tantalising books





It’s not the least of the Late Antique & Byzantine attractions – the mosaics, these delicate fragments delivering such powerful visual & tactile illusions.

So praise be to the producer of Averil Cameron’s book “Byzantine matters” - with its rough cloth cover inviting to be touched, with its  pictured mosaic bird offering such a boisterous sight for sore eyes.






However lost the classical tradition may be - the longing for a lost classical past has a long life.

So praise be to the producer of G. W. Bowersock’s book “From Gibbon to Auden – Essays on the Classical Tradition” .  The cover image of Hubert Robert’s "Roman Ruins" is unmatched in its wistful depiction of tiny people amidst decayed grandeur. ( Hubert Robert!  even when imprisoned during the French revolution, faithfully imagining & painting the grandest of ruins.)




Note for b.
You sharp eye may have noticed it, just below the above mentioned books , tantalisingly close to the touch & the camera:  the surviving gods on the cover of Peter Brown’s “Late Antiquity“  






4 comments:

billoo said...

Thanks, fff. I also note that Bowersock has a book due out later this year on Islam. Looks interesting.

Ffflaneur said...

aha, I'll watch out for it. thanks, b.

billoo said...

Thought you might be interested in this:

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/koerner-bosch-bruegel/

Keep well,

b.

Ffflaneur said...

aha, looks interesting indeed!
thanks, b.