A History of Art History - by Christopher S Wood

Book Synopsis

An authoritative history of art history from its medieval origins to its modern predicaments

In this authoritative book, the first of its kind in English, Christopher S. Wood tracks the evolution of the historical study of art from the late middle ages through the rise of the modern scholarly discipline of art history. Synthesizing and assessing a vast array of writings, episodes, and personalities, this original and accessible account of the development of art-historical thinking will appeal to readers both inside and outside the discipline. Combining erudition with clarity, this book makes a landmark contribution to the understanding of art history.

Review Quotes

"In a complex and overall highly original and learned set of narratives unfolding chronologically (1400-1960), Wood weaves together a series of subplots: relativism versus presentism, form versus content, chronologies of forms versus shapes of time, idealism versus realism, and the de- and re-enchantment of art. . . . As Wood's rewriting of the discipline's history according to the categories of relativism and presentism indicate, he is laying out a philosophy of history. Drawing on Friedrich Nietzsche, Hayden White, and Michel Foucault's categories of history writing, he also traces a history of art history's historical models, starting with the annalistic, or 'roll-call art history'. . . . A robust discussion of the substantive issues he raises is both merited and called for."---Evonne Levy, Art Bulletin

"Shortlisted for the Apollo Awards Book of the Year, Apollo Magazine"

About the Author

Christopher S. Wood is a professor at New York University. His books include Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape and Forgery, Replica, Fiction: Temporalities of German Renaissance Art.