Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 240 pages
- Published by: Indiana University Press
- Edition: 1st Edition edition June 23, 2008
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0253351758
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0253351753
-
Book Dimensions:
9.9 x 7 x 0.6 inches
- Weighs: 1.6 pounds
Review
"Thoroughly researched, this volume is clearly a labor of love for Davidson . . . . Recommended." --Choice, February 2009
" [O]ffers an informative and expert introduction to an interesting intersection of art and science -- the illustration of fossils in books from the Renaissance to the present. Davidson brings together the key figures and themes in this genre and provides basic information on them. Eight color plates and many black-and-white illustrations (especially of 19th- and 20th-century examples), along with a full bibliography, ensure that this will be a useful resource for years to come. Summing Up: Recommended. Researchers/faculty, professionals/practitioners, and general readers." -- Choice, February 2009
"A helpful resource for collectors as well as an introduction to an art form that is diminishing in application, if not in appreciation." -- M. Thlarn, The Bloomsbury Review, November/December 2008
"The book offers ineresting and well-constructed overviews of the natural history and imagery of birds and fossils." -- Mary Parrish, Science Magazine, October 2008
"This is a well written and researched book which can be read chronologically or as a source of reference." -- www.palass.org, February 2009
Reader Reviews
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It is a very heavily illustrated book, and there are some good points about it. You many be interested in artistic conventions of the past, e.g. how in the 1820-1840's, marine reptiles were always shown on land spouting like whales. Also the ability of 19th Century artists to make hand-drawn engravings that look as realistic as photographs is truly amazing. However, ultimately I was disappointed, probably the first time by any book in the "Life of the Past" series in particular, or of the Indiana University Press in general. Here is why. Quoting from the book jacket: "Writing from the perspecitve of an art historian, Jane P. Davidson traces the history of paleontology illustration from the fifteenth century to the present, combining discussion of these images as works of representative art with candid assessment of the artists." What I really was hoping for was perspective from a historian of science: why artists depicted fossils the way they did, given the knowledge of the time. Also, I am more interested in recent times (say the past 150 years) when paleontology was a topic of scientific study and not just a collection of curiosities. Charles R. Knight appears in the last half of the last chapter. However, what you hope to get out of this book may vary from mine.
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