Encyclopaedia of World Art (In 2 Volumes)

The author believes that this is just not an encyclopaedia, it is a breathingly human book created by a painter and writer who cared for art, and therefore cared some more than other. They did justice to all and little more than justice to some they love. After being published twice as Outline of Art during which Sir William Orpen the original creator of this work expired, the author, made drastic changes, which were essential to bring the book more truly into the line with its title by greatly extending its range. The original outline had really concerned itself only with European painting and sculpture since the beginning of rernaissance so it was therefore extended in accord with wider spirits of this centrally in both time and space- in time, to the earliest manifestations of the arts in the prehistoric cave paintings and bone sculpture; in space, to cover the art of the world. The author believed that they had a much more complete picture of the different periods, and a new idea of he links between them since so many gaps had been filled in. Add to this the new interest in and understanding of the arts of primitive peoples still living – the discovery of Negro sculpture, for instance – and the whole conception of art becomes worldwide and stretches through the ages into the dawn of pre-history. The author has added many new chapters to cover such phases as prehistoric, Egyptian, Cretan, Greek and Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Chinese, Indian, primitive, and other forms of art on the one hand, and have extended the modern sections as nearly as possible to our own day, and he is still aware that there are still parts of the vast story inadequately dealt with. However nor he has attempted to touch upon architecture, which is so closely allied to both painting and sculpture that it may be said to be the condition of their changing existence.