned.
   
   There are gaps and omissions but this is a nice resource, especially for the price.



3. It doesn't contain the variety that i had hoped for, but for the price, this is a book of good resource.

5 comments about Concerning the Spiritual in Art.

1. This book was purchased for a college research project and it was just perfect. It talks of Kandinsky's color theory and how music and color co-exist. The seller was professional and I got the book when it was promised. I would order from this seller again...definately!



2. Kandinsky had risen to positions of influence in other disciplines (political science/economics and law) before directing his considerable intellect to painting. His insights extended into the historic 'meta' trends of the arts and sciences, including the physical sciences, and had his interests been directed more to the history and philosophy of science instead of the history and philosophy of art, he might have written Kuhn's observations regarding paradigm change a half century before Kuhn did: "Here and there are people with eyes which can see, minds which can correlate. They say to themselves: 'If the science of the day before yesterday is rejected by the people of yesterday, and that of yesterday by us of today, is it not possible that what we call science now will be rejected by the men of tomorrow?' And the bravest of them answer, 'It is possible.'"
   
   Instead, Kandinsky extended the frontiers of painting and authored philosophic writings on the future of art that are among the most important of such works. M.T.H. Sadler, who translated this work into English, was a friend of Kandinsky's and was among his early admirers. The notes he has written in the front of the book (Translator's Introduction) are therefore more helpful than could be the opinions of many other critics, including myself:
   
   "Anyone who has studied Gauguin will be aware of the intense spiritual value of his work. The man is a preacher and a psychologist, universal by his very unorthodoxy, fundamental because he goes deeper than civilization. In his disciples this great element is wanting.
   
   "Kandinsky has supplied the need. He is not only on the track of an art more purely spiritual than was conceived even by Gauguin, but he has achieved the final abandonment of all representative intention. In this way he combines in himself the spiritual and technical tendencies of one great branch of Post-Impressionism.
   
   "The question most generally asked about Kandinsky's art is: 'What is he trying to do?' It is to be hoped that this book will do something towards answering the question. But it will not do everything. This--partly because it is impossible to put into words the whole of Kandinsky's ideal, partly because in his anxiety to state his case, to court criticism, the author has been tempted to formulate more than is wise. His analysis of colours and their effects on the spectator is not the real basis of his art, because, if it were, one could, with the help of a scientific manual, describe one's emotions before his pictures with perfect accuracy. And this is impossible.
   
   "Kandinsky is painting music. That is to say, he has broken down the barrier between music and painting, and has isolated the pure emotion which, for want of a better name, we call the artistic emotion. Anyone who has listened to good music with any enjoyment will admit to an unmistakable but quite indefinable thrill. He will not be able, with sincerity, to say that such a passage gave him such visual impressions, or such a harmony roused in him such emotions. The effect of music is too subtle for words. And the same with this painting of Kandinsky's. Speaking for myself, to stand in front of some of his drawings or pictures gives a keener and more spiritual pleasure than any other kind of painting. But I could not express in the least what gives the pleasure. Presumably the lines and colours have the same effect as harmony and rhythm in music have on the truly musical. That psychology comes in no one can deny."
   
   Some aspects of Kandinsky's color theory are dubious, at best they cannot be universalized, and Kandinsky sees this. But other of his ideas and arguments are widely accepted among artists, even as being self-evident. Stating that "there is no 'must' in art, because art is free," that is, free to address external representations OR "the inner need," to merely chase after material 'objects' OR to wrestle with the mysteriously spiritual, to somehow meld the two visions OR to stay purely to exploration of the spiritual high ground, Kandinsky absolutely rejects the materialistic expectation of an art "explanation" that has been articulated by EO Wilson in his unfortunate daydream 'Consilience' (Wilson knows ants better than he knows humans, and is given to understanding humans to be essentially ant equivalents).
   
   Anyone interested in art history, painting of the past century, or the relationships/correlations/divergences of the various arts (visual, musical, literary), as well as anyone interested in the meaning and purpose of art, or in the philosophy of aesthetics, should read this important book, perhaps more than once.



3. Kandinsky throws his ideas out in a slightly esoteric manner. It make take a few rereads to really grasp the quality of discourse he presents. But, in the end, his commentary shines brightly through his comparisons of music to painting. The spiritual triangle is comparable to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It is important to remember that Kandinsky is not using the term "spiritual" in a religious sense.
   This book is a very good read for anyone feeling slumped in their art making. And for anyone who wants to expose themselves to ways of thinking about art. By the third time I had read the material I had underlined and highlighted almost every line and filled all the margins with notes. The book is fantastic. It is especially good when paired with Hans Hofmann's essay "In Search for the Real." Although the ideas in the two books do not parallel. In fact the lines aren't even on the same page. Kandinksky's critiques of other familiar artists are very interesting too. Names like picasso and Cezanne pop up quite a bit.
   I'll stop rambling now. Read the book, it is very good.



4. Wassilly Kadinsky was a 20th century painter and his CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL IN ART provides a blend of philosophical, spiritual and artistic reflection as it examines the premises and presence of spirituality in art. This new edition is a recommended pick not just for art students of modernism, but for readers of spiritual works: it includes letters between Kadinsky and Sadler, unpublished prose poems, and a fine attention to artistic reflection and analysis.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



5. I enjoyed reading the book. At times it was over my head,but still it was worth the effort!!!!

1 comments about Enso: Zen Circles of Enlightenment.

1. This is an excellent consideration of both the circles and the accompanying texts that are part of the enso experience. There is a perceptive description of each of the monks (and occasionally a nun) who created the ensos selected and an interesting analysis of both the art of the circle and the calligraphy of the individual work he or she created. As an artist I found the material in this book stimulating and productive.

1 comments about Color Your Own Book of Kells (Coloring Books).

1. Most of this coloring book is as wonderful as I expected it to be. I like the selections from the Book of Kells that were chosen to be included, and there's a good variety. The subject matter can't be beat, but I have two small complaints. One, some of the smaller knotwork details are indistinct, even missing. I realize they may be missing in the original, but for a coloring book I really feel they should have been extrapolated for completeness' sake. Second, the Latin script pages aren't translated, and the old calligraphy is hard enough to read that I can't translate them myself.
   
   Aside from these picky details, though, this is a gorgeous, fun coloring book, perfectly appropriate for the collector, either of coloring books or Celtophilia:)

3 comments about Patron Saints: A Feast of Holy Cards.

1. As one of the authors of this book I feel it is my duty to point out that this self styled "professional information expert" is in error. Like many other nations, Poland has more than one patron saint. In addition to Stancislaus and Casimir, there is Adalbert of Prague, Andrew Bobola, Cunegundes, Methodius, Procopius, Sigismund, Vitus and Wenceslaus. Nowhere in this book is it stated that Prague is a city in Poland. Adalbert was an early evangelist (10th century) who travelled extensively throughout Poland and Russia. Because of his great missionary work to many countries, Adalbert is also a patron saint of Bohemia, Prussia and the Czech Republic, where he was named the Bishop of Prague. In the introduction of "Patron Saints" we state that many of the saints featured are not the most reknown ones for their patronage. (For example, Saint Anthony of Padua, who everyone knows as the Saint of Lost Objects is depicted in our book under a less well known patronage, Saint of Amputated Limbs). Also, in our introduction, we explain how we compiled our myriad of patronage lists. These lists were then meticulously fact checked by our editor at Abrams (a real professional information expert, if there ever was one). And before the book went to press, it was reviewed once again by an independent copy editor. Much research and work went into "Patron Saints" and I would hate for anyone who reads Libraryfiend's review to be misguided by it.



2. Again, the authors have compiled a dazzling array of lovely sacramental images in their second collaboration. However, as in their first book, there are many errors.
   
   The mistake I found most unpalatable (as a Polish-American) is their assertion that the patron saint of Poland is Adalbert. Of Prague. Which city has not now, nor has ever been, in Poland.
   
   Ask any Pole and he will tell you the patron saint of his homeland is
   St. Casimir (1458-1484), a scion of the royal Jagiellon family whose feast is celebrated on March 4. Even if the authors could not get that fact correct, they may have at least chosen Poland's secondary patron, St. Stanislaus Szczepanowski (1030-1079), the martyred bishop of Krakow.
   
   Errors abiding, ladies. As a professional information specialist I am appalled.



3. I had the opprtunity to read thier first book "Novena: The Power of Prayer" and I thought it was fantastic, however thier new book "Patron Saints: A Feast of Holy Cards" was even more visually and spiritually enlightining.