Monuments & Maidens - by Marina Warner (Paperback)

About the Book

A brilliant examination of the allegorical uses of the female form to be found in the sculpture ornamenting public buildings as well as throughout the history of western art.

Book Synopsis

Marina Warner explores the tradition of personifying liberty, justice, wisdom, charity, and other ideals and desiderata in the female form, and examines the tension between women's historic and symbolic roles. Drawing on the evidence of public art, especially sculpture, and painting, poetry, and classical mythology, she ranges over the allegorical presence of the woman in the Western tradition with a sharply observant eye and a piquant and engaging style.

Review Quotes

"Why should Truth be a woman? or Nature? or Justice? or Liberty? Not, certainly, because women have been more free, just, truthful, nor even (though this has a double edge) more natural. Marina Warner sets out to breathe some life into the army of petrified personages that litters Western cityscapes."--Lorna Sage, "Observer"

About the Author

Among Marina Warner's books are From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers (1995), Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (1983), and Joan of Arc (California, 1999).