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This is the first book entirely devoted to travertine, a material in use for over 4000 years. The single-author work is avaluable referencesource for travertine, covering all aspects of travertine origins, formation, composition, flora and fauna, occurrence and utilisation, as well as covering allied continental carbonates such as lake marls, calcretes and beachrocks. Travertine, some forms of which are often known as tufa,is of particular significance as a source of environmental information (fossils and isotope geochemistry), often permitting the reconstruction of past environments. Reviews of dating techniques, classification and geomorphology are included and the author attempts to provide an unbiased but critical appraisal of current models of travertine formation. Currently, travertine is in great demand as a building and ornamental stone. It has also been exploited in unconventional ways, such as petrifying springs and by way of unusual and little known artistic techniques. Scaling of pipes and boilers is often the result of processes allied to travertine formation. The phenomenon is describedparallel to methods of scale elimination and compared with natural processes where travertine formation is inhibited. Travertine sites are of special scientific interest, with their rich and often unique floras and faunasdisplaying their unique biodiversity, and their unusual and often fragile biota. Conservation issues are discussed,together with the description of travertine fossils and occurrences throughout the geological record.The content will be of interest to carbonate sedimentologists, hydrobiologists, palaeoclimatologists, physical geographers, water treatment engineers, astrobiologists, architects, and sculptors.

In this book the editors brought together outstanding articles concerning intercultural aesthetics. The concept 'Intercultural aesthetics' creates a home space for an artistic cross-fertilization between cultures, and for heterogeneity, but it is also firmly linked with the intercultural turn within Western and non-Western philosophy.

The book is divided into two parts, yet one can sense a clear unity throughout the whole book. This unity is related to the underlying subject that the different authors, each in their own way and from their own background, try to reveal. They use related, and overlapping terms such as 'the suchness of things', 'dancing and shaping lives', 'presenting a meaning beyond words, presenting the unpresentable, experiencing', in order to bring to our awareness the genuine importance of the non-conceptual, next to the conceptual. Several authors moreover take on a reflective, and at times even a self-reflective stance, pointing to the intrinsic relation between cultural aesthetics and ethics, making this book unique in its kind.

This is a translated and revised edition of the original Italian version. This book is the first to give a general overview of the application of aerobiology (the science that studies the biological components of the atmosphere) to the conservation of our cultural heritage. Aerobiological monitoring makes it possible to estimate the risks of degradation of artefacts of historical or artistic importance by airborne microorganisms (airborne spores and vegetative structures) according to the types of materials forming the artefacts, to the conditions of the microclimate and to the type of environmental pollution, thus enabling the planning of preventive or reparative intervention. Among the book's main features are: + Aspects of the biodeterioration of different materials (paper, wood, fabrics, parchment, leather, stone, glass, metals, plastic, etc.). + Methods for measuring environmental parameters, both physical (microclimatic) and chemical (pollutants). + Methods and techniques of aerobiological monitoring. + Specific problems concerning the different types of environments. Audience: The subject is thoroughly explored, thus supplying a useful tool to those who are in charge of the conservation of our cultural heritage (libraries, archives, museums, churches, hypogea, monuments, archaeological sites, etc.).

The traditional landscape genre was radically transformed in the 1960s when many artists stopped merely representing the land and made their mark directly in the environment. Drawn by vast, uncultivated spaces of desert and mountain as well as by post-industrial wastelands, artists such as Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson moved earth to create colossal primal symbols. Others punctuated the horizon with man-made signposts, such as Christo's Running Fence and Walter de Maria's The Lightning Field. For Richard Long, journeys became works of art while Dennis Oppenheim immersed his entire body in the contours of the land. In this broad survey of Land Art, Brian Wallis discusses the key artists, works and issues that define Land Art historically, as well as its later ramifications.This book fully documents the 1960s Land Art movement and surveys examples of Environmental Art to the present day. Earthworks, environments, performances and actions by artists ranging from Ana Mendieta in the 1970s and 80s to Peter Fend in the 1990s are illustrated with breathtaking photographs, sketches and project notes.

The Anatolian peninsula, one of the oldest seats of civilization, has been ruled by a succession of great powers, including the Romans and their successors in the East, the Byzantines. Its Islamic era began in 1071, when the Seljuk Turks, nomads from Central Asia who had already taken control of Persia, defeated the Byzantine army at Manzikert and moved west, creating a new sultanate in Anatolia. The Seljuks were eventually succeeded in this region by the Ottoman Turks, who crossed the Bosphorus to conquer an exhausted Constantinople in 1453, and went on to extend their power far beyond the b

A resplendent presentation of the nude in American art, photography, and popular culture, from the eighteenth century to the present. With more than four hundred color illustrations, this is the most thorough and wide-reaching survey of the representation of the male and female nude in American visual culture yet published. Bram Dijkstra explores the history of the subject from its earliest manifestations in the paintings of John Singleton Copley and Benjamin West to the taboo-shredding imagery of late-twentieth-century artists such as Alice Neel, Robert Mapplethorpe, Eric Fischl, and John Currin. Dijkstra is a cultural historian who refuses to separate "high" and "low" art, charting instead such momentous historical events as the discovery of pubic hair, the invasion of the pin-up queens, "the inexorable rise of the breast," and the puzzling fluctuations of American prudery. Naked also examines the effects of the early twentieth centurys infatuation with Freudian psychoanalysis and the more recent fascination of comic book art with the legacy of Bettie Page and her seemingly ever more muscular daughters. In chronological and thematic

From Matteo Pericoli, the celebrated author of Manhattan Unfurled, comes a unique collection of illustrated cityscapes. In these intimate drawings of window views, Pericoli captures the essence of the city by showing us what New Yorkers see when they look out their windows. The City Out My Window shows us a series of private New Yorks, as seen by Tom Wolfe, Tony Kushner, Nora Ephron, Stephen Colbert, Richard Meier, Oliver Sacks, Mario Batali, David Byrne, and other artists, writers, and thinkers who help make the city what it is. The book includes their comments on what they see out their window and is introduced by Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger.

From the caves at Lascaux to the European race tracks of Degas to the American West of Frederic Remington, the horse has never ceased to inspire the human imagination. Once omnipresenton the battlefield, in agricultural work, and in transporthorses have little by little disappeared from our immediate environment, but they remain fixtures throughout our museums, atop pedestals in our town squares, and in the landscapes of memory.Transcending genres, places, and eras, specialists on the history of the horse and its representation in art create an ideal panorama on the subject, guiding us through the rich legacy of The Horse: From Cave Paintings to Modern Art. With these scholars we cross the principal continents from east to west and from prehistory to the present day, examining an ever-surprising gallery of images that illustrate how dearly horses have been prized by all human societies fortunate enough to encounter them.The artistic styles represented in this book offer something for every taste. There are cave paintings and sculptures, medieval illuminated manuscripts and photographs, depictions of battle, and scenes of leisure. Uccello, Rubens, Van Dyck, Velsquez, Gricault, Stubbs, David, and Picasso are among the 137 artists featured in this in-depth study. As the more than 300 images in The Horse diversely illustrate, the horse is as beautiful an animal as it has been usefulindeed, centralto the development of human society.

A fresh new voice in art and cultural criticism takes on the day's most pressing questions about representations of violence in art.Today both reality and entertainment crowd our fields of vision with brutal imagery. The pervasiveness of images of torture, horror, and war has all but demolished the twentieth-century hope that such imagery might shock us into a less alienated state, or aid in the creation of a just social

Internationally acclaimed designer Lotta Jansdotter reinvents the craft book and reinforces her global appeal with this rare glimpse into the studios of accomplished artists, crafters, and designers around the world. Open Studios takes us on a tour through Lotta's favorite cities: Brooklyn, New York, where she lives; Stockholm, where she grew up; and Tokyo, where she has traveled extensively. Hundreds of color photographs showcase each artist's studio while personal interviews reveal how they organize their supplies, use their space, andmost importantlywhere they find inspiration. The featured makers include graphic designers, photographers, ceramic artists, printers, and moreeach