Barry Wood, Ph.D.
Former professor of art history and humanities
In thirty years of studying art history, first as my major and then as my profession, I never came across a work like this. I say that with both regret and admiration, for this is the kind of book I wish I had read when I was just starting out. Sandra Shaw states up front what art is, namely a concretization of metaphysics, or a rendering in visual form of one's deepest and most fundamental estimates of life and man. She then indicates a rational method for understanding the history of this phenomenon and proceeds to follow it, unveiling as she goes the development of man's expressions of his view of life, literally from the caves to the fall of Rome.
The book is noteworthy for its thorough, consistent, and highly accessible connection of art to fundamental ideas we all hold, ideas about ourselves and the world we have to lead our lives in. These are both cited in literary sources and demonstrated in artistic analyses. Art is not presented as an odd game played outside the bounds of real life, unfolding according to obscure inner laws of its own; nor is it presented as some kind of social reflex that licenses endless pontification on the holy trinity of "race, class, and gender." Instead, the author plausibly, even urgently, connects art from far-flung regions and eras to the real concerns faced by individual human beings everywhere: What am I? What am I capable of in this world? What kind of life can I aspire to–or should I aspire at all?
The author is refreshingly non-egalitarian and is not afraid to make value-judgments about the quality of both art and ideas; she points out advances and regressions in both. For example, while giving due credit to Roman civilization for its undeniable accomplishments in areas like law and civil engineering, she is willing to call the Roman period "catastrophic" for the arts (p. 359). More broadly, Shaw is unapologetic about her focus on Western art and its sources and predecessors, pointing out that Western art represents "the widest, most varied developments across history," as well as standing for the cultural heritage of "what remains the most successful civilization in human history" (pp. 27-28).
In addition to her sharp analyses of artistic subject and style, Shaw offers highly illuminating insights into technique, bringing the visual acuity and practical knowledge of a professional artist to bear on her subject matter. Even something as subtle as the difference between two types of chisel is made convincingly relevant to the changing expressions of men's worldviews in stone (p. 230).
The result is a truly impressive work, the integration of a vast span of human experience into an often gripping tale that almost literally plays out before the reader's eyes, thanks to the abundance of color illustrations. Anyone interested in art, or in the ways in which people across the centuries have expressed their understanding of what it means to be a human being in the world, will gain real and lasting value from this book.
(Full disclosure: I served as fact-checker for the author as she was writing the book.)
_______________________________
Edwin A. Locke, Ph.D.
Professor (retired), University of Maryland
This is my favorite art book of the scores of such books I have read over decades. What makes it special?
Not just the large and wonderful collection of sculptures and paintings from Prehistory to the end of the Roman period, the highlight being the classical age of Greece. But what makes this book stand out above others is Shaw's tie in between the art and each nation's philosophy. Contrast the Egyptian's focus on death, gods and static figures with the Greek sculptures of heroic, mortal men in poses showing them in action or ready for heroic action based on their dedication to reason and this world. Or the sad end of the Roman period as it sank into mysticism and despair as shown in their later portraits. It makes one weep to see the end of Greek civilization and grateful for their philosophical legacy, especially Aristotle who ideas formed the base of the Enlightenment centuries later. The book has a special bonus at the end, two fascinating Appendices which explore the meaning and philosophical base and function of art.
This is a book to be treasured.
_______________________________
Steven A. Gedeon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Entrepreneurship, Toronto Metropolitan University
I bought the hardcover version before it was available on Amazon, but I just had to leave a positive review because it was so excellent. This is a great textbook at an affordable price for students with tremendous value.
This book uses evidence-based research to allow the students to learn for themselves how to look at 'what is in the artwork itself' to discover the culture and what those who made the artwork thought and found important. Art history is not just something that you need to memorize. It is an active process of discovering what artists think are important about their society, culture, world and authority. For students, this will be a welcome relief from other classes that focus on regurgitation. It will give students a 'window on humanity' and the role that philosophy (or religion) plays in shaping how artists interpret the world.
The student questions and self-study questions are well designed to invite critical reasoning and provide teachers with good resources. The book is impeccably written and referenced with full explanations of key terms and concepts.
This book should be a part of any art history student's curriculum, and deserves to be on the shelf of anyone who is serious about understanding art and the role it plays in allowing us to understand ourselves!
_______________________________
Jacob Kerr
High school history teacher
I just wanted to express my gratitude for your book Windows On Humanity. I teach high school world history in Shreveport, LA. I incorporate a lot of art history into my courses. I recently ordered your book and absolutely devoured it; I can't remember the last time I so eagerly read a text. Your writing is clear and easy-to-read; you stick to the essential point of your arguments; you make great use of examples to secure each point, ... I had read Ayn Rand's Romantic Manifesto and I had read Janson, Gardner's, Stockstad, and other art history texts, but I didn't quite take the time to connect the dots between the two. I literally thought to myself: "Someone should write an art history text from the perspective of Rand's insight about art." When I found your book I kept my expectations low because I thought it was too good to be true. Windows on Humanity is a perfect book. As a lover of history, art, and philosophy, I am endlessly frustrated by having my time wasted on reading unworthy texts. Your book is among the most fluid and essential works I have had the pleasure of reading; it is densely packed with invaluable insights; it is an exhilarating intellectual feast; it is truly a life-changer. I am thrilled about incorporating your essential thesis into my teaching--that art reveals the philosophy of the artist, and therefore of the culture. I'm sure you get this question a lot, but I'm terribly curious when/if volume 2 will be available. Thank you for taking the time out of your art production to produce such a valuable non-fiction resource for rational lovers of art. Please keep up the good work.
_______________________________
Bill Attwell
Retired high school teacher
Art history lovers, students and general readers will find Windows on Humanity a masterpiece of brilliant scholarship which describes how the art of prehistoric to pre-Dark Ages cultures reflect their cultures’ ideals and values. The volume is fluid, logical, communicative and interesting.
Rarely does any art history book devote 45% of its space to carefully selected images. I was amazed at how these images, combined with the author’s use of analytical techniques, enhanced my understanding and allowed me to view art in a more sophisticated manner.
It would be a shame if art lovers didn’t possess Windows on Humanity or art courses did not use it as a text. It would allow students to acquire a solid foundation of analytical techniques for their future education!
I really enjoyed this book! Great gift.
_______________________________
Jim Brown, CFA
Buy this book for your personal library, but don't put it on a shelf. Place it in some prominent place (its cover is beautiful) where it is easily reached. Then on a Sunday morning, while you're enjoying your coffee and your favorite music, open it to any page and read for ten minutes. But allow more than ten minutes, because very likely you will quickly become immersed in the rich text and the striking photos.
Buy this book as a gift. It's unparalleled as a conversation starter. Sit down with a friend, open the book, turn to a favorite page, and ask your friend (for example): "I heard you're going to Italy for a week - did you see this beautiful section on ancient Roman art?"
Buy this book for your children. I wish I'd had this book when I was a child. I recall the first time I went into an "art" museum. Displayed in the main foyer were various paintings that looked like blood-spattered walls and random colored lines. I remember feeling cheated. Why did my mom make me come to see this? Why was this junk displayed with such formality and reverence? I thought: "Anyone could make that, " and, "Who even likes this?" and "Why should I consider this important?"
Not long after that, I encountered people who claimed to know why such art was great, and if I didn't understand why, well, I just didn't understand something profound. For many years after that, I had no real interest in the visual arts. I just didn't "understand" it.
I wonder how different I would have approached art if I had read Sandra Shaw's "Windows On Humanity." What if, at age 12, I had read the following passage about the art of Cro Magnon man:
"Cave arts are almost exclusively of large, mature, healthy animals the Cro-Magnons hunted, and certain powerful predators that they feared...Perhaps the high-stakes drama of the hunt and the rich return in meat and hides that the big animals offered overshadowed the dull, less rewarding chores of berry picking, root digging and snaring rodents.....No doubt the Cro-Magnons would have experienced hunting large animals as a high challenge that demanded the most ability and courage that men had. Their hunts would have been heart-pounding, dangerous events, and people would have known that hunts can end in failure and death...The Cro-Magnons apparently felt that they needed some visual representation of what they wanted most in life, otherwise, they would not have bothered to create them...Truthful, accurate images were evidently important to the cave artists...The achievement of realism in their work took great effort and demanded intellectual skills that no one before them had developed. Apparently, realistic art must have been important to Early Modern Man."
I can tell you, this description would have resonated with me as an adolescent. I would have grasped the fact that art serves a vital purpose in human life, both for the Cro-Magnons and for me today.
Buy this book for your school or home school. My wife and I did not homeschool our kids, but we supplemented their education extensively with books, music, dinner discussions, and travel. I wish Windows on Humanity had been available when my kids were younger. It's so clearly written it's not too advanced for an interested 12-year-old and is definitely appropriate from age 14 onward.
It's important to mention that Sandra Shaw is not only a scholar and art historian but, first and foremost, a highly accomplished sculptor. As such, she is in a unique position to comment on art as a reflection of our deepest values, the things we view as most important in life.
Don't miss the opportunity to own this valuable guide to art and its meaning through history.
_______________________________
Molly Johnson
Homeschooler
Sandra Shaw writes with such clarity and insight about a complex topic, how art gives us a window into understanding others and ourselves. She is earnest and persuasive, and the artworks support her arguments beautifully. She gives me the motivation to understand and explore more deeply cultures I would otherwise shy away from (cavemen) and helps me quantify what is so moving and wonderful about artworks I already love. This will be a valuable book for our whole family to enjoy and learn from.
_______________________________
Catherine Dickerson
M.Ed., M.S.W., Certified P.E.T. Instructor
With masterful integration of philosophy, history, culture and art, Ms. Shaw brings all of them vibrantly to life. Highly readable, recommended for everyone with an interest in any of those subjects. Invaluable for high school and college students.
_______________________________
Jesse McCarthy
Founder, Montessori Education
The ‘Ladies in Blue’ fresco, or wall painting, was made on the island of Crete some *3,500 years ago*. Wild! I once shared it with an elementary classroom and one of the girls said with awe, “It’s beautiful!” She was so excited. When I first saw the ‘Ladies’ I had the same feeling.
It’s so interesting to imagine an ancient person painting this... What made him (or her) create such an artwork? And more broadly what does such art say about the civilization he (or she) lived in? Or looking to the darker side of things, what does it say about a people/culture in our world that would want such art destroyed? (Think ISIS as an example in our time.)
Back in my early twenties I took a unique art history class from a woman who asked these kind of questions — and sought to answer them. (This is when I was first introduced to the ‘Ladies’.) Her class, with maybe half a dozen or so people in attendance, met after work at a small private school, once a week I think. Crazy enough, I wound up learning more about art and about history in this informal gathering than I learned about both subjects in all of my formal schooling. It was a powerful experience.
Fast forward to today and the woman behind it all — artist and educator Sandra Shaw — recently published a book called ‘Windows on Humanity’ that, in essence, is this class.
I’m grateful I had the opportunity to learn in person from Sandra, but ‘Windows’ is almost better because she’s been able to essentialize, and improve on, what she taught live back then.
All this to say, check out the book!
_______________________________
Sylvia Honeycutt
Sandra Shaw has written an art history book for the ages, literally. In under 500 pages filled with beautiful, poignant, and in some cases disturbing art, spanning prehistory to the fall of Rome, she convincingly documents her thesis of the rise and subsequent degradation of Western art and culture. She provides expert analysis of what each artwork represents in its own right, as well as a penetrating analysis of the culture in which it was created.
Shaw is a working sculptor, so she is personally familiar with the details of what it takes to create a work of art. This clearly informs her understanding of the technical and philosophical attributes of the works she describes. She presents such a rich visual history of sculptures, paintings, drawings, and carvings that I found myself marveling at the artists’ creativity and empathizing with the challenges they must have faced with their more primitive tools and knowledge.
If art illustrates universal truths about life and what it means to be human, this book demonstrates how compelling the need is to express these truths, even when daily existence is a struggle. In Shaw’s words about the artists of prehistory:
“A dire state of existence was normal for human beings for many thousands of years of our prehistory. People scratched the ground with their bare hands for food and shelter. They learned to use antlers and bones to dig for edible roots and grubs and make hovels in which to sleep…..To eat meat, which they needed for strength and endurance, they had to track down wild animals and kill them with weapons fashioned from stones and plants…… It is remarkable that someone living that kind of life would take the time, or have the inclination, to create artworks. Yet our prehistoric ancestors did just that.”
Sandra Shaw is a true art historian and *Windows on Humanity* is a brilliant and inspiring achievement.
_______________________________
Kirk Jonathan Barbera
Former art history teacher
I love art and it has been a great pleasure in reading about the pre-historic origins of art. Learning about cave drawings and what separates journalistic recreations of their world to truly elevated art. The example of the rhino cave painting with its exaggerated tusk, as a key aspect to understanding all art, was one of the most profound lessons I've ever had in art.
As a former literature and art teacher, I recommend parents and teachers in the humanities to buy this book and use it while covering subjects like Paleolithic era, Egypt, Greece and more.
_______________________________
Eric Kalin
I had planned to read this 500-page book slowly over the course of several months. Soon, I could not stop, especially after reading the introduction to the chapter on Egyptian art; here is an excerpt:
"In contrast to the violent images of Mesopotamian art, the art of ancient Egypt impresses the viewer with visions of a tranquil, urbane world. While Assyrian art bristles with gruesome scenes of human and animal slaughter, Egyptian art largely presents a serene, orderly world."
This book feels like a private tour given by a caring and thoughtful docent who understands philosophy, history and art. The result is a deep understanding of how great art is created ultimately by independent individuals left free to express their ideas.
About halfway through the book, in a section titled "The Greeks' glorification of the nude reflects their man-worship", Shaw identifies an important turning point in art. "By presenting the human figure completely nude, Greek artists could convey a vision of man qua man -- an unobstructed vision of what they thought could be true of all men." While I have understood this for years, I have never seen it stated so simply.
Shaw has sculpted for over thirty years, so her understanding of art comes first-hand. She writes with precision, avoiding the woozy words that so often clutter descriptions of art today. Her appendices, "What is art?" and "Why is there art?", condense the mass of ideas in the book. Over 500 images in the book are also available online for full-screen viewing on your computer.
If you want to understand the ascent of man, this book offers a wonderful way to watch it as it happened.
_______________________________
Daniel T. Sullivan
Sandra Shaw's "Windows on Humanity" is outstanding in every way.
It's a beautifully illustrated tour de force that could be enjoyed by merely thumbing through the countless lovely works of art. But reading the author's knowledgeable explanations of how the various artworks fit into the history of art adds a huge amount of understanding and enjoyment for readers.
Four incredible bonuses can also be found at the end of the book: in two thoughtful Appendices, the author discusses what art is, and why it's important, both presently and historically. And she has thoughtfully provided a very practical Glossary of Terms, and a detailed Index.
This is a wonderful volume to add to any art lover's library!
_______________________________
Joseph Kellard
I'm currently reading the early chapters of Sandra Shaw's new book on the history of art (up until the fall of Rome) and loving it.
Who knew prehistoric art could be so interesting? But Shaw makes it so because she starts by explaining how art is fundamentally a concrete expression of our most basic values, both in our creation of and response to it. For prehistoric man, who lived the barest and crudest existence, his paintings on cave walls of beasts and handheld sculptures of physically abundant women represented his highest values: a basic means of survival and life-giving beings.
Leafing through the rest of the book, it's obvious it will serve as a great resource to learn more about art history as I'm in the early stages of developing my own book on Leonardo da Vinci. (Toward this end, I recently read a modern classic of art history, Ernst Gombrich's The Story of Art.)
Thanks for writing it, Sandra! I'm particularly looking forward to reading the chapters on Greek art, and I'm already anticipating the second volume in this series, especially the chapter(s) on the Renaissance.
_______________________________
Caroline
I learned so much about the history of art in this book, and in particular I learned in a way that kept me captivated and gave me a new insight into the art that I already loved. This is because the author details the developments in art that express the intellectual developments of cultures over time, in terms of valuing, recognizing, and celebrating individuals and ideals, personality, human freedom, and so on. The images are absolutely stunning and well chosen, and appear in abundance throughout the book. Highly recommended for anyone who values visual art and wants to increase their appreciation of it.
Former professor of art history and humanities
In thirty years of studying art history, first as my major and then as my profession, I never came across a work like this. I say that with both regret and admiration, for this is the kind of book I wish I had read when I was just starting out. Sandra Shaw states up front what art is, namely a concretization of metaphysics, or a rendering in visual form of one's deepest and most fundamental estimates of life and man. She then indicates a rational method for understanding the history of this phenomenon and proceeds to follow it, unveiling as she goes the development of man's expressions of his view of life, literally from the caves to the fall of Rome.
The book is noteworthy for its thorough, consistent, and highly accessible connection of art to fundamental ideas we all hold, ideas about ourselves and the world we have to lead our lives in. These are both cited in literary sources and demonstrated in artistic analyses. Art is not presented as an odd game played outside the bounds of real life, unfolding according to obscure inner laws of its own; nor is it presented as some kind of social reflex that licenses endless pontification on the holy trinity of "race, class, and gender." Instead, the author plausibly, even urgently, connects art from far-flung regions and eras to the real concerns faced by individual human beings everywhere: What am I? What am I capable of in this world? What kind of life can I aspire to–or should I aspire at all?
The author is refreshingly non-egalitarian and is not afraid to make value-judgments about the quality of both art and ideas; she points out advances and regressions in both. For example, while giving due credit to Roman civilization for its undeniable accomplishments in areas like law and civil engineering, she is willing to call the Roman period "catastrophic" for the arts (p. 359). More broadly, Shaw is unapologetic about her focus on Western art and its sources and predecessors, pointing out that Western art represents "the widest, most varied developments across history," as well as standing for the cultural heritage of "what remains the most successful civilization in human history" (pp. 27-28).
In addition to her sharp analyses of artistic subject and style, Shaw offers highly illuminating insights into technique, bringing the visual acuity and practical knowledge of a professional artist to bear on her subject matter. Even something as subtle as the difference between two types of chisel is made convincingly relevant to the changing expressions of men's worldviews in stone (p. 230).
The result is a truly impressive work, the integration of a vast span of human experience into an often gripping tale that almost literally plays out before the reader's eyes, thanks to the abundance of color illustrations. Anyone interested in art, or in the ways in which people across the centuries have expressed their understanding of what it means to be a human being in the world, will gain real and lasting value from this book.
(Full disclosure: I served as fact-checker for the author as she was writing the book.)
_______________________________
Edwin A. Locke, Ph.D.
Professor (retired), University of Maryland
This is my favorite art book of the scores of such books I have read over decades. What makes it special?
Not just the large and wonderful collection of sculptures and paintings from Prehistory to the end of the Roman period, the highlight being the classical age of Greece. But what makes this book stand out above others is Shaw's tie in between the art and each nation's philosophy. Contrast the Egyptian's focus on death, gods and static figures with the Greek sculptures of heroic, mortal men in poses showing them in action or ready for heroic action based on their dedication to reason and this world. Or the sad end of the Roman period as it sank into mysticism and despair as shown in their later portraits. It makes one weep to see the end of Greek civilization and grateful for their philosophical legacy, especially Aristotle who ideas formed the base of the Enlightenment centuries later. The book has a special bonus at the end, two fascinating Appendices which explore the meaning and philosophical base and function of art.
This is a book to be treasured.
_______________________________
Steven A. Gedeon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Entrepreneurship, Toronto Metropolitan University
I bought the hardcover version before it was available on Amazon, but I just had to leave a positive review because it was so excellent. This is a great textbook at an affordable price for students with tremendous value.
This book uses evidence-based research to allow the students to learn for themselves how to look at 'what is in the artwork itself' to discover the culture and what those who made the artwork thought and found important. Art history is not just something that you need to memorize. It is an active process of discovering what artists think are important about their society, culture, world and authority. For students, this will be a welcome relief from other classes that focus on regurgitation. It will give students a 'window on humanity' and the role that philosophy (or religion) plays in shaping how artists interpret the world.
The student questions and self-study questions are well designed to invite critical reasoning and provide teachers with good resources. The book is impeccably written and referenced with full explanations of key terms and concepts.
This book should be a part of any art history student's curriculum, and deserves to be on the shelf of anyone who is serious about understanding art and the role it plays in allowing us to understand ourselves!
_______________________________
Jacob Kerr
High school history teacher
I just wanted to express my gratitude for your book Windows On Humanity. I teach high school world history in Shreveport, LA. I incorporate a lot of art history into my courses. I recently ordered your book and absolutely devoured it; I can't remember the last time I so eagerly read a text. Your writing is clear and easy-to-read; you stick to the essential point of your arguments; you make great use of examples to secure each point, ... I had read Ayn Rand's Romantic Manifesto and I had read Janson, Gardner's, Stockstad, and other art history texts, but I didn't quite take the time to connect the dots between the two. I literally thought to myself: "Someone should write an art history text from the perspective of Rand's insight about art." When I found your book I kept my expectations low because I thought it was too good to be true. Windows on Humanity is a perfect book. As a lover of history, art, and philosophy, I am endlessly frustrated by having my time wasted on reading unworthy texts. Your book is among the most fluid and essential works I have had the pleasure of reading; it is densely packed with invaluable insights; it is an exhilarating intellectual feast; it is truly a life-changer. I am thrilled about incorporating your essential thesis into my teaching--that art reveals the philosophy of the artist, and therefore of the culture. I'm sure you get this question a lot, but I'm terribly curious when/if volume 2 will be available. Thank you for taking the time out of your art production to produce such a valuable non-fiction resource for rational lovers of art. Please keep up the good work.
_______________________________
Bill Attwell
Retired high school teacher
Art history lovers, students and general readers will find Windows on Humanity a masterpiece of brilliant scholarship which describes how the art of prehistoric to pre-Dark Ages cultures reflect their cultures’ ideals and values. The volume is fluid, logical, communicative and interesting.
Rarely does any art history book devote 45% of its space to carefully selected images. I was amazed at how these images, combined with the author’s use of analytical techniques, enhanced my understanding and allowed me to view art in a more sophisticated manner.
It would be a shame if art lovers didn’t possess Windows on Humanity or art courses did not use it as a text. It would allow students to acquire a solid foundation of analytical techniques for their future education!
I really enjoyed this book! Great gift.
_______________________________
Jim Brown, CFA
Buy this book for your personal library, but don't put it on a shelf. Place it in some prominent place (its cover is beautiful) where it is easily reached. Then on a Sunday morning, while you're enjoying your coffee and your favorite music, open it to any page and read for ten minutes. But allow more than ten minutes, because very likely you will quickly become immersed in the rich text and the striking photos.
Buy this book as a gift. It's unparalleled as a conversation starter. Sit down with a friend, open the book, turn to a favorite page, and ask your friend (for example): "I heard you're going to Italy for a week - did you see this beautiful section on ancient Roman art?"
Buy this book for your children. I wish I'd had this book when I was a child. I recall the first time I went into an "art" museum. Displayed in the main foyer were various paintings that looked like blood-spattered walls and random colored lines. I remember feeling cheated. Why did my mom make me come to see this? Why was this junk displayed with such formality and reverence? I thought: "Anyone could make that, " and, "Who even likes this?" and "Why should I consider this important?"
Not long after that, I encountered people who claimed to know why such art was great, and if I didn't understand why, well, I just didn't understand something profound. For many years after that, I had no real interest in the visual arts. I just didn't "understand" it.
I wonder how different I would have approached art if I had read Sandra Shaw's "Windows On Humanity." What if, at age 12, I had read the following passage about the art of Cro Magnon man:
"Cave arts are almost exclusively of large, mature, healthy animals the Cro-Magnons hunted, and certain powerful predators that they feared...Perhaps the high-stakes drama of the hunt and the rich return in meat and hides that the big animals offered overshadowed the dull, less rewarding chores of berry picking, root digging and snaring rodents.....No doubt the Cro-Magnons would have experienced hunting large animals as a high challenge that demanded the most ability and courage that men had. Their hunts would have been heart-pounding, dangerous events, and people would have known that hunts can end in failure and death...The Cro-Magnons apparently felt that they needed some visual representation of what they wanted most in life, otherwise, they would not have bothered to create them...Truthful, accurate images were evidently important to the cave artists...The achievement of realism in their work took great effort and demanded intellectual skills that no one before them had developed. Apparently, realistic art must have been important to Early Modern Man."
I can tell you, this description would have resonated with me as an adolescent. I would have grasped the fact that art serves a vital purpose in human life, both for the Cro-Magnons and for me today.
Buy this book for your school or home school. My wife and I did not homeschool our kids, but we supplemented their education extensively with books, music, dinner discussions, and travel. I wish Windows on Humanity had been available when my kids were younger. It's so clearly written it's not too advanced for an interested 12-year-old and is definitely appropriate from age 14 onward.
It's important to mention that Sandra Shaw is not only a scholar and art historian but, first and foremost, a highly accomplished sculptor. As such, she is in a unique position to comment on art as a reflection of our deepest values, the things we view as most important in life.
Don't miss the opportunity to own this valuable guide to art and its meaning through history.
_______________________________
Molly Johnson
Homeschooler
Sandra Shaw writes with such clarity and insight about a complex topic, how art gives us a window into understanding others and ourselves. She is earnest and persuasive, and the artworks support her arguments beautifully. She gives me the motivation to understand and explore more deeply cultures I would otherwise shy away from (cavemen) and helps me quantify what is so moving and wonderful about artworks I already love. This will be a valuable book for our whole family to enjoy and learn from.
_______________________________
Catherine Dickerson
M.Ed., M.S.W., Certified P.E.T. Instructor
With masterful integration of philosophy, history, culture and art, Ms. Shaw brings all of them vibrantly to life. Highly readable, recommended for everyone with an interest in any of those subjects. Invaluable for high school and college students.
_______________________________
Jesse McCarthy
Founder, Montessori Education
The ‘Ladies in Blue’ fresco, or wall painting, was made on the island of Crete some *3,500 years ago*. Wild! I once shared it with an elementary classroom and one of the girls said with awe, “It’s beautiful!” She was so excited. When I first saw the ‘Ladies’ I had the same feeling.
It’s so interesting to imagine an ancient person painting this... What made him (or her) create such an artwork? And more broadly what does such art say about the civilization he (or she) lived in? Or looking to the darker side of things, what does it say about a people/culture in our world that would want such art destroyed? (Think ISIS as an example in our time.)
Back in my early twenties I took a unique art history class from a woman who asked these kind of questions — and sought to answer them. (This is when I was first introduced to the ‘Ladies’.) Her class, with maybe half a dozen or so people in attendance, met after work at a small private school, once a week I think. Crazy enough, I wound up learning more about art and about history in this informal gathering than I learned about both subjects in all of my formal schooling. It was a powerful experience.
Fast forward to today and the woman behind it all — artist and educator Sandra Shaw — recently published a book called ‘Windows on Humanity’ that, in essence, is this class.
I’m grateful I had the opportunity to learn in person from Sandra, but ‘Windows’ is almost better because she’s been able to essentialize, and improve on, what she taught live back then.
All this to say, check out the book!
_______________________________
Sylvia Honeycutt
Sandra Shaw has written an art history book for the ages, literally. In under 500 pages filled with beautiful, poignant, and in some cases disturbing art, spanning prehistory to the fall of Rome, she convincingly documents her thesis of the rise and subsequent degradation of Western art and culture. She provides expert analysis of what each artwork represents in its own right, as well as a penetrating analysis of the culture in which it was created.
Shaw is a working sculptor, so she is personally familiar with the details of what it takes to create a work of art. This clearly informs her understanding of the technical and philosophical attributes of the works she describes. She presents such a rich visual history of sculptures, paintings, drawings, and carvings that I found myself marveling at the artists’ creativity and empathizing with the challenges they must have faced with their more primitive tools and knowledge.
If art illustrates universal truths about life and what it means to be human, this book demonstrates how compelling the need is to express these truths, even when daily existence is a struggle. In Shaw’s words about the artists of prehistory:
“A dire state of existence was normal for human beings for many thousands of years of our prehistory. People scratched the ground with their bare hands for food and shelter. They learned to use antlers and bones to dig for edible roots and grubs and make hovels in which to sleep…..To eat meat, which they needed for strength and endurance, they had to track down wild animals and kill them with weapons fashioned from stones and plants…… It is remarkable that someone living that kind of life would take the time, or have the inclination, to create artworks. Yet our prehistoric ancestors did just that.”
Sandra Shaw is a true art historian and *Windows on Humanity* is a brilliant and inspiring achievement.
_______________________________
Kirk Jonathan Barbera
Former art history teacher
I love art and it has been a great pleasure in reading about the pre-historic origins of art. Learning about cave drawings and what separates journalistic recreations of their world to truly elevated art. The example of the rhino cave painting with its exaggerated tusk, as a key aspect to understanding all art, was one of the most profound lessons I've ever had in art.
As a former literature and art teacher, I recommend parents and teachers in the humanities to buy this book and use it while covering subjects like Paleolithic era, Egypt, Greece and more.
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Eric Kalin
I had planned to read this 500-page book slowly over the course of several months. Soon, I could not stop, especially after reading the introduction to the chapter on Egyptian art; here is an excerpt:
"In contrast to the violent images of Mesopotamian art, the art of ancient Egypt impresses the viewer with visions of a tranquil, urbane world. While Assyrian art bristles with gruesome scenes of human and animal slaughter, Egyptian art largely presents a serene, orderly world."
This book feels like a private tour given by a caring and thoughtful docent who understands philosophy, history and art. The result is a deep understanding of how great art is created ultimately by independent individuals left free to express their ideas.
About halfway through the book, in a section titled "The Greeks' glorification of the nude reflects their man-worship", Shaw identifies an important turning point in art. "By presenting the human figure completely nude, Greek artists could convey a vision of man qua man -- an unobstructed vision of what they thought could be true of all men." While I have understood this for years, I have never seen it stated so simply.
Shaw has sculpted for over thirty years, so her understanding of art comes first-hand. She writes with precision, avoiding the woozy words that so often clutter descriptions of art today. Her appendices, "What is art?" and "Why is there art?", condense the mass of ideas in the book. Over 500 images in the book are also available online for full-screen viewing on your computer.
If you want to understand the ascent of man, this book offers a wonderful way to watch it as it happened.
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Daniel T. Sullivan
Sandra Shaw's "Windows on Humanity" is outstanding in every way.
It's a beautifully illustrated tour de force that could be enjoyed by merely thumbing through the countless lovely works of art. But reading the author's knowledgeable explanations of how the various artworks fit into the history of art adds a huge amount of understanding and enjoyment for readers.
Four incredible bonuses can also be found at the end of the book: in two thoughtful Appendices, the author discusses what art is, and why it's important, both presently and historically. And she has thoughtfully provided a very practical Glossary of Terms, and a detailed Index.
This is a wonderful volume to add to any art lover's library!
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Joseph Kellard
I'm currently reading the early chapters of Sandra Shaw's new book on the history of art (up until the fall of Rome) and loving it.
Who knew prehistoric art could be so interesting? But Shaw makes it so because she starts by explaining how art is fundamentally a concrete expression of our most basic values, both in our creation of and response to it. For prehistoric man, who lived the barest and crudest existence, his paintings on cave walls of beasts and handheld sculptures of physically abundant women represented his highest values: a basic means of survival and life-giving beings.
Leafing through the rest of the book, it's obvious it will serve as a great resource to learn more about art history as I'm in the early stages of developing my own book on Leonardo da Vinci. (Toward this end, I recently read a modern classic of art history, Ernst Gombrich's The Story of Art.)
Thanks for writing it, Sandra! I'm particularly looking forward to reading the chapters on Greek art, and I'm already anticipating the second volume in this series, especially the chapter(s) on the Renaissance.
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Caroline
I learned so much about the history of art in this book, and in particular I learned in a way that kept me captivated and gave me a new insight into the art that I already loved. This is because the author details the developments in art that express the intellectual developments of cultures over time, in terms of valuing, recognizing, and celebrating individuals and ideals, personality, human freedom, and so on. The images are absolutely stunning and well chosen, and appear in abundance throughout the book. Highly recommended for anyone who values visual art and wants to increase their appreciation of it.
